Apple recovered nearly $40 million in gold by recycling device last year, according the company's Environmental Responsibility Report.



Apple recovered 2204 pounds of gold, well over a ton, through take-back initiatives. Business Insider notes that at $1229.80 per troy ounce of gold, that's worth just under $40 million. Other materials recovered include Copper, Zinc, Tin, Nickel, Silver, and more.



Recently the company unveiled Liam, a robot that can disassemble iPhones.



Existing recycling techniques, like shredding, only recover a few kinds of materials and often diminish their quality. So we invented Liam, a line of robots designed to disassemble 1.2 million phones a year, sorting all their high quality components and reducing the need to mine more resources from the earth. Liam prototypes are operating in California and the Netherlands. It’s an experiment in recycling technology, and we hope this kind of thinking will inspire others in our industry.



Take a look at the video below to see Liam in action...







