"Battery technology and recycling alone will not save the electric mobility transition from future cobalt shortages" https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29022-z
Nothing drives a corporation to recycle and reuse more than the shortage of raw materials.
They don't mention cobalt shortage at all. Making it sound like the environment is their primary goal.
I care about effects more than motivations.
The real problem with secret economic motivations is when they either prevent or undermine meaningful effort. But Apple is enacting meaningful effort here. It's good.
None of this matters really.
If I get someone to do the right thing, for the wrong reasons, then score one for me!
greenwash
verb, transitive. (a) To mislead (the public) or counter (public or media concerns) by falsely representing a person, company, product, etc., as being environmentally responsible; (b) to misrepresent (a company, its operations, etc.) as environmentally responsible.
The earliest source the OED found was in 1989, in The Daily Telegraph (London).
Of course 2025 isn't very far away so it is probably only a small impact.