Google will include recycled materials in all own products by 2022

Google has vowed to use recycled materials in all products from its main hardware line by 2022.

The company made the pledge.

The pledge to sustainability will be enforced across its Made by Google range, which includes the likes of the Pixel smartphone, the Google Home speaker, and Pixelbook laptop.

Starting in 2022, 100% of Made by Google products will include recycled materials "with a drive to maximise recycled content wherever possible", the tech giant said.

By 2020, 100% of all shipments going to or from customers will also be carbon neutral, after the company managed to cut its carbon emissions for product shipments down by 40% from 2017 to 2018.

"We're always working to do more, faster," said, Anna Meegan head of sustainability for consumer hardware at Google.

"But today we're laying the foundation for what we believe will be a way of doing business that commits to building better products better."

The firm already allows people to recycle old Google products through a recycling programme, but it's currently limited to the US.

Google's move follows similar action by Apple, which recently announced an expansion of its own environmental programmes.

In April, the iPhone maker said its robots, each known as Daisy, were now capable of taking apart 1.2 million devices a year as part of processes to recover materials for re-use.

Apple claims the robots are now able to disassemble 15 different iPhone models at a rate of 200 an hour and 100% recycles tin was now a key component in the circuit boards of 11 different products.