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Anyone else wondering where the recycled titanium comes from? > Apple Watch Series 10, made with 100 percent recycled aluminum or 95 percent recycled titanium…

by mlhpdx 2y ago

mohaine 2y ago
I'm guessing it is `waste` from milling iPhones and Mac. Plenty of that and a marketing win even though this would always get recycled anyway.
- MBCook 2y ago
  They’re not made from titanium. Last years’s pro phone is. The Apple Card is too. So I did wonder if there was a little of that in there too.
  - nickthegreek 2y ago
    My Apple Card just expired and they sent a package to send back the old one when giving me the new one. Would be pretty neat to know they are being remade into watches.
    - MBCook 2y ago
      Exactly what I was thinking. Felt odd shipping a credit card back but I get why.
btian 2y ago
Presumably aerospace & medical devices.
aliasaria 2y ago
From my digging... Apple seems to get most of their recycled titanium from IperionX: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/iperionx_over-20-years-ago-apple-led-a-revolution-activity-7107424804391018496-Ha5z/ https://www.linkedin.com/posts/iperionx_over-20-years-ago-ap... IperionX announced they get their recycled source Ti from ELG Utica Alloys: https://www.aero-mag.com/new-partnership-creates-100-recycled-titanium-supply-chain https://www.aero-mag.com/new-partnership-creates-100-recycle... From ELG we can read that a source of scrap Ti comes from companies like GE, Boeing, etc: https://cdn.ymaws.com/titanium.org/resource/resmgr/2010_2014_papers/OrlovDimitrij_2011.pdf https://cdn.ymaws.com/titanium.org/resource/resmgr/2010_2014... But this article from 1990 (may be outdated) states that a misunderstanding of the public is thinking that scrap mostly comes from old devices or planes. But these types of things last long and don't get recycled enough to provide enough volume. This seems to say that the bulk of scrap comes as a byproduct of the smelting process: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11837-018-3278-1 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11837-018-3278-1 The following article from 2004 however says that recycled Ti comes from 10% old scrap (old recycled parts we normally think of as recycled metal) and 90% "new scrap" which is partly wasted Ti generated when making parts. For example in 2004, the aerospace industry used 12000t of Ti but wasted 10000t of that. https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1196-Y/pdf/Circ1196-Y.pdf https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1196-Y/pdf/Circ1196-Y.pdf

Anyone else wondering where the recycled titanium comes from? > Apple Watch Series 10, made with 100 percent recycled aluminum or 95 percent recycled titanium…

by mlhpdx 2y ago

Anyone else wondering where the recycled titanium comes from? > Apple Watch Series 10, made with 100 percent recycled aluminum or 95 percent recycled titanium…

mohaine 2y ago

I'm guessing it is `waste` from milling iPhones and Mac. Plenty of that and a marketing win even though this would always get recycled anyway.

MBCook 2y ago
They’re not made from titanium. Last years’s pro phone is. The Apple Card is too. So I did wonder if there was a little of that in there too.
- nickthegreek 2y ago
  My Apple Card just expired and they sent a package to send back the old one when giving me the new one. Would be pretty neat to know they are being remade into watches.
  - MBCook 2y ago
    Exactly what I was thinking. Felt odd shipping a credit card back but I get why.

btian 2y ago

Presumably aerospace & medical devices.

aliasaria 2y ago

From my digging... Apple seems to get most of their recycled titanium from IperionX: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/iperionx_over-20-years-ago-apple-led-a-revolution-activity-7107424804391018496-Ha5z/ https://www.linkedin.com/posts/iperionx_over-20-years-ago-ap... IperionX announced they get their recycled source Ti from ELG Utica Alloys: https://www.aero-mag.com/new-partnership-creates-100-recycled-titanium-supply-chain https://www.aero-mag.com/new-partnership-creates-100-recycle... From ELG we can read that a source of scrap Ti comes from companies like GE, Boeing, etc: https://cdn.ymaws.com/titanium.org/resource/resmgr/2010_2014_papers/OrlovDimitrij_2011.pdf https://cdn.ymaws.com/titanium.org/resource/resmgr/2010_2014... But this article from 1990 (may be outdated) states that a misunderstanding of the public is thinking that scrap mostly comes from old devices or planes. But these types of things last long and don't get recycled enough to provide enough volume. This seems to say that the bulk of scrap comes as a byproduct of the smelting process: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11837-018-3278-1 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11837-018-3278-1 The following article from 2004 however says that recycled Ti comes from 10% old scrap (old recycled parts we normally think of as recycled metal) and 90% "new scrap" which is partly wasted Ti generated when making parts. For example in 2004, the aerospace industry used 12000t of Ti but wasted 10000t of that. https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1196-Y/pdf/Circ1196-Y.pdf https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1196-Y/pdf/Circ1196-Y.pdf