Design Life-Cycle

Martin Pablo Ramirez

Ian & Henry

Des 40A

Professor Cogdell

2 December 2021

AirPods Max: Raw Materials

One of the most significant goals that Apple holds is how the development of their technology can improve each year to make their consumers' lives easier. Unlike any other of their products, Apple made their iPhone a little more special each year by including a set of earphones in the box. As an innovative company, Apple released their wireless AirPods in late 2016 and four years later the company decided to exclude the wired earphones from the iPhone Box. Now, the AirPods hold an iconic meaning to the company and it has shifted its focus to develop something bigger and better. Their new product that was released nearly a year ago, the AirPods Max are a pair of headsets that lets their users experience a different way of listening to any type of audio. These features include, active noise cancellation, adaptive EQ, Transparency Mode, and spatial audio. The Airpods Max do not differentiate too much from the Airpods, both made from similar materials. This brings up the question whether or not the AirPods Max are worth their extremely high price? 

Although Apple’s final product designs are genuinely impressive, something that their users don’t realize is how good or bad the raw materials are to the environment. The materials that are used to manufacture the AirPods Max include: stainless steel, anodized aluminum, cobalt, pylestor, acrylates, thermoplastic polyurethane, acrylates, and methacrylates(Apple). According to the list, some of these materials are more harmful than others and have an impact on the environment. Stainless steel is used for the product's frame as well as its sliding arms. While the ear cups are made from aluminum and the headband from polyester(Apple). Many of these materials are found through mining, increasing the risk of facing scarcity. Not only that, but working conditions are not the best for miners. These people encounter the chance of inhaling particles that could damage their lungs(Haskins). However, the real problem is where these materials end up after being infused into the final product. For example, cobalt is used to make the lithium-ion battery and it is one of the materials that will take forever to decompose(Agostino). This creates a problem because once the AirPods Max stop working, many users will end up getting rid of the whole product and it could end up in a  place where it shouldn’t.

Recycling is a major key component when it comes to manufacturing products, which is something Apple needs to focus on. People are too concerned about how Apple’s products look and perform, but don’t realize they are paying way too much money to keep harming the planet. Since most of Apple’s products are fragile and completely sealed around, like the AirPods Max, it makes it hard to fix them(Oremus). This makes the Airpods Max not as friendly to the environment as Apple wants it to be. Although the company provides help to their users to recycle their products, e-waste recycling companies have not seen people bring in any Airpods (Oremus). Even then, only certain parts are recyclable instead of the whole product. Apple has pointed out that they are working towards making their products more efficient, but that is taking a little too long. Instead, they should educate their customers more by emphasizing the steps they can take to recycle their products. 

Lastly, not only is the product itself an issue, but it’s distribution and transportation have an impact on the environment as well. Apple's products are manufactured overseas in China by companies like Luxshare Precision Industry and Goertek and to get them over to the U.S requires big shipments(Warwick). The company's main source of transportation is either by aircrafts or ships, depending on how heavy and fast Apple wants it’s products to arrive(Peterson). Regardless of whether their supplies travel on land or in the air, both require fossil fuels to get the job done. The use of fossil fuels can cause the air to pollute by burning an excessive amount of coal(Union of Concerned Scientists). With the amount of people purchasing Apple products on a daily basis, distributing these products all over the world requires a lot of transportation. People should start considering the cost it takes to process certain products like the AirPods Max before making a purchase to see if they are worth it or not. 

Overall,  not only the AirPods Max, but the rest of Apple’s technology could potentially be a better product for the price the company sells them for. Their retail price is way too high for them to be harming the planet. Apple should really make good use of the extra money they are charging for their products to establish a better system. At the same time, Apple users should also make an effort to make sure their items end up at the right place once they are no longer good to use to help decrease this ongoing issue.

Bibliography

“About Aluminium.” Tomago, Tomago Aluminium , https://www.tomago.com.au/about-us/about-aluminium.

