Apple to stop including charger and headphones with iPhones in bid to cut carbon emissions

Apple launched its new iPhone 12 at a virtual event on Tuesday

Apple customers will have to pay extra for a charging adapter and headphones when buying the new iPhone as the company will no longer provide them in the box, it confirmed during a virtual event showing off its latest line of devices. 

The new phones, beginning at £699, will come with a Lightning-to-USB C-cable. A compatible adapter bought directly from Apple will cost £29.95, and the EarPods and additional £29.

Apple claimed it was removing the accessories because it believed most customers either have an old pair of EarPods or use their own wireless buds and charging device when they buy a new phone.  The company will also stop bundling the accessories with previous models of the iPhone.

It estimated that there were already 700m sets of EarPods and 2bn Apple power adapters in the world, in addition to the many third party alternatives. 

Removing the wall adapter and headphones will avoid the unnecessary mining and use of precious materials, it said. It will also allow for smaller and lighter iPhone boxes, which means it can increase the boxes on each shipping pallet by 70pc and ultimately reduce carbon emissions in its global logistics chain. 

According to a recent European Commission study, many people feel they have too many smartphone chargers in our homes, and 40pc who received a new charger with a new phone would rather just use one they already have. 

The Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max will is compatible with 5G

The announcement caused a stir on Twitter, with some critics claiming it was "madness" to expect people to pay for accessories that were necessary for the phone to function properly. Others claimed it was exploiting climate change for a marketing "gimmick".

Technology giants have been upping their efforts to reduce their carbon footprint. Apple said it is committed to becoming carbon neutral across its entire business, manufacturing supply chain, and product life-cycle by 2030.

Google claims to have eliminated its carbon footprint by purchasing carbon offsets (often planting trees). It is aiming to run all of its datacentres and offices on carbon free energy by 2030. Microsoft has plans to become carbon negative by the same date.

Kate Brandt, it’s chief sustainability officer told the Telegraph this year that the industry "needed to do more" to reduce their impact.