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Apple will start using the world’s first direct carbon-free aluminium in its iPhones beginning with iPhone SE, Apple has said, describing the change as part of the Green Bonds allocation. The aluminium that’ll be used in the manufacturing of the iPhone, had been produced by aluminium supplier ELYSIS, at its Industrial Research and Development Centre in Quebec.
Direct carbon-free aluminium is the result of improvements in smelting technology to reduce emissions. This aluminium is the first to be manufactured on an industrial scale outside of a laboratory and does not create any direct carbon emissions during the smelting process. Hydropower was used in the process of making this aluminium. As a result, the process to make this aluminium produces oxygen, instead of direct greenhouse gas emissions that emerge from the traditional methods.
ELYSIS earlier confirmed that its commercial-scale prototype is ready. This will make the Apple iPhone SE the first smartphone ever to be made using direct carbon-free aluminium.
“This is the first time aluminium has been produced at this commercial purity, without any greenhouse gas emission and at industrial scale,” said Vincent Christ, CEO of ELYSIS, in a statement.
“The sale to Apple confirms the market’s interest in aluminium produced using our breakthrough ELYSIS carbon-free smelting technology.” ELYSIS is a joint venture between aluminium companies Alcoa and Rio Tinto, which have both received investments from Apple in the past, as well as the governments of Canada and Quebec.
The most recent being in 2018, and it was a year later that Apple used aluminium commercially produced following advancements in manufacturing processes, for the 16-inch MacBook Pro. “Our investments are advancing the breakthrough technologies needed to reduce the carbon footprint of the materials we use, even as we move to using only recyclable and renewable materials across our products to conserve the earth’s finite resources,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives.
Apple has been using recycled aluminium in product manufacturing for many years and is looking to expand the scope of aluminium that’s smelted using hydroelectricity instead of fossil fuels across product lines. The tech giant said that their company’s carbon emissions associated with aluminium have reduced by nearly 70% since 2015. The iPad lineup including the new iPad Air, the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Mini, and Apple Watch, are made with 100% recycled aluminium enclosures.
Green Bonds are considered useful for transparency and compliance as companies attempt to reduce their carbon footprint and the environmental impact of operations. Samsung, for instance, is increasing the use of recycled metal in making smartphones – the Galaxy smartphone brackets and internal metal parts use recycled aluminium, and the plan is to extend the initiative to the M-series and A-series phones, which are more affordable and drive larger volumes. The company also uses recycled plastics in displays and has improved battery tech to make packs thinner.
Till now, Apple has issued three bonds worth $4.7 billion, as the company attempts to become carbon neutral across its supply chain by 2030. The first two bonds issued in 2016 and 2017, are now fully allocated. The bond issued in 2019, is worth $550 million and supports 50 projects globally, including the push to make carbon-free aluminium – the other categories include recycled materials, renewable energy, carbon mitigation and reducing emissions in the supply chain.
“We allocated Green Bond funds to projects that are investigating ways to remove such impurities from materials so they can be reused in Apple products instead of being downcycled,” said Apple’s latest Annual Green Bond Impact Report for 2021, referring to the impurities that are often introduced in the material scrap recovery process.
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