iPhone without a charger in the box. The iPhone 12 series released last year was the first for which this was the case. The benefit of doing so has been outlined in Apple's Environmental Progress Report for 2021.
Apple's the price should have reflected the reduced box contents. Apple, though, argued that protecting the environment from yet more mining of materials, emissions from production and transport, and e-waste was now the priority, especially given that many buyers would already have the required accessories from previous iPhones.
Now, as part of its Environmental Progress Report and summarized on the Environment page of its website, Apple has put some figures to the expected impact. The firm says it expects 861,000 metric tons of copper, tin, and zinc ore to be saved by not including chargers in the box. In addition, it says that smaller packaging as a result of removing the chargers and earbuds means can fit up to 70 percent more iPhone 12 boxes onto shipping pallets, reducing the number of pallets required and therefore saving on transportation emissions.
How Are The iPhone Environmental Savings Made?
While charging cables are still included in the iPhone box, it is the main part of the charger, the power adapter, that has been removed. Apple explains that manufacturing the adapters uses large amounts of plastic, copper, tin, and zinc. By not providing these by default and therefore reducing the numbers that are distributed overall, it has been able to avoid mining and producing the materials that would have been required.
The emissions savings that are made as a result of being able to fit more boxes on each pallet, meanwhile, are ed by emissions savings related to production and transportation for the production process. In short, Apple says that since removing chargers from the iPhone box last year, it has "avoided mining a significant amount of materials from the earth, and eliminated the emissions that come from processing and transporting them."
It's arguably done more than that, though, as others have followed its lead. Xiaomi removed the charger from the Mi 11 box. Although consumers have historically benefitted from accessories being included with phones as standard, it makes sense not to continue that practice when most people already have what they need and there's a chance to limit the environmental impact.