Agostino, Thalia. “The Global Journey of Airpods.” ArcGIS StoryMaps, Esri, 5 Nov. 2020, https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/d10c804add0644218001ba812835b88d. 

Apple. “Wearing Your Airpods, EarPods, or Beats Devices.” Apple Support, 5 Nov.  2021, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211158.  

Haskins, Caroline. “Airpods Are a Tragedy.” VICE, 6 May 2019, https://www.vice.com/en/article/neaz3d/airpods-are-a-tragedy. 

Kallenburg, Rebecca. “The Life of Airpods.” ArcGIS StoryMaps, Esri, 27 May 2021, https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/c77e193eea3a4e4b9beecfd8083c3809. 

Mike Peterson. “Airpods: Features, pro, Max, Price.” AppleInsider, https://appleinsider.com/inside/airpods. 

Molina, Adam. “Apple Airpods Max Review.” SoundGuys, 23 Aug. 2021, https://www.soundguys.com/apple-airpods-max-review-44975/.

Oremus, Will. “What Really Happens to Airpods When They Die.” Medium, OneZero, 2 May 2019, https://onezero.medium.com/what-really-happens-to-airpods-when-they-die-9ba2fe97b346.

Ryan Pertersen. “Does Apple Ship IPhones by Air or Sea?” Flexport,https://www.flexport.com/blog/does-apple-ship-iphones-by-air-or-sea/.  

“Silk.” How Products Are Made, http://www.madehow.com/Volume-2/Silk.html. 

Steel, Marlin. “How Is Stainless Steel Made?” Custom Wire Products and Metal Fabrication, https://www.marlinwire.com/blog/how-is-stainless-steel-made.

“The Hidden Costs of Fossil Fuels.” Union of Concerned Scientists,https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/hidden-costs-fossil-fuels. 

“U.S. Energy Information Administration - EIA - Independent Statistics and Analysis.” Use of Energy for Transportation - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), 17 May 2021, https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/use-of-energy/transportation.php. 

Warwick, Stephen. “Apple's Airpods Max Made in Vietnam as China Withdrawal Accelerates.” IMore, IMore, 10 Dec. 2020,

https://www.imore.com/apples-airpods-max-made-vietnam-china-withdrawal-accelerates.

Warwick, Stephen. “China Becomes Largest Supplier Base for Apple, Surpassing Taiwan.” IMore, IMore, 2 June 2021, https://www.imore.com/china-becomes-largest-supplier-base-apple-surpassing-taiwan. 

Chengrong Yang        

Professor Cogdell

DES 040A A01

12/01/2021

AirPods Max: Embodied Energy

The AirPods Max is Apple's first headset, and it's an attempt to make the AirPods line more comprehensive. Priced at $549, the AirPods Max uses two very powerful H1 chips and 18 sensors, making it a powerful headset. With the power of technology that AirPods Max shows, the process of producing and shipping them consumes enormous amounts of energy. The AirPods Max is manufactured using stainless steel, memory foam, aluminum, plastic, and other materials. Most of these materials are not produced or processed in the United States. Raw materials are mined from various countries, shipped to assembly plants like those in China, and then to where the products are sold. When materials are shipped between locations, Apple chooses shipping and trucking. At the end of its life, products can only be sent to landfills, which does not use much extra energy, but leaves consumers with no other options and the products cannot be effectively recycled.

