Google Using Recycled Materials In All Of Its “Made By Google Products”
Google announced that it has achieved one of its goals of using recycled materials in all of its Made By Google products. The company had pledged to achieve the goal by 2022 but have announced that they have achieved it early, The Verge reported. According to Google sustainability systems architect David Bourne, all the new Pixel and Nest products are now designed with recycled materials. That’s not to say its products are made entirely of recycled materials, but they at least include recycled materials somewhere in the product.
Elaborating on the use of recycled materials in this year’s Made by Google hardware, the company notes that the back housing of the Pixel 5 is made with 100% recycled aluminum, the new Nest Audio contains 70 percent recycled plastics, and the trim plate of the Nest Thermostat is made of 75 percent post-consumer recycled plastic. Since Google has already achieved last year’s sustainability goal ahead of schedule, it has now updated its original commitment.
As per the blog post, Google now plans to use recycled or renewable material in at least 50 per cent of all plastic used across all its hardware products by 2025. To achieve this new goal, the company plans to prioritize recycled plastics wherever possible. Additionally, the company plans to achieve UL 2799 Zero Waste to Landfill certification at all final assembly manufacturing sites by 2022. This certification will ensure that a majority of waste from those manufacturing sites is recycled.
“Google’s focus on incorporating recycled materials in our hardware design not only supports our sustainability commitments but also enables our supply chain partners to confidently invest in and develop these types of materials so that the wider consumer electronics industry can use them too,” Bourne said in a statement. The company said in September it would run its operations carbon-free by 2030 and that it had purchased enough carbon offsets to cancel out the company’s carbon dioxide emissions since its founding in 1998. And starting Monday, it will continue to keep “all shipping of Made by Google hardware to and from direct customers 100 per cent carbon neutral.”
Furthermore, the company plans to make all of its product packaging plastic-free and recyclable by 2025. Google has been working towards this goal since 2016, but its product packaging still uses a fair amount of plastics. The company now plans to look for recyclable alternatives to help it reach its sustainability goals while still protecting the products in transit.
It further said of working toward achieving zero-waste-to-landfill certification at all of its final assembly manufacturing sites by 2022, meaning the majority of waste from those operations will be recycled, stated The Verge.