Apple is planning to use carbon-free aluminium in iPhone SE. Apple’s $4.7 billion in Green Bonds have helped jump-start the development of new low-carbon manufacturing and recycling technologies, said Apple. The carbon-free aluminium reduces emissions during smelting. To cut the carbon footprints, the US-based iPhone maker stopped shipping the power adaptor inside phone boxes.
The aluminium is the first to be manufactured at industrial scale outside of a laboratory without creating any direct carbon emissions during the smelting process.
“Apple is committed to leaving the planet better than we found it, and our Green Bonds are a key tool to drive our environmental efforts forward,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives.
Elysis, the company behind the world’s first direct carbon-free aluminium smelting process, announced that it has produced the first commercial-purity primary aluminium at industrial scale for use in Apple products.
The technology produces oxygen instead of greenhouse gases. Apple will purchase this first batch of commercial-purity, low-carbon aluminium from Elysis for intended use in the iPhone SE.
Apple helped spur this advancement in aluminium production through an investment partnership with Alcoa, Rio Tinto, and the governments of Canada and Quebec that began in 2018. The following year, Apple purchased the first-ever commercial batch of aluminium resulting from the joint venture, using it in the production of the 16-inch MacBook Pro.
Every model in the iPad lineup, including the new iPad Air, along with the latest MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac mini, and Apple Watch, are made with a 100 percent recycled aluminium enclosure.
