I am convinced that you have never wondered if the recycling industry is advancing at the same rate as the technology industry, even though both are closely related. I know because I am in that group. I’ve always believed—or maybe never thought—that as technology miniaturized, component reuse efforts would also find more and better ways to reuse every part of every device we put out of use.
Actually it is not like that. Innovation—not just in tech gadgets—is moving at a breakneck pace to make everything faster, more efficient, smaller, less prone to breakdowns. But many of the recycling processes in use today resemble what was considered state-of-the-art twenty years ago.
This presents a huge problem, because we are a society that gives vital importance to the smartphone, with 91.5% penetration. Less than 10% of the global population do not have a phone in their pocket. Seen from a more absolutist perspective, 6.6 billion people will use a mobile phone in 2022.
How can we reduce the pollution footprint generated by that monumental amount of production of technological devices used by so many billions of people, especially if the recycling industry does not catch up?
The question is being asked at Apple, seeing the panorama of production of portable devices and the increase that is being experienced in recent years. The result is an effort to significantly automate and sophisticate the process of reusing and recycling components within your own devices. It has a name, it’s called Daisy and it is a robot capable of disassembling an iPhone in just 18 seconds.
There are actually two Daisy robots in the world. One is in Austin, Texas (USA) and the other is in Breda, a small Dutch town near the Belgian border, where I was recently to see and better understand how it works.
Drill instead of unscrew
The first thing that strikes you when you are in front of Daisy is not what you see, it is what you hear: a constant repetitive sound. A blow that does not stop, except in a few exceptions that you have to stop the disassembly process manually. In reality, this is the product of rethinking processes to increase Daisy’s efficiency. Liam (his predecessor) took 12 minutes to disassemble an iPhone, because he unscrewed every screw.
Daisy just punches them. That’s the sound we heard! As exact as the robot is in the disassembly process, it does not have to be extremely careful, at least at some points in the process. Sometimes speed comes first and it turns out there are times when it’s literally worth hitting certain components. Especially since in the next step of the recycling process it doesn’t matter if the screw holes are useful or not.
This is the product of rethinking procedures. It is not about reversing the construction process, but it is not about shredding everything, without discrimination, as is currently the case, in most cases, in the recycling industry.
When Daisy finishes, what used to be an iPhone is now a series of separate components on different trays. The battery comes out of a tray, as an entire component, to later be reused or to be sent to another recycling process. On the other side of the robot we see dozens of elements being ejected and deposited on trays ready to be separated into different baskets. Photographic modules, haptic motor, plates, the wireless charging module and a long etcetera.
Daisy is the future of recycling
What at first glance appears to be an iPhone-bashing process—in addition to punching out screws, it cools the iPhone down to -50 degrees Celsius for a few seconds to easily remove the battery—is actually a series of extremely calculated steps on the part of the iPhone. of Daisy to recover rare materials in high demand.
The camera, for example, has a significant proportion of gold and copper. The haptic motor uses magnets based on rare materials, which in both cases are interesting to separate and be able to recycle them safely, avoiding a shredder, where most of the useful material is lost.
This very different process also manages to avoid one of the biggest problems of conventional recycling: the contamination of materials caused by the mixture after the crushing of devices. For Apple it is keysince thanks to the separation, they manage to maintain the highest quality of materials, even when they are of recycled origin.
The ultimate goal of the company is to ensure that the vast majority of the materials used in all its devices are of recycled origin, creating a circular economy, which reduces extraction and decreases pollution during the manufacturing process. So far they have succeeded with aluminum, as explained in the latest environmental report published by the company.
In fact, in the vast majority of devices presented by Apple in 2021 and 2022 that use aluminum, is already 100% recycled. In the other 14 most important materials present in their products, the average is 18%. But as recycling processes become more sophisticated, thanks to efforts like Daisy, that proportion will increase.
Daisy is one of the components for a 100% carbon neutral Apple in 2030
It’s not just the automotive industry that is making massive efforts—through electrification—to become 100% carbon neutral by 2030-2035. Big companies like Manzana are working at full throttle to ensure that 100% of the operation, including the entire production chain, which in turn includes all its suppliersbe 100% neutral.
At the moment the entire operation of the company, that is, all the offices, and the transportation of employees already are. But the reality is that this represents a minimum percentage of the total emissions that Apple generates annually. The bulk, 70%, is in the production of devices. Initially, 213 of the company’s suppliers already use only renewable energies. But a long way to go. An important part of achieving this is achieving a circular economy where many of the components of manufactured products return to the company. These are then disassembled, separated and their materials are reused to make new devices.
In that sense, Daisy is capable of disassembling 12 million iPhones per year. It is smaller than it appears in photos and videos. And in the place where it operates, several of these robots could well work in parallel. But according to Apple, it is operating below its maximum capacity.
The effort is not only on the side of Apple. Users need to start getting used to returning or reselling their old devices to the company. Especially when they no longer work, so that their components can be reused. Either way, There is much to do.
Beyond Daisy
Daisy —and the sophistication of the disassembly and recycling process— is one of the key components in Apple’s journey toward neutrality in harmful air emissions that contribute to climate change. But he’s not the only one. It’s work that requires a significant mindset shift throughout the corporation, and one that can have a major impact. After all they are one of the largest and most important companies in the world.
Like almost everything, another of the key points is in the design. In particular the industrial design of each product that Apple launches. Certainly the use of materials, but also the way they are assembled and not compromising the function, shape or safety of the product but making recycling simpler and more efficient.
There is also the efficiency when it comes to energy use for each product. Since Apple made the switch to the M1 processors, they have shown how they can generally maintain high power levels while using much less power.
The most recent example in this sense is the MacStudio. Over a year you can use up to 1,000 kWh less than an equivalent high-end tower PC. As well as being good for the environment, this is great news for companies adopting the use of this equipment in their production flows.