Apple Requires Recyclers to Shred Salvageable iPhones and MacBooks

Does Apple’s recycling policy actually contradict its environmentally-charged morale?

Apple has progressively tried to paint a picture of itself as being a world leader in environmentally sound practices. In fact, earlier this week the company published its most recent Environmental Responsibility Report for 2017, showing that it continues to take major strides to advance a myriad of environmentally friendly initiatives, while also taking the opportunity to announce that it will soon put an end to mining the Earth for metals and minerals to manufacture new products — promising, instead, to slowly phase into relying entirely on recycled materials to make future gadgets.

While it may appear that Apple is on track to “revolutionize the recycling industry,” though, a new report that was also published this week by Motherboard tells a slightly different story about the Cupertino-company’s behind-the-scenes stance on undermining the recycling industry and its many attempts to prolong the life of Apple products, including iPhones and MacBooks.

In essence, a trove of documents that were obtained by Motherboard via a routine Freedom of Information Request reveal that while Apple’s lofty new plan entails it will put extra pressure on its recycling partners to “innovate” i.e. find new ways to utilize old materials in the development of new products)\. The company’s current practices actually prevent its recycling partners from traveling the most environmentally sound route, which would be to try and salvage as many old iPhones, MacBooks, etc. as possible.

Apple’s current practices, according to the report, involve forcing its 3rd party recycling partners to shred iPhones and MacBooks into “tiny shards metal and glass,” as opposed to salvaging any usable components from them for refurbishing or reuse.

“Materials are manually and mechanically disassembled and shredded into commodity-sized fractions of metals, plastics, and glass,” wrote John Yeider, manager of operations for Apple’s recycling program, in a 2013 report to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. “All hard drives are shredded in confetti-sized pieces. The pieces are then sorted into commodities grade materials. After sorting, the materials are sold and used for production stock in new products. No reuse. No parts harvesting. No resale.”

Worth noting is that Apple, in effect, is not a recycling entity — but merely a consumer electronics manufacturer and therefore, the company outsources most of its recycling work to 3rd party entities. By law, however, Apple is required to recycle “thousands of tons of electronics” per year, as pursuant with a varying range of state-specific guidelines that are determined based on the amount of new products sold each year in that state.

Apple works with a myriad of 3rd party recycling partners, including SIMS Recycling Solutions, ECS Refining, and Metech Recycling, among a number of other entities in various states, who are collectively responsible for handling these recycling projects at Apple’s behest, albeit to the tune that the company dictates. Therefore, if Apple says to “shred this heap of otherwise salvageable devices” into “shards of metal and glass,” the recycling partners — being contracted by Apple — are beholden to those requests.

“Apple talks about responsibly recycling their own products, and they may in fact do a good job with that when they get their devices back,” said John Bumstead, who restores MacBook computers for resale, regarding Apple’s super-sophisticated Liam iPhone dismantling robots. “But Apple only receives back a small percentage of what they sell.”

“All the manufacturers talk about sustainability, but when it comes down to it, their security and their brand is way more important than how the material is recycled,” Bumstead added.

[Via Motherboard]