Every part of AirPods Max comes from mines, refineries, and assembly factories in more than a dozen countries around the world. For example, China, Brazil, Vietnam, and Japan. Thousands of low-wage workers in these countries make it possible to extract, produce and manufacture AirPods Max. Huge amounts of electricity and natural gases are consumed in these processing plants and mines. Mining requires huge amounts of energy, most of which is oil and electricity. More than 60 of the materials needed to make AirPods Max come indirectly or directly from mined ore. And of these more than 60 materials, most are metals. The average recovery rate for metals is 4.5%. So, to recover one ton of metal, you need to mine 22 tons of material. The low recovery rate at which metals are mined is, to any extent, a waste of energy. When raw materials, minerals, are shipped from their origin to reprocessing factories like those in China, they are molded into their desired shapes and properties. In this process, about 85% of the energy is used for process heating, drive power, cogeneration, and industrial boiler use. Facility heating, air conditioning and lighting account for the second largest energy consumption of these reprocessing plants, accounting for about 4 percent of total energy consumption. According to US Energy Information Administration, manufacturing facilities uses 95.1 kilowatts-hours of electricity and 536,500 Btu of natural gas per square foot on average each year. Although these processing plants consume a large amount of electricity and natural gas, putting a huge strain on local power production facilities, Apple's investment in renewable energy has greatly reduced the consuming of fossil fuel and environmental damage needed to produce its products. According to Apple’s Environmental Responsibility Report, Apple had installed 485 megawatts pf wind and solar projects in China as of 2017. And Apple also has the plan to generate 4 gigawatts of new clean power worldwide by 2020. Despite the enormous amount of energy Apple uses to produce the AirPods Max, its heavy investment in renewable energy means that the environmental impact of its products’ during production is minimal.

Because most of the materials and parts needed to make the AirPods Max aren't made and assembled in the U.S. Instead, raw materials are shipped from Places like Vietnam, South Africa, Kazakhstan, Peru, Mexico, Indonesia, and India to factories in China, where they are processed and shipped for sale around the world. Large freighters play a vital role in transporting these materials and goods. Because shipping is the most cost-effective way to move large quantities of goods, Apple has chosen it. Cargo ships can carry large amounts of fuel in transit. A Panamax container ship can carry 2.5 to 3.5 million gallons of fuel and consume 63,000 gallons of navigational fuel per day at 20 to 25 knots. Apple products are shipped from China to different places of countries and then distributed to sales locations within each country. Trucks are often used to transport Apple products when its cargo is transported to developed countries like the United States and Australia, which have mature road systems, as is the case with the AirPods Max. In Australia, a single-frame truck uses 28.6 liters of petrol per 100 kilometers to transport goods.

The Batteries of the AirPods Max provide up to 20 hours of battery life with a total of 664 mAh. If a consumer charged the AirPods Max every two days, it would take about the same amount of energy to charge the battery in a week as an iPhone13 mini. Like most other electronics, are hard to recycle efficiently. The AirPods Max's batteries can last for 18 months, after which the lithium-ion batteries inside the pods slowly store less power and eventually stop working. Buyers of AirPods Max will find it hard to throw them away or recycle them. Because lithium-ion batteries catch fire when squeezed in a landfill, throwing them away is dangerous. And because AirPods Max glue lithium batteries to themselves, it's difficult to effectively recycle them. Plus, the cost of recycling electronics is higher than the profit, which makes most recycling companies reluctant to recycle AirPods Max. That leaves consumers with just one option, to dangerously toss the AirPods Max in the trash and send it to a landfill. Although it takes very little energy to get AirPods Max to a landfill, its mostly gasoline used by garbage trucks that operate around the city. Although there is no good way to recycle electronics in general, Apple says it is building a closed-loop supply chain for its products: recycling materials from the products it makes to make new products in the future. The idea is to dramatically reduce the amount of non-recyclable waste apple's products produce. But with that comes more energy expenditure. Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. “Apple is the only major smartphone manufacturer who has committed to extend its commitment to be 100 per cent renewably powered to its product supply chain,” Greenpeace said in its report in 2017 Apple will devote more energy to dismantling its recycled products than landfills, which require less energy to process waste. Apple is also trying to reduce the amount of energy used by its products in another way - extending their lifespan. As product life is extended, consumers update their devices less often. This means that less product is produced, and with it, less energy is consumed. Apple also makes its products last longer by offering warranties and software updates, allowing older ones to be repaired and supported by the latest software. This is certainly part of Apple's effort to reduce the energy consumption of its products.

