Apple Hits Record 30% Recycled Content Across All Products in 2025 - MacRumors
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Apple Hits Record 30% Recycled Content Across All Products in 2025

Apple today announced that a record 30% of material across all products it shipped in 2025 came from recycled content, alongside a series of other environmental milestones published in its annual Environmental Progress Report.

Apple Environment Feature
The achievement marks new highs across several specific components. All batteries designed by Apple now use 100% recycled cobalt, all magnets use 100% recycled rare earth elements, and all Apple-designed printed circuit boards use 100% recycled gold plating and tin soldering. Apple also completed the transition to fully fiber-based packaging, fulfilling a pledge to remove all plastic from packaging by 2025, a goal the company says it reached across every package manufactured today.

Apple's greenhouse gas emissions in 2025 remain down over 60% compared to 2015 levels, holding constant from 2024 despite significant business growth. The company is working toward its Apple 2030 goal of carbon neutrality across its entire footprint by the end of the decade.

MacBook Neo leads the lineup on recycled material. It contains 60% recycled content overall, which is the most of any Apple device to date, and features a new aluminum forming process that uses half the raw material compared to traditional machining. Apple and its suppliers also developed an anodization process that achieves a 70% water-reuse rate, turning a traditionally water-intensive step into a near-closed-loop system. Apple said it plans to expand this process to additional production lines in coming years.

Apple launched Cora, a new electronics-recycling line at its Advanced Recovery Center in California, designed to achieve material recovery rates significantly higher than industry baselines using precision shredding and advanced sensor technology. The company also developed A.R.I.S., a machine learning-powered detection system that helps recyclers classify and sort electronic scrap, running on the Mac mini, which Apple is piloting with partner recyclers.

Apple's direct suppliers procured more than 20 gigawatts of renewable energy in 2025 through the Supplier Clean Energy Program, generating more than 38 million megawatt-hours of electricity, which is enough to power more than 3.4 million U.S. households for a year. Apple itself procured an additional 1.8 gigawatts to power its offices, retail stores, and data centers entirely on renewable electricity.

Apple and its suppliers saved 17 billion gallons of fresh water in 2025, and the company replenished more than half of the water it withdrew to support its global facilities. All eight Apple-owned data centers have now been certified to the Alliance for Water Stewardship standard. Apple has set a goal to replenish all water withdrawn by its facilities worldwide by 2030.

Apple Fifth Avenue in New York City became the company's first retail store to achieve TRUE Zero Waste Certification, which requires facilities to divert more than 90 percent of their waste from landfills. Across its supply chain, Apple and its suppliers redirected more than 600,000 metric tons of waste from landfills in 2025, with 400 supplier facilities participating in the company's Zero Waste Program.

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Top Rated Comments

klasma Avatar
27 weeks ago
Hollywood is way ahead, they have like 90% of recycled content across all products.
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jchap Avatar
27 weeks ago

Hollywood is way ahead, they have like 90% of recycled content across all products.
Probably one of the best jokes I've seen here on MR in a very long time. Nice one.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
RealKeishav Avatar
27 weeks ago
That’s great
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
27 weeks ago

I always wonder what stories like these mean when we don't mention their actual greenhouse gas emissions and their general impact on the environment
Very little. Recycling is the failure point of the 3 stage cycle anyway. Its first reduce, then reuse, then finally recycle. I'd prefer they tell us about the first two instead.

While its good to avoid using new materials, it'd be a lot better if they allowed us to reuse cases between devices that are the same size generation after generation, and other items like keyboards on devices. There really isn't a reason why I can't use my Magic keyboard on my M4 iPad for example. I'd be completely okay with some reduced capability compared to the newer version, but Apple's POV is to trash the old one and get a completely new device.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WarmWinterHat Avatar
27 weeks ago
I will always wish it was higher, but I'm glad to see that they are at least paying attention to this. So many companies have completely given up on such such endeavors. Good job!
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
27 weeks ago
I always wonder what stories like these mean when we don't mention their actual greenhouse gas emissions and their general impact on the environment
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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