Apple's Recycling Robot

You purchase an Apple device and use it until the end, or either you upgrade to an newer and improved product. There are several metals and components that go into the making of the Apple device that take a long time to mine in other countries. There are more than millions and millions of Apple iPhones and devices  in the hands of many people worldwide. In particular, what happens after you move-on without your device? What happens to all the precious valuable metals that went into creating the device? What goes on after? 

Recently, the all-time company Apple, has been working on their 'Renewing and Recycling' project particularly with their own Apple devices.  Basically, since Apple wants to approach one of the very couple issues in the world, the limited amount of natural resources. The take that Apple has very recently taken in this situation is to begin with the recycling and renewing of their very own devices. Since there is a lot of valuable raw materials that go into producing the device like: copper, gold, silver, platinum, Yttrium, Lanthanum, and Dysprosium, just to name a few, these are considered 'rare earths' according to Quora.com. These raw materials including more, are precious to the earth, and are mined by hand, by people. Apple has taken this problem and has developed their own solution. 

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Apple has closely and firmly designed their Apple recycling robot, Liam. Liam has 29 different robotic arms that has the ability to take apart any of Apple's devices. As Liam is taking apart the product, it also sorts and and organizes each material component into a separate category that will be later-on used to recycle into new parts. For instance, when Liam is destructing a device like the iPhone 6, 6s, 6s Plus, it separates the sim card slot, the copper, gold, silver,  aluminum, the camera, screen, battery, screws, frames, and so much more. Not only with the iPhone, but with other devices as well. In fact, one of Apple's future plans is to have several 'Liams' in other countries and continents, according to telecom.com. ​​

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According to cultofmac.com, they had mentioned "Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives. Jackson, a woman of color, talked at length about Apple’s considerable advances in recycling and renewable energy. She reported that Apple is approaching 100 percent renewable energy worldwide and is close to using 100 percent environment-friendly packaging. She introduced a recycling robot called Liam that strips obsolete iPhones of their valuable materials. Liam is not perfect — there’s still a lot of waste — but it’s a step in the right direction." This shows that Lisa Jackson strongly believes that Liam will be a useful robot and tool for Apple, especially looking back at the uses of raw materials used to make their expensive devices. 

Furthermore, also according to cultofmac.com, they stated that "Cook said big companies like Apple need to lead on climate change. In the absence of government leadership, corporations need to act on their own. “This is one of the areas where we could step up and lead,” he said, “especially when there’s a void from government.'" It seems like, Tim Cook, chief executor of Apple Inc., is trying to say that the Apple needs to be one of the very first couple companies to try to stop climate change, and the limited amount of natural resources. In other words, Tim Cook is trying to lead Apple Inc. into trying to be 'green' and make earth a better place to live in, by beginning with their own products. ​

In conclusion, Apple wants to take Liam in a certain direction where they want it to make it something that will really make them as a company look 'better' and even more prestigious because they are approaching a problem that is HUGE worldwide, and as a company, they are using their own robots to deconstruct and take apart their own devices. Although Liam is still something very new and recent from Apple, this is STILL a big project that can help reuse and renew their raw materials  that were used to make their devices. Maybe, it is possible that Apple will want to reuse their raw materials to make their NEWER devices for the future. 

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1) Liam robot image courtesy of macstories.net.   2) Apple devices image courtesy of ​vestavialibrary.org.   3) Healthy tree image courtesy of solucientsecurity.com. 
​4) iPhone 6 image in slideshow courtesy of macworld.co.uk.  5) Apple Inc. Liam robot images in slideshow courtesy of Apple Inc. YouTube video.