Indeed. I would love to see all the specialised equipment they've designed.
Sorry, that's not true at all. When they ship a couple hundred million phones a year its an impactful improvement regardless of where else the tech goes. Having said that, don't you think these recycling contractors are using that knowledge for other customers?
Is it really that hard to say that its great that such a large vendor is working so hard at these goals, good on them? There are plenty of things to criticize about Apple, but these changes represent real corporate goals and serious investment.
Maybe? It really depends on how much Apple is willing to punish its contractors for not protecting its IP.
Apple sells a lot of kit for a tech company, but it is a drop in the bucket of the broader economy... even a hundred million phones.
They "did their part" in a way that 99% of other companies won't be able to.
They've reduced waste more than most users on this site--including you and me--combined. But that's "empty virtue signaling" because they didn't hand their competitors a silver spoon? That term really has lost all meaning.
reduce (n) - To bring down, as in extent, amount, or degree; diminish. synonym: decrease.
This is the worst kind of pedantic because it's also wrong. They have reduced waste production and they recycle existing waste. How is that not reducing waste?
Recycling literally reduces the quantity of waste.
> the drop in the bucket they've "reduced" can't be repeated elsewhere
You're Zeno's arrowing a big problem by dismissing incremental progress.
This is quite a sentence.
Setting aside the secrecy assertion, don't we want companies to innovate and use reduced eco-footprint as a marketing advantage? Companies are profit motivated and must be to survive. Don't we want other companies to look at Apple and see the market goodwill fostered by eco-friendly practices and strive to emulate that? Or strive to create even better ways of doing things?
Throwing stones at environmental innovation just seems a counter-productive reaction.
I am definitely glad to see they're not using primary cobalt and instead using only recycled, though, and think that part is praiseworthy.
They're creating a culture of sustainability. That means not ignoring the small stuff just because it's small. And cutting plastic waste by the truck every few hours [1] is not small.
[1] 26,500 iPhones' plastic covers saved every hour
[a] 232.2mm iPhones shipped in 2022 https://www.businessofapps.com/data/apple-statistics/
Printers that print directly to boxes or products without labels are already commonly available and commonly used.