Earth Day 2017: Apple pledges to stop mining, to build new products from old recycled materials

Apple today released its 2017 Environment Responsibility Report that has revealed some rather interesting initiatives for its upcoming products and how it plans to move ahead as an environmentally conscious company.In the report, Apple admits that the earth's resources won't last forever. It goes on to reveal a new initiative that is not Apple-like, a plan that it is working on, to build new products using just recycled materials from older apple products.It is a big jump from the current scenario where metals and materials come from mines, an area that Apple has been blamed for in the past time and again.“It sounds crazy, but we’re working on it. We’re moving toward a closed-loop supply chain. One day we’d like to be able to build new products with just recycled materials, including your old products.”Apple VP of environmental, policy and social initiatives Lisa Jackson explained that the move is an important one. It is different in way as it is a first where Apple announced a goal before figuring out how to go about it. Jackson told Vice, "So we’re a little nervous, but we also think it’s really important, because as a sector we believe it’s where technology should be going."As of today only a small amount of parts inside the tech giant's products come from recycled materials. Going forward Jackson claims that Apple will combine high quality recycled metals from suppliers with old materials derived from old Apple products.Apart from this, Apple today also powers its facilities with 96 percent renewable energy. Additionally, the report also stated that Apple's suppliers have also promised to use renewable energy by end of 2018.