Apple salvaged 61 million pounds of recyclable materials in 2015

During its fiscal 2015, Apple managed to recover over 61 million pounds of reusable material out of the almost 90 million pounds in electronics it took in through its recycling programs, according to the company's most recent Environmental Responsibility Report.

The vast majority of reclaimed material was steel, more than 23 million pounds, the report said. This was followed by over 13 million pounds of plastics, and nearly 12 million pounds of glass.

Other materials came in much smaller quantities, even fourth-place aluminum, of which Apple recovered 4.5 million pounds.

The company also took in precious minerals, including 2,204 pounds of gold, and 6,612 pounds of silver. The gold alone was worth approximately $43 million, while the silver amounted to $1.7 million.

Apple put a spotlight on recycling at its March 21 event. There it showed off "Liam," a robot designed to tear apart its devices as efficiently as possible — both for recycling materials and for stripping out potentially dangerous chemicals.