What's the deal with Apple's metallurgy team 'New Discovery'?
We all know that Apple's marketing branch is a major part of the company's success. But when I came across the announcement of their new MacBook Air and Mac Mini yesterday, I had to share/talk about it with someone.
So during the event they announced that their new MacBook Airs and Mac Minis will be made with 100% recycled aluminum. These were their words:
"Apple's metallurgy team has designed an aluminum alloy that uses access aluminum from the production process. Delivering the same great characteristics we expect in all of our products. And this is a huge breakthrough. So we are really proud to say today that every new MacBook Air is made from 100% recycled aluminum. This helps reduce the carbon footprint of the new Air by nearly 50% and makes it the greenest Mac ever."
"To accomplish this, we invented a new custom alloy. It's designed to use fine shavings of recaptured aluminum that are re-engineered down to the atomic level. This new alloy is as beautiful and robust as any we have used before."
Image shared under CC0 licence
These words where of course followed by somewhat the biggest applause of the entire event but all I could think was, did they really understand what the marketeer was saying?
First of all, they used "recaptured fine shavings of aluminum that were re-engineered down to the atomic level". So if I understand it correctly, they used their waste aluminum, and melted it to use it again. That is re-engineering down to the atomic level. Pretty ground breaking I must say.
And why is there the need to call it a "new alloy" if simply remelting it also gives you a material as "beautiful and robust as any we have used before" because it is the same material?
Then secondly, the most misleading statement is that it "reduces the footprint of the new MacBook by nearly 50%" (47% according to their website). While it is true that for their specific factory, the footprint would decrease, there is no effect at all on the global aluminum consumption or footprint. What would have happened otherwise with those shavings? Before this "discovery" the shavings would have been sent to recycling and end up in your soda can, new car or even fidget spinner if you still decided to get one of those.
The actual announcement of the new products:
Apple surely discovered that appearing as a green company is the new best way to market their products, and the decision of recycling aluminum within the company indeed leads to preferable 'numbers' on its footprint. Also their announcement that they attempt to run on 100% renewable energy, aided their green image. All of this are great ways to 'greenify' your image and to set an example for the entire industry.
But if they really cared about their environmental impact, why don't they design their products to be upgraded as requirements keep increasing, or facilitate their products to be more easily repaired and recycled?
But that's just my take on the subject. I'd love to hear other opinions about this!
Extra sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfHEnw6Rm-4
https://www.apple.com/macbook-air/
https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/9/17216656/apple-renewable-energy-worldwide-climate-change
If they made the macbook air out of actual air, then that would be news!
Great post and thoughtful @samve!
I would love to see that in their next announcement! 😄
That definitely sounds like fancy talk for something simple XD I love it
I wonder what the requirements are to call something "new". I assume something, might it be super tiny, had to change. Maybe using shavings for melting instead of blocks is all that is necessary for a name change. But then again, would that not mean that using your own shavings would be much cheaper then buying new aluminium? So why would they have waited so long to re-use it. Aluminium prices have been going down in the last 6 months, so re-using it now for savings is also not plausible.
I can imagine that using shavings might add impurities into your overall product and that results in loss of shininess or structure.
If the aluminium gets re-used after apple discards it, I think the recycling process (storage, transport) might add to the carbon footprint and their in-house use actually decreases the global footprint (by a tiny tiny fraction). But hey, every progress is good.
But even if it just follows a PR hype, reusing your own waste is a great mindset that every company should look at.
Here is a book recommendation in support of your comment: cradle to cradle. Give it a go...
That sentence made me laugh so badly as well!
Perhaps because prices are going down they can't sell their scrap aluminum at a high enough rate? But indeed it would also make it cheaper to just buy new aluminum, so I'm not sure that would be a factor. And transportation, how big or small that impact might be, is indeed a fare point I did not take into account!
Of course they don't lie, and it's a good example for other companies to follow, but when looking at it closely it amazes me how small changes can be marketed as big innovations. And whether that is 'fair' seems debatable to me.
As long as their products are made by people in buildings that need to have suicide prevention nets, I do not think you can ever use the word 'fair' to describe them.
I am unfortunately also guilty of spending more time thinking about environmental problems than humanitarian problems...
Hi @samve!
Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 2.546 which ranks you at #15440 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has improved 242 places in the last three days (old rank 15682).
In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 348 contributions, your post is ranked at #281.
Evaluation of your UA score:
Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server