Apple's AirPods Max takes a lot of energy throughout its life cycle. It takes a lot of energy to produce and process, but Apple has made a big investment in clean energy and has a long-term plan. However, when mining the metal used to make headphones, it wastes a lot of energy due to the low recovery rate of the metal ore, which has not been well solved. In the process of transportation, like most other companies, they choose to transport raw materials and processed products to China by sea, and then send them to other countries by sea after processing. Then the use of trucks to transport goods in developed countries such as America and Australia were a bit mediocre for a company as big as Apple. Finally, AirPods Max, like most other electronics, is hard to recycle effectively, despite Apple's idea of a closed-loop supply chain. It has not been effectively implemented to increase the number of ingredients apple products can be effectively recycled.

Works Cited

“Manufacturing Facilities.” Business Energy Advisor, https://esource.bizenergyadvisor.com/article/manufacturing-facilities.

Bradshaw, Tim. “Apple Makes ‘Closed Loop’ Recycling Pledge.” Financial Times, Financial Times, 20 Apr. 2017, https://www.ft.com/content/885a89a0-1da3-3f43-9ff9-8bb5c4c4db64.

“Manufacturing Facilities.” Business Energy Advisor, https://esource.bizenergyadvisor.com/article/manufacturing-facilities.

Oremus, Will. “What Really Happens to Airpods When They Die.” Medium, OneZero, 28 May 2019, https://onezero.medium.com/what-really-happens-to-airpods-when-they-die-9ba2fe97b346.

“Airpods Are a Tragedy.” VICE, https://www.vice.com/en/article/neaz3d/airpods-are-a-tragedy.

Barone, Madeline. “Apple Airpods Are a Sustainability Disaster.” TheRising, 29 Feb. 2020, https://therising.co/2019/05/17/apple-airpods-are-a-sustainability-disaster/.

“Airpods Max Teardown.” IFixit, 22 June 2021, https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/AirPods+Max+Teardown/139369.

“Airpods Max - Technical Specifications.” Apple, https://www.apple.com/airpods-max/specs/.

“Mining Industry Profile.” Energy.gov, https://www.energy.gov/eere/amo/mining-industry-profile.

“How Many Gallons of Fuel Does a Container Ship Carry?” Yahoo!, Yahoo!, https://www.yahoo.com/now/many-gallons-fuel-does-container-142703880.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADgUWu_MpDMhKJMqbGbwy0X6sp97gkRnS1k-XYQsBZnAMFQyGbyhRPXPiBnN8fpWW0OodHfB1Cc7KqNxey2J8_RQZptgeSC8ZEZqljotGO3BqI19ZNnnr_bEEFDyFyAPCbpHCZYLsgaC-uTSUbyufkjMpumDPE46v9jn5cJnlje4#:~:text=Ships%20in%20that%20size%20range,3.5%20million%20gallons%20of%20fuel.&text=Most%20ship%20engines%20have%20been,per%20day%20at%20that%20speed.

Henry Kavanaugh

8 November 2021

Dr. Cogdell

DES 40C

1,491 Words

Air Pod Max Life Cycle: Waste Management 

Introduction

While Apple’s Air Pod Max offers a premium listening experience, the product inflicts significant environmental damage. The problem occurs in each product Apple showcases to their loyal subscribers, for the Air Pod Max exemplifies just one example. The issue stems from the planned obsolesce: a design philosophy that keeps consumers reeled into buying endless products. While this has catapulted Apple into a technology giant, it has also created an alarming amount of waste. These disposable products need to be properly recycled, but the company lacks the infrastructure and the economic incentive to sustainably manage their waste. Apple’s Air Pod Max continues Apple’s legacy of creating fragile, unrepairable products with short lifespans. However, most importantly, the product’s use of difficult-to-recycle plastic creates an environmental hazard allowing the earbuds to remain composed in landfills for thousands of years. 

