Towards the end of Phil Schiller's keynote segment introducing iPhone 11 last week, he called up a slide showing how iPhone 11 is eco-friendly – and stated that the new iPhones "are made to be designed free from these harmful materials (as noted in our cover graphic) and of course to reduce their impact on the environment, and this is so important to us. That's why I bring it up every time. We want to keep pushing the boundaries of this."

Today we're learning a little more on the subject of eco-friendly iPhones. Reuters reports that Apple's "new iPhones will use recycled rare earth elements in a key component" known as the 'Taptic Engine', "a part that lets iPhones mimic a physical button's click despite being a flat pane of glass. The part is about one-quarter of the rare earth elements inside the iPhone models.

Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives told Reuters that "One of the things that we talk about a lot internally, just in general, is how much more resilient this makes our supply chain."

Interestingly, we learn that "Apple will use recycled rare earths from an outside supplier, not from previously used iPhones."

Jackson added that due to "Apple’s scale - new iPhone models typically sell tens of millions of units per year - helped make the project economically viable. We have essentially made a market for," for this new unnamed source, "who found a way to recycle rare earths."

Kyle Wiens, the chief executive of iFixit, a company focused on repairing and reusing electronics, said Apple’s move was a first for the industry. Wiens added that "Rare earth elements aren’t being recycled from electronics right now, and that’s a huge problem — China has a stranglehold on the virgin material supply. This is a great idea — Apple could single-handedly create a hugely needed market for recycled rare earths.

The Reuters report further noted that "Apple is experimenting with ways to recover rare earths from its iPhones using its robots, which can remove tiny parts and separate them into collection bins to aggregate enough material to make recycling viable." For more on this, read the full Reuters report.

Apple offers recycling programs around the globe and you could check their webpage here to see if there's a center near you.

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