The Mass Balance Loophole: Why Apple’s 100% Recycled Cobalt Promise Isn’t What It Seems
"Apple's commitment is to use 100 percent recycled cobalt, using mass balance allocation , in all Apple-designed batteries by 2025." - Apple
Apple’s promise of 100% recycled cobalt sounds like genuine progress toward ending the destruction caused by conflict mining. It feels like the shift we’ve been waiting for—until you read the one line in the fine print that actually matters.
Apple's Recycled Materials Detail They Hope Your Miss
Apple’s transparency depends entirely on you not noticing how they define “recycled.” In reality, they are still relying on newly mined cobalt—and the human cost that comes with it.
They admit this themselves, but only in the very last line of their announcement:
“Apple’s commitment is to use 100 percent recycled cobalt, using mass balance allocation , in all Apple-designed batteries by 2025.”
That phrase— mass balance —is the loophole that changes everything.
Unfortunately for Apple, I recognised it immediately, since “Better Cotton” also use mass balance allocation for their “better cotton” (see this post)
How Mass Balance Works (The Accounting Trick)
Mass balance is an accounting method, not a physical guarantee of what is inside your phone. Here is how it works:
The Mix: Recycled cobalt and newly mined cobalt are sent into the same supply chain and physically mixed together. Once they are pooled, you can’t separate them.
The Allocation: Apple tracks the mass of the recycled cobalt they bought. That number is what gets “allocated” to their products on paper.
The Disconnect: They aren’t tracking where the actual atoms go. They are only tracking the weight that entered the system.
Because of this, they aren’t actually tracking whether conflict-sourced cobalt enters the supply either. If Apple buys 10 tons of recycled cobalt and mixes it with 90 tons of newly mined cobalt, they can claim exactly 10 tons worth of “100% recycled” product—even if your specific iPhone contains 0g of recycled material.
Why the Math Doesn't Add Up Of Apple's Recycled Materials
Apple points to their trade-in programs and their disassembly robot, Daisy, as proof of their circular economy. But when you look at the numbers, it’s impossible for these programs to cover their production.
Daisy’s Output: Since 2019, Daisy has recovered 11,000kg of cobalt.
The Demand: A single iPhone contains about 8g of cobalt. Apple sold an estimated 37 million iPhone 16 units in the first weekend of pre-sales alone.
The Gap: That’s 296,000kg of cobalt needed for one weekend. Daisy’s five-year total covers less than 4% of that.
Apple isn’t using their own recycled batteries. They are simply buying “recycled” credits from the open market.
I’m looking into this specifically further. If you have any tips please send me a DM.
The Reality of the "100% Recycled" Label
This is why the claim feels so misleading.
People buy these phones feeling better about their choice, believing they are helping shift the mining industry toward something more humane.
But because mass balance treats all cobalt as one shared supply, the reality is a lottery:
Your iPhone 15 might have actual recycled cobalt.
Your iPhone 16 might be a mix.
Your iPhone 17 could be straight-up conventional, newly mined cobalt.
Depending on the “daily mix,” all three carry the same label because the accounting adds up, even if the physical reality doesn’t.
A System of Credits, Not Change
In their 2025 Progress Report , Apple noted that 76% of the cobalt in their products came from certified recycled sources “on a mass balance basis.”
This confirms they aren’t closing a loop; they are buying their way to a percentage. While they claim to be “dedicated to people and the planet,” they continue to use a system that obscures the truth. Until they make a commitment to ending the use of newly mined minerals physically—not just on a balance sheet—the mining communities and the environment continue to pay the price.
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