Planned Obsolesce

Apple uses planned obsolesce as a means to grow into the largest technology company in the world. Apple intentionally creates products that fail after a short period (Owen). One reporter describes planned obsolescence as a “strategy that makes products obsolete so that they require frequent replacements (Barone)." A malfunctioning product creates a never-ending demand for the array of new products Apple releases each quarter. The customer returns because they have a family of devices that all complement each other. This design hooks the customer into only buying from Apple, allowing the company to grow exponentially. Their worldwide 

prominence only amplifies this issue for Apple is the world's first trillion-dollar company. Their stock rose 457.74% in the past five years. The Air Pod Max’s physical structure champions this philosophy. 

Designed to Fail

Apple crafts its lithium-ion batteries to fail over time. As the battery life of the headphones age, their ability to hold a charge declines. Apple states that the Air Pod Max's retain a 4.5-hour charge, yet customers report that the number creeps closer to 45 minutes after 18 months (Haskins). As their lithium-ion batteries degrade over time, so will their processor, leading to the customer buying another new set of headphones. The cycle repeats. The company also designs products that are irreparable to physical damage. The stainless steel frame, telescoping arms, and cushioned pads are glued together so it is difficult to repair. The repair site, iFixit, gives an e-repairability score of zero out of ten (Barone). A battery destined to fail and an irreparable body exemplify a product destined to be replaced. This furthers the cycle of planned obsolescence, bearing a hefty price tag for their loyal following and causing significant waste management issues. 

Recycling— Raw Materials

Apple’s inability to properly dispose of raw materials underscores a glaring environmental issue. The components inside the Air Pod Max are tangled and glued together. This adhesion makes identifying each material within the product a challenging task, which most importantly limits e-waste profitability (Oremus). Thus Apple makes minimal effort to properly recycle the contents of the products because the cost of tearing each product apart outweighs the profits of E-waste. Greenpeace estimated only 16 percent of apple’s e-waste was recycled while “much of the rest likely went to landfill or incinerators, or was exported (Greenpeace).” While landfills displace the waste out of public sight, the silicon remains composed within mountains of trash. The timeline of silicon decomposition last over 1,000 years. This fact along with the 16 percent recyclability rate creates a major sustainability problem. Other extreme case examples add to the difficulty in responsible recycling. 

Recycling— Lithium-ion Batteries

Outlier cases display dangers in recycling Apple’s lithium-ion batteries. These batteries, found in the Air Pod Max and other Apple products, have erupted in landfills across the globe. One example from 2014 highlights a landfill fire traced back to a damaged lithium-ion battery. When dropped or broken, the positive and negative parts can breach together and cause a thermal event (Haskins). This causes an explosion and leads to a subsequent fire which rarely causes human harm, but de-incentivizes proper recycling. The Air Pod Max’s combustibility combined with its tightly glued structure makes the product unattractive to waste management companies. 

Waste— Manufacturing

Apple’s troubled background underscores the companies history of fumbling its waste management. Their most predominant issue occurred along the Yangtze River near Wuhan. A local medical examiner reported 3,000 children with “unsafe levels of lead in their blood (Barone).” Toxicology reports traced copper and nickel to one of Apple's smelting factories in the region. The report noted a heavy metal concentration as high as 4270 mg/kg, which is “56 to 1931 times more than the standard amount found in the sediment in the major lakes in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River (Gallagher).” Out of the 3,000 children, 53 were sent to the hospital and their conditions are still monitored for permanent damage. Major waste issued from Apple plants underlines a lack of care for the waste of their products. Moving factories to China offers low labor costs, and weak safety standards that allow this reckless behavior to exist. Since this bombshell report, Apple has made some strides to better its reputation.

