Apple striving to end mineral mining with close loop supply chain


Ars Technica:

The most interesting of Apple's goals for the future is a stated desire to manufacture 100 percent of its devices out of recycled materials rather than mining new materials and throwing out used materials. Apple calls this a "closed loop supply chain."

The day that aspiration becomes reality may yet be far in the future, though. Apple has started some pilot projects, including using aluminum reclaimed from old iPhone 6 models to make Mac Minis for iPhone assembly lines, and using 100 percent recycled tin in logic boards for the iPhone 6S. Scale is the primary challenge.

This is an incredible north star type goal that probably has several stretch goals between. While it may take Apple a long time to get there, and perhaps never will, but they can keep getting closer during the effort.