Apple has a global workforce of more than 166,000 employees—but one of its most impactful team members isn’t human. Daisy, Apple’s proprietary recycling robot, lives in a warehouse in Austin, Texas and plays a critical role in reducing electronic waste.

With surgical precision, Daisy takes an old iPhone, freezes its battery with a blast of minus 80 degrees Celsius air, and removes screws and components in seconds. In just 11 seconds, what was once electronic waste becomes a clean set of reusable, high-quality materials ready for a second life.

Daisy is not alone. She leads a growing robotic workforce—including Dave and Taz—designed by Apple to tackle one of the technology industry’s most costly and environmentally damaging challenges: discarded devices.

Tackling the Global E-Waste Challenge

For decades, consumer electronics followed a simple cycle: manufacture, use, and dispose. With frequent device upgrades and short ownership cycles—often just two to three years—millions of phones enter the waste stream annually.

Traditional recycling methods rely on shredding devices into mixed materials, making it nearly impossible to recover trace amounts of valuable rare earth elements. As the climate crisis intensifies, Apple is using advanced robotics to change that model.

Apple’s Material Recovery Lab in Austin was created to demonstrate a more sustainable alternative.

“Advanced recycling must become an important part of the electronics supply chain, and Apple is pioneering a new path to help push our industry forward,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s Vice President of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives.

Daisy was introduced in 2018 as the successor to Apple’s first recycling robot, Liam. She can disassemble 23 different iPhone models at a rate of up to 200 devices per hour.

By carefully separating components instead of shredding them, Daisy recovers materials at a quality level that traditional recycling cannot achieve. Copper extracted is pure enough to re-enter the market directly, while cobalt recovered from batteries is reused in new Apple batteries—creating a true closed-loop system.

Apple’s Robot Recycling Crew

While Daisy handles device disassembly, Dave and Taz focus on specialized material recovery.

Dave, introduced in 2020, processes the Taptic Engine after Daisy removes it. He secures the module and precisely cuts it open to recover rare earth magnets and tungsten.

Taz, unveiled in 2022, uses a shredder-like mechanism to separate magnets from audio modules. Unlike conventional shredders, Taz is tuned to preserve magnetic materials so they can be reused rather than lost.

The Scale and Impact of Robotic Recycling

The impact of Apple’s robotic recycling program is significant. A single Daisy robot can process up to 1.2 million iPhones each year.

As a result of these innovations, nearly 20% of all materials used in Apple products in 2021 came from recycled sources. Today, Apple uses 99% recycled rare earth elements in its magnets—a figure that was close to zero just a few years ago.

These robots rely on a steady supply of devices, which is where Apple’s customers play a key role. Apple’s trade-in programs feed the Material Recovery Lab by ensuring used devices are recovered rather than discarded.

Every iPhone traded in at an Apple Store is a candidate for Daisy’s disassembly line—and a step closer to Apple achieving its Apple 2030 pledge for carbon neutrality and sustainable manufacturing.