> They are then combined with scrap from select manufacturing sites and, for the first time, cobalt recovered through this process is now being used to make brand-new Apple batteries — a true closed loop for this precious material.

Do they disclose who the manufacturers are and what standards do they adhere to when recovering cobalt from scrapped batteries?

Apple have pretty good recycling processes. I think they also partner with mobile carriers on trade ins too

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/04/apple-expands-global-...

Building an attachment point into the tag itself is still beyond current technology though. We just don't know how to do it.

Recycled metals have always been cost effective. Recycled plastic is much more expensive than virgin plastic, but it's a very small materials cost to start with, likely totaling only a few cents.

How does that compare to previous AirTag? Whats the industry baseline for all of those, maybe gold is 100% recycled anyways in most products?

This is just green washing on the level of “93.65% natural ingredients”.

I don't see old-gen airtags for sale on the website. Are they throwing them all out?

The wholesale material costs for the plastic, gold plating, and magnets is all just pennies, if that.

I'd be a little wary of these numbers as regulation around advertising these kinds of figures normally permits mass balance systems[0] (which imo is tantamount to straight-up lying).

Mass balance is better than nothing I guess, & I understand the practical challenges with going further, but ultimately it's not what's implied by the marketing.

[0] https://www.iscc-system.org/news/mass-balance-explained/

but then the fob also costs $30 :/

Just stating the obvious that not buying one of these things that we never seemed to need until they told us we needed it is the only way to have "the environment in mind".