The iPhone will no longer include a power adapter or EarPods in the box

iPhone 12 box
iPhone 12 box (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

  • Apple has announced the iPhone will no longer include a power adapter in the box.
  • The company is also removing EarPods from the box as well.
  • Each iPhone will now come with a USB-C to Lightning cable.

Today, Apple officially announced the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and HomePod mini. In addition to all of the things Apple is adding to its new lineup of iPhones, it also announced that it would be removing a couple of things as well.

During the iPhone 12 announcement Lisa Jackson, Apple's Vice President of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, took to the top of the roof at Apple Park to announce that the company is removing the power adapter and EarPods from the iPhone packaging.

Apple is also removing the power adapter and EarPods from iPhone packaging, further reducing carbon emissions and avoiding the mining and use of precious materials, which enables smaller and lighter packaging, and allows for 70 percent more boxes to be shipped on a pallet.

Jackson says that the impact of this change will equate to 450,000 cars being removed from the road each year.

Taken altogether, these changes will cut over 2 million metric tons of carbon emissions annually, equivalent to removing nearly 450,000 cars from the road per year.

Apple has already removed the power adapter from the Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE boxes when they began selling back in September, so it was expected that the company would do the same for its iPhone lineup.

You can check out the full announcement about Apple's environmental efforts with the iPhone 12 in their press release below:

Today, Apple is carbon neutral for global corporate operations, and by 2030, plans to have net zero climate impact across the entire business, which includes manufacturing supply chains and all product life cycles. This means that every Apple device sold, from material collection, component manufacturing, assembly, transport, customer use, charging, all the way through recycling and material recovery, will be 100 percent carbon neutral. iPhone 12 models were designed with the environment in mind. For the first time, iPhone 12 models will utilize 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets, including the new camera, Taptic Engine, and MagSafe, as well as Apple's MagSafe accessories. Apple is also removing the power adapter and EarPods from iPhone packaging, further reducing carbon emissions and avoiding the mining and use of precious materials, which enables smaller and lighter packaging, and allows for 70 percent more boxes to be shipped on a pallet. Taken altogether, these changes will cut over 2 million metric tons of carbon emissions annually, equivalent to removing nearly 450,000 cars from the road per year.

Joe Wituschek
Contributor

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.