We throw our empty cans into the recycling bin for a good reason: Aluminum is one of the most easily recycled metals on the planet. Not only that, it’s also lightweight, so it decreases drag and fuel consumption in airplanes, vehicles and other forms of transportation.
Aluminum is also a major component of the electronics we love — most notably smartphones and computers.
Despite the 65 percent recyclability rate, however, aluminum manufacturing has its downsides.
Aluminum is derived from bauxite, an ore that has a dirty history of being strip-mined in some of the world’s most impoverished areas. And the smelting process that separates pure aluminum from the ore emits carbon through smokestacks, and waste water from the process is tainted with pollutants.
Add it all up and, as Apple concedes, aluminum represents about a quarter (24 percent) of the company’s entire carbon footprint.
Enter Alcoa. Through the industry-wide Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, Alcoa aims to maximize "the contribution of aluminium to a sustainable society." Recently, the U.S.-based company paired up with Anglo-Australian giant Rio Tinto to create a carbon-free aluminum smelting process in a Pittsburgh plant
Customers are pouncing. Apple and Intel have both purchased the carbon-free aluminum as part of their larger efforts to reduce the man-made CO2 gases that are contributing to climate change.
Over the past two decades, Intel has increased its recycling from 25 percent to 90 percent of all materials. The company has also spent billions of dollars cutting pollution emissions from the manufacture of chips, processors and other products.
Apple has also pledged to decrease the amount of carbon associated with its operation. It has joined the global initiative RE100 to promote sustainable energy, and recently announced that all Apple stores, data centers and its Cupertino headquarters are now served by 100 percent renewable energy sources.
Don’t believe us? You can fact-check it on your smartphone.
Some video imagery courtesy of Alcoa, Apple and Intel.
"Smartphone" - Google News
January 15, 2020 at 11:22PM
https://ift.tt/2Nuh3dj
Love your smartphone? After you see this, you'll love it even more - The Hill
"Smartphone" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2QXWyGT
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Love your smartphone? After you see this, you'll love it even more - The Hill"
Post a Comment