Apple to use 100% recycled cobalt by 2025 -after being accused of using child labor to mine

Apple on Thursday announced plans to design batteries with fully recycled cobalt by 2025, claiming the move is part of its commitment to be carbon neutral by 2030.

Cobalt is the chemical element found in almost every tech gadget that uses a lithium battery — a smartphone, tablet or laptop needs a few grams of it, while an electric vehicle needs 22 pounds.

And over 70 percent of the world’s cobalt is mined the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Apple said it will use 100 percent cobalt in all of its internally designed batteries, which CEO Tim Cook says is because “great technology should be great for our users and the environment.”

But the move comes after massive criticism of Apple’s mining practices, which have been accused of fueling slavery and using child labor, claims lawsuits filed by a lawyers group on behalf of Congolese families.

Societal problems aren’t the only problems with cobalt – the process pollutes air, water and soil, contaminating food crops.

said apple it “has significantly expanded the use of certified recycled cobalt over the past three years, making it possible to include all Apple-designed batteries by 2025.”

This was achieved using an iPhone disassembly robot that separates batteries from other components, allowing specialist recyclers to recover cobalt and other materials, including lithium.

Apple claims it has mined 24,250 cobalt since 2019 and should have enough to use in all devices by 2025 – but it’s been a slow process to get to that point.

Cobalt mines in the DRC provide Apple, Google, Microsoft and Tesla with materials needed for their products, according to child labor lawsuits filed against the companies.

However, the rare mineral is an important part of all Apple products: iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches and MacBooks.

In a 2016 reportAmnesty International and African Resources Watch (Afrewatch) accused Apple, Samsung and Sony of lax monitoring of their cobalt resources from mines in the DRC.

The report claimed that children as young as 12 were working underground to dig up the metal in the mine.

The researchers claimed to have identified 16 multinational consumer electronics companies that are customers of Asian battery makers who buy cobalt from the Chinese company.

A year later, Apple announced it would stop buying hand-mined cobalt in Congo, as the mines continued to experience problems with child labor and harsh working conditions.

This was at the same time that it became known that 40,000 children work in the mines every day, according to one report by Tom Lantos, Human Rights Commission of the US Congress.

However, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2018 that Apple sourced its cobalt from a supply chain that owned a mine called Mutoshi in Kolwezi.

While the tech giant didn’t buy materials directly from the mines, they were bought from suppliers who owned the mines, The Wall Street Journal reported in 2018.

And in 2019, Apple was one of the names mentioned in a lawsuit accusing tech giants of exploiting child labor to collect the mineral.

More than a dozen African families sued Apple, claiming their children died or were seriously injured while mining cobalt to be sold to the tech giants.

The lawsuit was filed in Washington DC on behalf of five children who were killed and 11 injured while working in the mines.

They were all between the ages of 13 and 17 when the incidents took place.

A boy, 16, lost his leg after being hit by a truck in July 2019 while transporting cobalt on his motorcycle.

Another boy, 17, had both legs crushed in a collapsing tunnel while mining.

Recently, a new set of photos taken by Siddharth Kara, an adjunct professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, from mines in the DRC may have challenged Apple’s claims that its goods are ethically sourced and sold.

Apple, Microsoft, Google, Tesla and others all insist that they hold cobalt suppliers to the highest standards and deal only with smelters and refiners that adhere to their codes of conduct.

But photos and videos DailyMail.com shared on Jan. 30 of some of Africa’s largest mines tell a different story.

The heartbreaking scenes show children barefoot covered in chemicals as they carry heavy bags over their shoulders over rocky terrain for just $2 a day.

Exhausted mothers with their babies tied to their sides are seen sifting through rock nets, frantically searching for the precious cobalt.

And wells are filled with people piling on each other, also hoping to find the rare earth mineral.

Those are some of the powerful images Kara has obtained in recent years in the Katanga region, shared before his new book came out in February – Cobalt Red: How Congo’s Blood Fuels Our Lives.

Kara, an adjunct lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, told DailyMail.com ahead of its release that his research shows big tech’s self-assured assurances cannot be trusted.

“There are hundreds of thousands of the poorest people on the planet [mining for cobalt].

“The moral clock has been turned back to colonial times.

“They do it for $2 a day and to them it’s the difference between eating or not eating that day, so they don’t have the option to say no.”

Adult miners dig up to 600 feet below the surface using basic tools, without protective gear or modern machinery.

Sometimes the children are sent to the cramped makeshift rooms where there is constant danger of collapse.

Long-term exposure to cobalt can lead to lung disease, deafness and, according to Kara, who has spent years researching the subject in Congo, birth defects and various cancers.

“These are blood diamonds multiplied by a thousand—diamonds are not poisonous.

“And you buy a diamond once, maybe twice in your life, when Western society cannot function for more than 24 hours without devices that rely on cobalt,” he said.

Among his videos is one of two children, covered in toxic chemicals from the mine, smashing their rocks.

They must not be older than seven or eight.