Liam is Apple's "sweeper" robot that recycles iPhone

In the course of the press event held yesterday by Apple, the company has been able to take stock of the progress made in the integration of technologies for the recycling of components integrated in the iDevice. Progress summarized in the name Liam, namely that of the "street sweeper" robots that deals with disassemble the iPhone smartphone in order to recover recyclable materials. A system which demonstrates the commitment of the House of Cupertino to environmental issues and has been well received by authoritative organizations, from Greenpeace.

IDevice to be scrapped are subjected to treatment by Liam, can disassemble an iPhone in just 11 seconds separating the components from which can be derived recyclable materials: cobalt and lithium from the battery, gold and copper from the camera, silver and platinum from main board. The liame system went into operation at full capacity as of last month and is currently composed of 29 robotic modules used in one complex, located not far from Apple's headquarters in Cupertino (California). In the program the activation of a similar establishment also in Europe.

The arrival of Liam is undoubtedly good news, especially for those who care about the issues of environmental protection, and, more immediately, helps to dampen criticism of Apple for the design concepts and design that make it difficult to proceed ' disassembly and recycling activities of the integrated components in its terminals.

At the same time, the Liam system has more room for improvement. First, at the time, Liam is able to disassemble and recycle only iPhone 6; Moreover, according to estimates, assuming that the system can continue to operate continuously at full capacity, the number of iPhone recycled per year would stand in the order of a few million units, a small fraction of the more than 231 million handsets sold by Apple in 2015.

Apple has long been active in the main markets special programs for the recycling of the iPhone, iPad, iPod and Mac (see. HERE for the Italian market), but did not provide exact information on the number of models that are periodically sent by exploiting these initiatives, therefore difficult to determine in advance the impact of the system Liam iPhone recycling activity and its components.

The house of Cupertino, however, is working on several fronts to simplify the recycling activities of the iDevice, as confirmed to Reuters by Lisa Jackson, the Apple executive who manages the company's environmental initiatives: the design approach to building Apple devices will not change in the future, but will be further enhanced tools to dismantle the terminals and recover reusable materials.

The use of LIAM system in more complex tools and initiatives framework with which Apple emphasizes a commitment to model the business activities according to criteria of environmental sustainability. By way of example, that during the press event dedicated to iPhone and iPad Pro SE with 9.7 "display, the house of Cupertino has confirmed that, currently, 93% of its production plants using renewable energy sources, a percentage expected to rise 100% within the next two years, according to official estimates.