Apple’s all-out environmental PR push continues on with the announcement of free recycling of all used Apple devices. It’s yet another bid to increase Apple’s reliance on renewable energy sources and help preserve the environment by keeping the electronics out of landfills because of the toxins in them.
According to an Associated Press report Monday, Apple has confirmed that it will take back all its used devices for recycling, completely free of charge, in all of its retail outlets – globally.
Although the company’s existing Recycling program hands out gift cards in exchange for used iPhones and iPods still in good enough condition to be resold (as determined by PowerON), this won’t be the case with recycled products that have little or no resale value…
Any iPad, iPhone, Mac or PC — desktop or notebook — may qualify for reuse or free recycling, states the firm. Note that in the past seven years alone, Apple has sold more than an astounding one billion iPhones, iPods, iPads and Macs.
Greenpeace has estimated that tech gadgets and online services accounted for about two percent of worldwide emissions in 2012, roughly the same as the airline industry.
“At no cost to you, send us your iPod or any mobile phone by mail, and we’ll recycle it for you,” reads a notice on Apple’s website. And if a product has no monetary value, “we can recycle it responsibly at no cost to you.”
And how does Apple recycle responsibly?
According to a FAQ on Apple’s website:
When you recycle with Apple, your used equipment is disassembled, and key components that can be reused are removed. Glass and metal can be reprocessed for use in new products.
A majority of the plastics can be pelletized into a raw secondary material. With materials reprocessing and component reuse, Apple often achieves a 90 percent recovery rate by weight of the original product.
On the difference between “reuse” and “recycling”:
Equipment may qualify for reuse if it has monetary value and can be resold in the secondary electronics market. Equipment qualifies for recycling if it does not have monetary value; it will be dismantled so that materials such as metals, plastics, and glass can be collected for use in the manufacturing of new products, reducing the need to mine raw materials.
Apple also partners with Sims Recycling Solutions to recycle responsibly computers and displays from any manufacturer. You’ll need to call 800-966-4135 to receive a free prepaid shipping label, pack up your equipment using your own box and send it off.
According to The Associated Press, all of Apple’s 420 retails stores in the United States and around the world will now recycle any Apple product at no cost.
The new initiative, timed to coincide with Tuesday’s annual celebration of Earth Day, strives to position Apple as an environmental steward amid the technological whirlwind of gadgets and Internet services that have been drawing more electricity from power plants that primarily run on natural gas and coal.
“Every Apple Retail Store will now take back Apple products for free, responsible recycling,” confirms a line on Apple’s Environmental Responsibility microsite.
We’ve also set up recycling programs in cities and college campuses in 95 percent of the countries where our products are sold, diverting more than 421 million pounds of equipment from landfills since 1994.
In regions where we don’t have take‑back programs with physical drop‑off/pickup locations, we arrange for pickup, transport, and environmentally sound recycling of electronics.
It’s interesting that over 90 percent of materials it collects for recycling is from gadgets other than its own.
Since October 2002, the firm’s made it easy for residents of the city of Cupertino to recycle their unwanted gear free at its recycling collection facility.
According to Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environmental initiatives, Apple strives to “use all our innovation and all of our expertise to make the planet more secure and make the environment better.”
Earlier this morning, Wired posted a lengthy piece detailing Apple’s energy and environment friendly data and solar farm located in the Nevada desert.
Ahead of its Earth Day celebrations planned for tomorrow, Apple also published a new ‘Better’ video narrated by Tim Cook himself, updated its Environmental Responsibility microsite with latest information on its environmental strides and made available a previously private October video which highlights its monstrous Campus 2 project, also known as iSpaceship.