Environmental effects of iPhones

With this, the US-manufactured iPhone 13 uses 100% recycled rare earth elements in all its magnets , which consist of 98% of the total rare elements in the whole device. In addition, its Taptic Engine uses 100% recycled and 99% recycled tungsten.13 Kas 2021

The processing of minerals emits a high amount of greenhouse gases such as CO2 . The burning and soldering of raw minerals into different iPhone parts like chips emits CO2 which is released into the atmosphere. This causes a very high amount of air pollution.

We often update our carbon models to leverage new information. As a result, our estimate for the carbon footprint of the previous generation— iPhone 12 Pro with 128GB storage—decreased from 82 kg CO2e (as published in its Product Environmental Report) to 78 kg CO2e .

And as far as CO2 emissions are concerned, a 2018 Canadian university study estimated that building a new smartphone – and specifically, mining the rare materials inside them – accounts for 85% to 95% of the device’s total CO2 emissions for two years.18 Eyl 2021