Efforts to Resolve Reputation

Apple's Cupertino headquarters has produced a carbon-neutral emission report for the past 3 years. In its yearly environmental report, Apple stated that “96 percent of the electricity used in its global facilities, such as offices and retail stores, came from renewable energy (Apple).”  This number exemplifies their growing environmental effort. Another significant stride is the company's pledge to “reduce its use of conflict minerals and other environmentally damaging resources (Apple).” The company also pledged to make iPhones entirely out of recycled material. If followed through, these pledges could significantly change the environment precedent of technology companies. As an industry leader, their strides would push other technology companies toward sustainable waste management. The problem is that these claims are too far from the current state of affairs. The fact that “2.7 million iPhones are returned per year compared to 72 million sold” displays the bleak reality (Gallagher). PR teams flex self recycling robots and make lofty pledges but fail to address the striking problems, which casts doubt on the reality of these claims. 

Research Holes 

Minimal information prohibited writing about the waste involved in transportation and maintenance. Common knowledge suggests that the global supply chain produces copious amounts of C02 gasses. This is especially true considering Apple's materials are manufactured in Asia, then sent internationally for retail. Freight ships and cargo planes distribute environmentally damaging exhaust into the atmosphere. The product's tightly glued body prohibits easy maintenance. Once the headphones physically break, buying a new pair is suggested over fixing the problem. This limits information on the amount of waste used in the maintenance of the Air Pod Max.

Conclusion

Apple’s Air Pod max exemplifies the company’s flawed design philosophy. Planned obsolesces equates to significant environmental waste. While the company uses PR to project an environmentally friendly narrative, there is simply no infrastructure or economic incentive to recycle their waste. Thus products like the Air Pod Max lie in landfills enclosing their dangerous lithium-ion batteries, timed to spontaneously combust. Apple’s size and influence amplify its waste management choices. Not only is their footprint significant, but their actions set a precedent for technology companies worldwide.

Works Cited 

Barone, Madeline. “Apple AirPods Are a Sustainability Disaster.” Therising.co, 17 May 2019, therising.co/2019/05/17/apple-airpods-are-a-sustainability-disaster/. Accessed 26 May 2021.

Clover, Juli. “AirPods: Our Complete Guide to Apple’s Wireless Earphones.” Macrumors.com, 23 July 2020, www.macrumors.com/guide/airpods/. Accessed 26 May 2021.

Gallagher, William. “Apple AirPods Max Are Made in Vietnam, but Still by Chinese Firms.” AppleInsider, 10 Dec. 2020, appleinsider.com/articles/20/12/10/apple-airpods- max-are-made-in-vietnam-but-still-by-chinese-firms. Accessed 26 May 2021.

G.P.J. Dijkema, M.A. Reuter. “Dealing with complexity in material cycle simulation and design” Comp. Chem. Eng., 23 (1999), pp. S795-798

Haskins, Caroline. “AirPods Are a Tragedy.” Www.vice.com, 6 May 2019, www.vice.com/en/ article/neaz3d/airpods-are-a-tragedy. Accessed 26 May 2021.

Minard, Anna. “Design Life-Cycle.” Design Life-Cycle, 19 Nov. 2019, www.designlife- cycle.com/apple-earpods. Accessed 26 May 2021.

Oremus, Will. “What Really Happens to AirPods When They Die.” Medium, 28 May 2019, onezero.medium.com/what-really-happens-to-airpods-when-they-die-9ba2fe97b346. Accessed 26 May 2021.

“The Engineering inside Wireless Earbuds || How Do Wireless Earbuds and Audio Codecs Work?” Www.youtube.com, Branch Education, 12 Dec. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZKNOKHpqE4. Accessed 26 May 2021.

 apple.com https://www.apple.com/shop/trade-in

https://images.apple.com/environment/pdf/Apple_Environmental_Responsibility_Report_2017.pdf

https://www.ft.com/content/885a89a0-1da3-3f43-9ff9-8bb5c4c4db64