Apple wants to try to “stop mining the Earth altogether” to make your iPhone – by  Zoë Schlanger (Quartz Media – April 20, 2017)

 

https://qz.com/

Apple just announced that it plans to stop relying on mined rare earth minerals and metals to make their products, and instead use only recycled sources.

Mines where rare earth mineral are extracted are often sites of exploitation, where workers, some children, are exposed to extremely toxic substances and dangerous working conditions for scant pay. The effluent from the mines poisons soil and groundwater supplies and wreaks environmental devastation, too.

Virtually all smartphone companies—as well as manufacturers of a long list of other tech products—rely on the rare-earth supply chain to make their products. Apple wants to stop. It just isn’t sure how to yet.

“Can we one day stop mining the Earth altogether? It sounds crazy, but we’re working on it,” the company wrote in its 2017 Environmental Responsibility Report published Wednesday.

Vice News called the move unprecedented for the tech industry, and spoke to Lisa Jackson, the former administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency who now heads environment initiatives for Apple.

For the rest of this article, click here: https://qz.com/964862/apple-says-it-will-stop-using-rare-earth-minerals-to-make-iphones/