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Apple is opening the doors of its newest lab where iPhone-recycling robots pull apart dead devices to the public. 

The firm said Thursday it will open a ‘Material Recovery’ lab, located in Austin, Texas, to investigate new techniques using robotics and machine learning to rip apart its devices and recover valuable materials such as copper, aluminum and cobalt. 

The 9,000-square-foot lab will be at the same Austin facility as ‘Daisy,’ an Apple-built robot that can now tear apart iPhones at the rate of 1.2 million per year. 

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Apple is opening a 'Material Recovery' lab, located in Austin, to investigate new techniques using robotics and machine learning to rip apart its devices and recover valuable materials

Apple is opening a ‘Material Recovery’ lab, located in Austin, to investigate new techniques using robotics and machine learning to rip apart its devices and recover valuable materials

The lab is part of Apple’s broader goal to make all of its products from recycled or renewable materials. 

As part of that initiative, the firm hopes to develop an all-recycled iPhone at some point.   

Apple has not set a date for when it will reach that goal, though some products such as the MacBook Air already feature aluminum made from melted down iPhones traded in to Apple.  

The firm on Thursday released new statistics about Daisy’s iPhone recovery capabilities, saying the robot can now take apart 200 iPhones each hour. 

Daisy pulls out the iPhone’s battery and smaller parts, then recycles the aluminum shell.

It uses artificial intelligence to identify iPhones as they enter the machine. 

Daisy is now able to tell the difference between 15 different models, up from nine models last year, just by looking at them.  

The lab is part of Apple's broader goal to make all of its products from recycled or renewable materials. The firm hopes to develop an all-recycled iPhone at some point

The lab is part of Apple’s broader goal to make all of its products from recycled or renewable materials. The firm hopes to develop an all-recycled iPhone at some point

Daisy (pictured) is made from the same parts as her predecessor and is able to disassemble nine versions of the iPhone, sorting them into usable components

Daisy (pictured) is made from the same parts as her predecessor and is able to disassemble nine versions of the iPhone, sorting them into usable components

Additionally, Daisy will now disassemble some used iPhones returned to Best Buy stores in the U.S, as well as those returned to Apple Stores or through Apple’s online Trade In program. 

With the lab, Apple is hoping to have academics and recyclers visit the facility to learn more about how they can repurpose e-waste. 

THE HEALTH RISKS OF E-WASTE 

E-waste-connected health risks can result from direct contact with harmful materials such as lead, cadmium, chromium, or brominated flame retardants.

They are also triggered by inhalation of toxic fumes, as well as from accumulation of chemicals in soil, water and food.

In addition to its hazardous components, being processed, e-waste can give rise to a number of toxic by-products likely to affect human health, according to the World Health Organisation.

The plan is to let other companies retrofit the robot technology onto their own machines, so that they can automate and streamline the recycling process further.  

Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy and social Initiatives, told Reuters the research will inform how Apple designs its products.

‘I absolutely think that the learnings we make there will be for all of Apple, and hopefully for all of our sector, and of course will influence designers and engineers as we go forward,’ Jackson said in an interview. 

Apple has faced criticism in the past that its thin-and-light product designs make it hard to disassemble products so they can be recycled.

Kyle Wiens, chief executive of iFixit, which provides free repair instructions for electronics, said Apple deserves some credit for making the iPhone reasonable to recycle. 

But he said many other popular products in its lineup – such as its AirPods headphones – cannot be economically recycled because they are stuck together with glue.

Jackson pushed back against that notion, saying that smaller products reduce material use and that Apple focuses on making longer lasting products. 

Pictured is large machinery used to recycle electronics at Apple's Material Recovery Lab. The lab uses the same 'Daisy' iPhone-recycling robots the firm has talked up previously

Pictured is large machinery used to recycle electronics at Apple’s Material Recovery Lab. The lab uses the same ‘Daisy’ iPhone-recycling robots the firm has talked up previously

Apple also said that materials recovered by the Daisy robot are making their way into new products

Batteries recovered by Daisy will be sent to recyclers so the cobalt (pictured) can be reused

Apple also said that materials recovered by the Daisy robot are making their way into new products. Batteries recovered by Daisy will be sent to recyclers so the cobalt can be reused 

The company for the first time released figures showing that 7.8 million devices brought to Apple as trade-ins last year ended up with new users.

‘Durability matters,’ Jackson said. ‘We know our products are used a long time.’

Apple also said Thursday that materials recovered by the Daisy robot are making their way into new products. 

For example, batteries recovered by Daisy will be sent to recyclers so the cobalt from them can be used in new Apple batteries.

‘Cobalt is mined in horrific conditions,’ Wiens of iFixit said. ‘Reducing cobalt consumption is a good thing across the board.’     

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