Apple requires grinding technology while processing

Sort garbage before shredding in the ECS Refining plant in the suburbs of Dallas. Photo: ECS Refining



Apple is positioning itself as a responsible company that cares for the environment and handles parts for recycling. At the same time, the corporation leads an implacable battle with third-party repair shops and private engineers who invade Apple's food chain. Unscrupulous entrepreneurs are fixing the technology, selecting Apple customers, making it difficult to sell new components, new smartphones and laptops. The company believes that only she has the right to repair her equipment. Only in the corporate center, the user will receive the proper quality of service, whether he wants to or not.



Now it turned out that these two principles - a declaration on the protection of nature and control over their components for the sake of money - came into conflict. Won the money.



Just two days ago, Apple published the Environmental Responsibility Report , a report on outstanding waste recycling and environmental protection efforts. The company has repeatedly distributed PR materials about what innovations it uses for this. For example, it allegedly collects old iPhones and iPads, which are returned to stores, disassembles them, melts individual components and smelts about 30 milligrams of gold from each phone, which ultimately corresponds to 1 ton of gold. None of this article is true.

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In another story, Apple told about a special robot Liam , which is able to disassemble 1.2 million "iPhones" per year. Also pure PR.



And the latest Apple tale appeared just in the last Environmental Responsibility Report. There, the company announced a plan to produce an iPhone entirely from recycled materials such as aluminum, copper, tin and tungsten. However, this time the company honestly admitted that it has no idea how to implement such a plan: “We really did something that we rarely do: we announced a goal before we fully figured out how to achieve it,” said Lisa Jackson ( Lisa Jackson), Apple's vice president of environmental and social policy. Well, at least some piece of truth.



Reality is far from these marketing tales.



In reality, the vast majority of Apple technology goes into recycling to other companies that specialize in processing, and Apple pays them for it. She has to pay, because the law obliges the company to recycle electronic garbage in the volume in which it sells it. How many namusoril - so much removed for themselves. Similar legislation applies in many other countries. At the same time, it is not necessary to dispose of your own smartphones, you can collect any electronics from other companies, the main thing is to observe the proportions in volume.



The editors of Motherboard, upon request in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, received documents that indicate the true practice of recycling old Apple technology. They convincingly show that Apple directly prohibits contractors from using the most environmentally friendly recycling methods. Apple requires the technology to be completely crushed . In no case can not remove individual components, warns Apple. “No reuse. No resale, ”the report says for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.







Documents from Missouri, North Carolina, Illinois, Maryland, Oklahoma, Washington, Michigan and Wisconsin say the same thing - everywhere Apple requires processing companies to crush the equipment, not allowing to save any separate parts.



It follows from the documents that Apple is working with three national waste recycling companies in the United States — SIMS Recycling Solutions, ECS Refining and Metech Recycling. In addition, Apple has contracts with Dynamic Recycling and Advanced Technology Recycling to collect e-waste for further processing by other companies. Separate agreement with Call2recycle to recycle old batteries that Apple collects in its retail stores. Since all of these firms operate under a contract with Apple, the latter can set conditions for them under the terms of processing.



Even when Apple phones go to the trash - Apple keeps control of them. And not only on their phones. We emphasize again that these draconian recycling rules apply not only to Apple technology, but to all the garbage that has been collected on its order in accordance with the obligations on recycling electronics. For example, here is what is collected for Apple in Illinois.







By weight there are most televisions, printers, monitors and computers. All this should be crushed into a crumb, it is forbidden to get components. Workers in the factory manually crush expensive “retina”, which cost hundreds of dollars even in a broken condition .







Such a hypocritical concern for the environment - only in words and in press releases.



Similar policies from other manufacturers. In words, they care about nature, but in fact they only think about profit.