3 ms·

Reuse is better than recycling, so what's the problem?

djsumdog 6y ago
Their contract may have not allowed it .. which shows how shitty the contract was. Apple doesn't care about preventing environmental damage. Fixing/Refubing and selling is WAY better for the planet than trying to extract all the components, melt them down, and build new product. This disposable phone world and infinite growth economy has got to stop.
- PakG1 6y ago
  Easier to do that if software requirements don't keep growing. If people were satisfied with lower resolution photos and videos, lower-quality graphics in mobile games, etc, etc, they'd find it much harder to release newer models and have such great sales numbers.
  - dasil003 6y ago
    This is a complete non-sequitur and a terrible apologist argument for a bad practice. Apple is literally stopping their phones from being recycled to a willing customer base. If there was no market for those phones then this wouldn't be an issue. Also, software is, and always has been, written to satisfy the capabilities of the hardware. If the market decides to stop upgrading, software will continue to work.
    - tonywastaken 6y ago
      Do you think these devices were sold disclosing that Apple themselves found them to be not worthy of repair? Don't think so. Of course there is a market for cheaper Apple products. There is never a market for Apple products that catch fire in your pocket.
- Chris2048 6y ago
  IT's not clear to me what the difference is. What exactly are they recycling, and how. I can personally see how refurb/debugging an old iPad might be harder then just replacing all the cheaper parts (caps, PCBs, cheaper ICs) and retesting more expensive components; especially at scale. Also, even if they are melting them down and literally recasting them: ALU has pretty good recasting credentials.
- RandallBrown 6y ago
  Apple does fix and refurbish their phones. Presumably the phones sent to this recycler were deemed too broken to refurbish (at least to Apple's standards.)
  - strbean 6y ago
    So 100% of iPhones older than the X are too broken to refurbish? That does not check out.

Their contract may have not allowed it .. which shows how shitty the contract was. Apple doesn't care about preventing environmental damage. Fixing/Refubing and selling is WAY better for the planet than trying to extract all the components, melt them down, and build new product. This disposable phone world and infinite growth economy has got to stop.

PakG1 6y ago
Easier to do that if software requirements don't keep growing. If people were satisfied with lower resolution photos and videos, lower-quality graphics in mobile games, etc, etc, they'd find it much harder to release newer models and have such great sales numbers.
- dasil003 6y ago
  This is a complete non-sequitur and a terrible apologist argument for a bad practice. Apple is literally stopping their phones from being recycled to a willing customer base. If there was no market for those phones then this wouldn't be an issue. Also, software is, and always has been, written to satisfy the capabilities of the hardware. If the market decides to stop upgrading, software will continue to work.
  - tonywastaken 6y ago
    Do you think these devices were sold disclosing that Apple themselves found them to be not worthy of repair? Don't think so. Of course there is a market for cheaper Apple products. There is never a market for Apple products that catch fire in your pocket.
Chris2048 6y ago
IT's not clear to me what the difference is. What exactly are they recycling, and how. I can personally see how refurb/debugging an old iPad might be harder then just replacing all the cheaper parts (caps, PCBs, cheaper ICs) and retesting more expensive components; especially at scale. Also, even if they are melting them down and literally recasting them: ALU has pretty good recasting credentials.
RandallBrown 6y ago
Apple does fix and refurbish their phones. Presumably the phones sent to this recycler were deemed too broken to refurbish (at least to Apple's standards.)
- strbean 6y ago
  So 100% of iPhones older than the X are too broken to refurbish? That does not check out.