Apple sues GEEP for not shredding reusable iPhones | Hacker News Reader

Apple sues GEEP for not shredding reusable iPhones

washingtonpost.com

29 pointsquyleanh8 comments

So X pays Y for a service (shredding devices). Y takes the cash, doesn't complete the service and flogs the devices instead. Y hasn't bought the devices and doesn't own them.

> But many recyclers have figured out ways to erase the phones of all their data so that they can be resold.

Great, I trust that (sarc.)

Slam dunk for Apple. Arguments about the environment aside, seems like a breach of contract, open shut.

Also if people cared about the environment they wouldn't be using a phone with a glued-in battery in the first place. So check your phone (if you even have one, phones are so 2015) and your privilege.

Putting responsibility on consumers, end-users, and regular people is just stupid.

Looks how COVID is playing out in the western world where our governments are making "suggestions" and preaching "personal responsibility".

If people cared about the environment they would vote in governments that would regulate devices that don't have removable batteries.

what a waste from apple. Now don't claim you are environmental friendly or bla bla bla. Why apple doesn't get sued for this :/

> Rosenstock wrote [..], adding that no material from Apple products ever makes it to a landfill after being recycled.

> Rosenstock won’t say how much of a recycled iPhone gets reused.

Well which is it? Does 100% get re-used, or does he not want to say what % gets re-used? Can PR no longer keep their lies straight?

> Recyclers say Apple isn’t alone [..] Recyclers who declined to be named because they have confidentiality agreements with consumer electronics companies

"We contractually barred anyone else from informing you, but trust us our recycling is excellent."

You're conflating reuse with recycling. Some parts are tested and reused outright (such as logic boards), while the rest is shredded and recycled (aluminum, rare earths, glass, precious metals, etc).

Under Apple ‘Reuse and Recycle’ program contracts stipulate shredding _everything_ to bits.

>Li Tong, one of Apple’s contractors in Hong Kong, says that “Shredding components takes more energy than repurposing.” She works and advises her other customers on how to repurpose their discarded tech into new tech, but Apple chooses to discard and destroy all of their components.

They even boasted about it in advertisements, and people bought it as environmentally friendly.

https://grist.org/business-technology/apples-recycling-robot...

>When Apple destroys your old device, plenty of perfectly functional computer processing chips and cameras that could live on ... get melted down. Screens that could have replaced cracked ones, lending a few years of life to an older phone, are pulverized, and the trace amounts of the minerals that make them work are lost as so much dust.

>https://web.archive.org/web/20160220010603/https://www.bloom...

>The plant is one of a handful around the world, chosen by Apple Inc. to grind up and recycle its iconic phones. And just as the companies that manufacture the handsets are subject to strict standards and secrecy, the same applies in reverse for their disassembly, right down to weighing the shreds, to make sure nothing is lost.

>Apple pays for the service and owns every gram, from the used phone at the start to the pile of dust at the end, said Linda Li, chief strategy officer for Li Tong.

"pile of dust at the end". Apple is reusing "reaching 85 percent, by weight" metals used in its products.

So long for being environment-friendly.

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