Circular Economy

Watch Liam, Apple's robot recycler, take apart an iPhone

A robot named Liam that deconstructs iPhones is shown during an event at Apple headquarters.

Image:  REUTERS/Stephan Lam

Emma Luxton
Senior Writer , Forum Agenda

A big problem with modern smartphones is that they’re sealed units and can’t be taken apart for recycling. Right? Wrong. At least, that is, for Apple’s recycling robot, Liam.

Liam can take an iPhone apart in just 11 seconds. Watch this video to see how it works:

Loading...

Liam has been in development for nearly three years and at this stage can only handle the iPhone 6, separating out the valuable internal components made from gold, silver, aluminium, copper, tin, tungsten and cobalt.

The robot is designed to bolster Apple’s green credentials and answer the criticism levelled at all technology companies about the vast quantity of waste they generate - 41.8 million metric tons of the stuff around the world in 2014 alone.

Apple says Liam is also part of efforts to move towards a circular economy model, where materials are reused rather than thrown away. “We need more R&D if we are going to realise the idea of a circular economy in electronics,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s Vice President of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives.

While Liam’s current work rate may look speedy, a single robot can only handle a few million phones per year – a small fraction of the more than 200 million phones the company sold in 2015. But further units will follow – a second unit is already being installed in Europe.

And it turns out Liam also strikes a blow for robot rights, apparently getting the weekend off. So far Apple hasn’t provided any detail about Liam’s holiday entitlement or other benefits.

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

Fourth Industrial Revolution

Related topics:
Circular EconomyFourth Industrial Revolution
Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Fourth Industrial Revolution is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

14 experts on implementing responsible resource use as the energy transition accelerates

Gillian Davidson, Mauricio Cárdenas and Anis Nassar

November 22, 2024

How a retailers’ environment fund is restoring nature at scale through a small fee for plastic bags

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum