Apple has long touted its commitment to going green, not just in their day-to-day operations, but also the way they build their products and how they design their packaging. Now the company has announced their plans for future iPhones which could be built using the world’s first carbon-free aluminum.The problem with a lot of green initiatives is that most of them exist as proof-of-concept, so there is always a question of whether or not they can be scaled up commercially. In this case, it can as Apple will be purchasing the material from ELYSIS whose smelting process actually produces oxygen as a result instead of greenhouse gases.
According to Vincent Christ, ELYSIS’s CEO, “This is the first time aluminum has been produced at this commercial purity, without any greenhouse gas emission and at industrial scale. The sale to Apple confirms the market’s interest in aluminum produced using our breakthrough ELYSIS carbon-free smelting technology. Today’s announcement proves that ELYSIS, a joint venture between Alcoa and Rio Tinto, was able to turn an idea into reality.”
To date, the majority of Apple’s products include the use of 100% recycled aluminum, devices like the iPad, MacBook laptops, and Apple Watch, just to name a few. According to Apple’s press release, the company is expected to use this material in the iPhone SE which was announced earlier this month.