“Apple Inc on Monday unveiled a robotic system called Liam to take apart junked iPhones and recover valuable materials that can be recycled, such as silver and tungsten,” Valerie Volcovici reports for Reuters. “The move is an attempt to address criticism that Apple’s products, while sleek and seamless in design, are so tightly constructed that their components can be difficult to diassemble, refurbish and reuse.”
“Liam, which has been under development for nearly three years, will initially focus on the iPhone 6. Apple plans to modify and expand the system to handle different devices and recover more resources, the company said,” Volcovici reports. “The system started to operate at full capacity last month and can take apart one iPhone 6 every 11 seconds to recover aluminum, copper, tin, tungsten, cobalt, gold and silver parts, according to Apple.”
“The recycling system consists of 29 robotic modules on a single site near Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. It will focus initially on iPhone 6 phones sold in the United States, where Apple gets about 40 percent of its revenue,” Volcovici reports. “A second Liam is being installed in Europe, Apple said.”
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MacDailyNews Take: Environmentally conscious smartphone users have one very clear choice: Apple Inc.’s iPhone.
Buying an Android knockoff likely means contributing electronic waste and damaging the environment.