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Look up e-waste in general and you'll find more than enough to read.. The difficulty is always in chasing these companies around following every step and verif

Look up e-waste in general and you'll find more than enough to read.. The difficulty is always in chasing these companies around following every step and verifying they actually do as they claim. Typically, unfortunately, and especially where expenses without profits are concerned, they don't. The other problem is now they've made the product this much more difficult to recycle and far more toxic. Somehow, however it happens, huge volumes of Apple's incredibly popular products continue to end up discarded in places where they should not be, and when the "recyclers" get them, the glue, especially the glued batteries and glass, will be a big nasty problem. NatGeo has done a few programs, and this larger feature discusses the big picture: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/01/high-tech-trash/carroll-text http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/01/high-tech-trash/ca... This photo gets a lot of circulation when the topic of e-waste comes up, largely because of the recognizable brand. http://marketingheart.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/waste-china.jpg http://marketingheart.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/waste-chin... To be fair nobody knows how the keyboard got there. But it makes a point, it's there, what happens next..?

taligent 14y ago
We aren't talking about e-waste in general. We are talking specifically about Apple. What evidence do you have that Apple is knowingly letting children be exposed to toxic materials. It's a HUGE claim to make.
- droithomme 14y ago
  Aside from e-waste, "Apple is knowingly letting children be exposed to toxic materials" was established with the iPhone screen cleaning story, where hexyl hydride, which evaporates faster than alcohol but is extremely toxic, had to be used to shave mere seconds off the assembly line speed. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/07/chinese-workers-sickness-hexane-apple-iphone http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/07/chinese-workers-... The Apple factories are notorious for hiring underage workers. http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-20032074-247.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-20032074-247.html These findings have been covered in Apple's shareholder report, so it's not like they can be contested. http://education-for-solidarity.blogspot.com/2012/01/apple-report-reveals-child-labour.html http://education-for-solidarity.blogspot.com/2012/01/apple-r... > Apple found more than 91 children working at its suppliers last year, nine times as many as the previous year, according to its annual report on its manufacturers. > The US company has also acknowledged for the first time that 137 workers were poisoned at a Chinese firm making its products and said less than a third of the facilities it audited were complying with its code on working hours.
  - eridius 14y ago
    There's no such thing as an "Apple factory". Apple doesn't own factories. And Foxconn makes products for more companies than just Apple.

taligent 14y ago

We aren't talking about e-waste in general. We are talking specifically about Apple. What evidence do you have that Apple is knowingly letting children be exposed to toxic materials. It's a HUGE claim to make.

droithomme 14y ago
Aside from e-waste, "Apple is knowingly letting children be exposed to toxic materials" was established with the iPhone screen cleaning story, where hexyl hydride, which evaporates faster than alcohol but is extremely toxic, had to be used to shave mere seconds off the assembly line speed. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/07/chinese-workers-sickness-hexane-apple-iphone http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/07/chinese-workers-... The Apple factories are notorious for hiring underage workers. http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-20032074-247.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-20032074-247.html These findings have been covered in Apple's shareholder report, so it's not like they can be contested. http://education-for-solidarity.blogspot.com/2012/01/apple-report-reveals-child-labour.html http://education-for-solidarity.blogspot.com/2012/01/apple-r... > Apple found more than 91 children working at its suppliers last year, nine times as many as the previous year, according to its annual report on its manufacturers. > The US company has also acknowledged for the first time that 137 workers were poisoned at a Chinese firm making its products and said less than a third of the facilities it audited were complying with its code on working hours.
- eridius 14y ago
  There's no such thing as an "Apple factory". Apple doesn't own factories. And Foxconn makes products for more companies than just Apple.