The Sustainability of Sustainable Devices

The Lineup of Products showcased by Apple featured the use of recycled material into the Creation of their Products. How Effective is this practice? and could it be realistically done across smaller manufacturing and technology businesses?

Setting An Example

For a few years now, Large Tech Companies have both searched for and showcased ways of reducing carbon emissions in the creation and shipping of their products. Using recycled parts, creating energy efficient products, and finding means for clean transportation of goods have been encouraged methods for reducing carbon wastes and potentially pioneering good waste treatment processes that could in time become more doable and realistic for both large and small businesses to implement.

The past few years have been highlights for Companies like Google, Samsung, and Apple in their work to develop the best practices for using Recycled Material, Google itself since 2022 has done the rest of their Smartphone lineup with 100% recycled aluminum and working towards 50% plastics in all hardware by 2025. The products themselves show no issues as the same material is being used in production, but could these practices be cost efficient and accessible for smaller businesses and the rest of the Industry?

A Design for the Planet

The reoccurring issue at hand when it comes to passing along new practices to other businesses is the lack of standardization. Innovation needs to be allowed to grow, but as a result, the solution for waste treatment needs to be a more universal solution. As of now, Recycling is reliant on the ability of a town or city to have the budget to provide a recycling program that uses machines and labor to return usable materials and process them for a business to buy and use. Some businesses perform their own recycling programs or treatments, which if not handled properly, can cause harm to the environment. A Solution to the varying procedures behind material recycling would involve a standard method of material processing and waste containment/treatment to deter any waste from recycling to degrade the quality of the environment locally. It would furthermore require incentives and accessibility for towns and cities to adopt recycling programs for local businesses to buy from. Companies like Apple and Samsung have released some of their older products/equipment for other businesses to use, but the varying practices and industries make it strenuous to have some form of universal recycling and disposal of wastes.

What about New Material?

While currently there is a lot of recycled material that should be used and treated to its lifespan, what about when we need more material? With the excess we currently have, this could be an understandably inapplicable question, but I'd argue that resources are still finite even though our practices continue to get better and better at making use of them. The answer would once again be a Universal access and incentive to recycle and specifically to Industries that mine for raw material or acquire fossil fuels for energy, an incentive/standardization of waste treatment. There are elements, procedures, and actions that can counteract the environmental harm caused by obtaining and refining material. Whether it is tax reductions/subsidies on reduced waste or a standardized universal practice adoptable by every other industry, The obtainment and refining of new material should still be a consideration when creating a environmentally conscience model.

Precedent for Recycled Material in New Products

After Watching Apple's September 12th Event, I was very impressed with what I saw. Although critics would argue that it is not enough what they are doing, It is at least within their ability to do so while still delivering top of the line tech products. Practices like this do get attention and management in various companies might start opening further discussion on how this can be done in their own respective business. It is worth noting however, that any constructive change to cleaner production needs to be done in a constructive way whether that is further incentives or shared innovations for cleaner production amongst big and small businesses alike. There is room for regulations on waste treatment in regard to waste that is not contained or treated, but for real change to happen in some form or to some degree, maybe not the degree desired, The kind of good practices showcased by a Company like Apple need to add value to all types of businesses and to the Planet as well.

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