What is Apple's Goal with Its Closed-Loop Supply Chain?

Question

Could you elucidate Apple’s motive for a closed loop supply chain?

Answer 1

The idea of a closed-loop supply chain which Apple has in mind is to manufacture new products out of the materials that are already in use, without the need to extract new materials from the Earth. This implies that, in the case of providing consumers with some finished products, the company will seek to use only secondary or green materials, which will help reduce the impact on the environment and dependence on such nonrenewable resources. Such success has been achieved partially already in case of 100 percent usage of recycled rare earth materials in iPhone 12 and further steps are envisaged for more efficient production processes.

Comments

Wow that’s pretty amazing that the 12 uses all recycled rare earth metals. That’s amazing for the volume of sales they do.

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Are you saying a CPO Apple device is supposed to cost less? Not so in South Africa unfortunately. At least not by a decent margin

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One correction... Apple doesn't sell refurbished iPhones officially in India. If they do, trust me they have a huge market share. In our country, we are prone to frauds of duplicate iPhones and locally repaired (with cheaper parts). So, if Apple wants a huge consumer base in India... One way is to make iPhone cheaper which can be achieved by manufacturing in India and officially selling refurbished iPhones.

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Excellent, a great environmental scheme that I, as an iphone buyer, can get behind*, maybe even benefit from - even if it also profits Apple from it.  (* I’m not proud of Apple’s manufacturing history in China, for example …)

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Yeah, so, turns out Apple doesn't reuse parts as much as they claim. Maybe as the EU forces manufacturers to make devices repairable without having to spend 2/3 of the device's cost, people will be able to use their devices for longer, and the people who just want to upgrade each year can keep doing so.

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We might be close to "peak smartphone" as in they're so good that new models every year hardly qualify as upgrades. I think that's precisely why Samsung invests heavily in foldable touch screen phones to introduce a new form factor. New form factors are needed for new sales.

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"benefits the environment"

As their business grows over the years, the amount of material they need to extract also grows. By doing this they do not extract less material, they just don't need to extract even more.

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The company that sells chargers separately now "cares for the environment"?, give me a break.

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I think that it would be more environmental friendly to allow users more easily repair their devices than selling them new one with a discount.

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The environment has nothing to do with it, it’s all about keep costs down and profit margins up, but hey saying it “for the environment “ is a good sales pitch