Earth Day is about giving back to the planet, and being more aware of what we do to it, and if you have old iPhones, Apple wants you to be aware of how they can help the planet Earth.
The iPhone has been around for over ten years now, and that means you may have amassed more than a few of them. Like most gadgets, there’s a good chance you have several spare taking up space in a cupboard or drawer, and given that Apple no longer supports quote a few of these, you’re probably long past the idea of giving them to a friend or family member.
That means the old iPhone you have locked away isn’t doing much of anything, when it could be giving back to the planet, recycled and turned into something else.
This week, Apple has chimed in to show off its latest gadget, and it’s one you can’t own, but will help the planet by tearing apart your old iPhones in order to help recycle it into something else.
It’s called Daisy, and it’s Apple’s second-generation iPhone recycler, a unique little robot that has evolved from the first-generation model (Apple called that one “Liam”). The new model is so capable, Daisy can pull apart up to 200 iPhones per hour, sorting and removing parts so that Apple can reuse them for later use.
Pretty much every modern electronic device relies on materials that can be recycled, including gold, copper, silve,r and aluminium, and the more that is recycled, the less it has to be mined and recreated, potentially allowing for a gadget ecosystem made up of recycled parts.
That’s likely a long way off, but it starts somewhere, and it’s something Mobile Muster has been working on for years, accepting phones of all kinds, though being supported largely by Android’s phone makers.
Apple and Mobile Muster aren’t the only options available for you if you plan to recycle some technology, however, because your council likely has an e-waste program for you to send larger gadgets to, technology that it will be able to strip and mine for the materials.
If you send an iPhone to your council, Apple won’t be getting those materials, but you’ll at least be helping to reduce the e-waste, which is beginning to pile up.
But if you decide to send that old iPhone to Apple, it’s possible your materials will make their way into an iPhone in the near future.
