Apple reports that 30% of all material across its shipped products came from recycled content in 2025, and claims to have successfully removed all plastics from its packaging in favour of fibre-based alternatives.
Reportedly, Apple achieved its target to remove plastics from its packaging by the end of 2025. Over the past five years, the company claims to have avoided using more than 15,000 metric tons of plastic – equating this figure to approximately 500 million plastic water bottles.
Since 2016, Apple’s engineers and designers have developed alternatives to common packaging components, such as recycled or responsibly sourced paper alternatives to plastic trays and screen protectors. Now, the company claims to ship all new products in 100% fibre-based packaging.
Its efforts have included introducing moulded fibre trays for its iPhone 7, iPad and MacBook products between 2016 and 2018; implementing a paper screen film for the iPhone 12 in 2020; replacing polystyrene foam with corrugated spring cushions for its iMac product and removing the outer plastic wrap from its iPhone 13 boxes in 2021; and deploying fibre-based locking closures and biobased adhesives last year.
Apple emphasizes that any paper-based components are recyclable and sourced from responsibly managed forests or recycled materials. The fibre-based transition extends to Apple’s second- and third-party vendors, with companies removing plastic components and delivering products in fibre-based packaging across retail categories.
“Over the past decade, governing bodies around the world have regulated single-use plastics, including those used in packaging,” the company writes in its Environmental Progress Report. “Our proactive approach to seeking plastic alternatives has positioned us and many of our suppliers to meet emerging regulatory requirements.”
Furthermore, Apple’s packaging has undergone structural redesigns to streamline recyclability. Larger packages, including the box for the new Studio Display XDR, can now collapse into smaller pieces to fit into a home recycling bin.
Lightweighting and downsizing packaging designs are expected to cut down on material consumption, unlock higher shipment density, and reduce transport emissions overall. For instance, the compact box for the AirPods Pro 3 product is said to enable 25% more units to be shipped per trip.
Packaging has also been adjusted to use less cardboard and ship more products from factories in a single trip. This includes the new iPhone 17 packaging, which is believed to fit 35% more units on a pallet per trip than the previous iPhone 16.
Last year, Apple stated that it had surpassed its 60% reduction target for global greenhouse gas emissions compared to a 2015 baseline. In line with its Apple 2030 roadmap, in which the company intends to achieve carbon neutrality in the next four years, Apple has continued to select materials and design its packaging to be less carbon-intensive.
Among other efforts, it currently sells its iPhone 17 in compact packaging to ship 35% more products per trip than the previous model. Additionally, Apple prioritizes shipping its products via ocean freight, which is believed to emit 35% less carbon on average than shipping by air.
“At Apple, we believe deeply in leaving the world better than we found it, and that commitment runs across everything we do,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “These milestones in our work to protect the planet show that ambitious goals can also be powerful engines of innovation. And as always, we’ll keep pushing to build on this progress even more.”
“Across every part of our business, we’re showing how innovation and collaboration can turn big ideas and bold ambitions into measurable progress,” added chief operating officer Sabih Khan. “From expanding recycled material to removing plastic from our packaging, we’re setting new benchmarks that inspire us to reach further and work even harder for the good of people and planet.”
Packaging Europe also reported on Apple’s sustainability progress back in 2023. At the time, over 96% of its overall product packaging was made from recycled and responsibly sourced wood fibre; its downsized, fibre-based and label-free Apple Watch packaging was also anticipated to contribute to its plastic reduction and decarbonization goals.
Since then, Apple has removed an ‘ESG modifier’ from pay packages for its top executives. This provision allowed Apple to increase or decrease annual bonuses by up to 10% depending on the company’s annual sustainability metrics, but the modifier only represented 1.2% of Tim Cook’s total compensation in 2023, according to Bloomberg.
In other news, Samsung also claims to have replaced all single-use plastics in its mobile packaging with paper-based and recycled alternatives – meeting its sustainability commitment for 2025. These efforts include manufacturing its Galaxy S25 Series boxes entirely from recycled paper and downsizing, and lightweighting other product packaging.
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