Meet Daisy: Apple’s Robot that Recycles Your iPhone
Did you know Apple built a robot that pulls apart old phones and recycles valuable materials?
We are becoming more and more environmentally friendly every year. We read news about our favourite companies joining the race to become more sustainable, and as consumers, it’s appreciated. That includes giant corporations like Apple, which wants to become carbon neutral by 2030. Will they accomplish it? I hope so. Did companies start doing that because their consumers demand it, or do they genuinely wish to be more responsible? It’s for you to decide. Either way, Apple has been taking quite a few steps towards sustainability in recent years.
I don’t intend to promote Apple or their products, so I won’t go into discussing the pros and cons of this organization and their tech. I like Apple because it systemically publishes environmental reports highlighting its sustainability progress. For instance, the most recent report reads the following:
“We aim to make products and packaging using only recycled or renewable materials. At the same time, we’re committed to stewarding water resources and sending zero waste to landfill.” — Apple, Environmental Progress Report 2021.
If you follow the news and like technology, you may know the company is genuine in their efforts to recycle products. Did you know they built a robot that recycles old iPhones? Meet Daisy — Apple’s robot that takes apart your phone when you bring it back to the store and sends it to get recycled. Let’s see what Daisy can do and how effective she is.
Disclaimer: This article doesn’t promote Apple or any other companies, nor do I encourage you to buy Apple products. All the links are embedded for educational purposes, and no sponsorship is involved.
Who is Daisy?
Or would it be more dramatically correct to ask, “what is Daisy”? A robot isn’t a live being; however, the company gave it a name to humanize it. I’m a sucker for emotional connection, so that I will refer to the robot as “she” and “Daisy.”
Daisy is a high-tech robot that Apple introduced to the world in 2018 created to disassemble iPhones, sort the parts and recycle them. The company’s goal is to be more sustainable and more cost-effective by using this machine.
Before Daisy, there was Liam — another “miracle worker” who took iPhones apart. Apple paraded him around in 2016, but while Liam was remarkably innovative, it had a flaw: the company built it to disassemble only iPhone 6, while Daisy pulls apart 15 different iPhones. It also took Liam 12 minutes to disassemble one phone — Daisy is much faster.
Would you like to see what Daisy looks like? Check out this short video — again, not sponsored or affiliated — of how the robot does her job:
What Can Daisy Do?
Daisy is capable of many things. Here are some facts regarding her abilities, with numbers:
- She pulls apart up to 200 phones per hour or 1 iPhone every 12 seconds. It's huge progress compared to Liam’s processing time of 12 minutes per 1 phone.
- Daisy allows Apple to recycle 1.2 million phones per year — that’s 1.2 million fewer phones in the landfills.
- The robot has a 4-step process that allows her to extract the battery, screws and modules. Daisy also removes the camera, speakers, and other bits, enabling her to separate the phone’s aluminum shell that gets recycled.
- Daisy is 33 feet long, has 5 arms and resides in the Recovery Lab in Texas.
5. Circling back to Apple’s 2021 report, Daisy allows the tech giant to extract numerous materials from iPhones, including aluminum, cobalt, copper, lithium, tungsten — and many others.
5. Apple offers an insight into how much their robot saves environment-wise:
“Just one metric ton of iPhone main logic boards, flexes, and camera modules disassembled by Daisy contain the same amount of gold and copper as an estimated 150 metric tons of mined earth. These materials make it back to the general market, so that we and others can use recycled materials for the next generation of products.” — Apple, Environmental Progress Report 2021.
You may like robots, or you may not, but one thing is clear: Daisy is impressive.
And Then, There Was Dave
Surprise! Daisy isn’t the latest innovation in Apple’s line of robots. Dave, a newer and more advanced tech creation, was introduced to the world in 2020. But unlike Liam, Daisy didn’t get a chance to retire early. She is still operational — in fact, Daisy does the main job at disassembling iPhones.
Once Daisy finishes her part of the job, Dave steps in to pick apart the Taptic Engine to better recover tungsten, steel and other Earth materials. While Daisy does an excellent job, Dave can better retrieve more materials that are then getting recycled. According to Apple, these two robots allow the company to retrieve and recycle 99% of tungsten in iPhone 12 and Apple Watch Series 12.
Conclusion
Regardless of how you feel about Apple, they have taken huge steps to become a more sustainable company. Apple claims the company reduced its carbon emissions by 75% since 2015 thanks to switching to hydro-smelted and recycled aluminum.
The company’s goal is to manufacture their tech using only recyclable and renewable materials, and the same goes for the packaging too. As mentioned earlier, Apple wants to cease sending any waste to landfills and become carbon neutral by 2030.
Can they do it? We shall see. And Apple’s customers will be there to hold them accountable for their actions and decisions. For now, it looks like creating Daisy and Dave was an excellent decision.