(MENAFN) Apple claims to be a sustainable company that is all about 'green' and the environment, and is now offering to pick up old I-phones in return for the new I-phone 12. "If it's in good shape, we'll help it go to a new owner," is one of their slogans on the website, the other being; "if not, we'll send it to our recycling partner, so we can save more precious materials and take less from the earth."
But now people are questioning their sincerity.
Previously this year, Apple filed a lawsuit against GEEP Canada, a recycling company it had employed to destroy and recycle old devices. But after some investigations, Apple found out that the employees of the company had been reselling the devices, deciding they were in "good shape" instead of actually recycling them, like it was agreed upon.
Apple's dispute with GEEP is definitely justified if those claims are correct. But users who entrusted Apple to manage their used devices in an environmentally friendly way are angry as well, for new details of the case have been revealed, and most people in the tech world protested. In this case and others, it's evident that Apple has repeatedly failed to live up to its own arrogant promises on dealing with old devices. In doing so, it stopped users from finding their own sustainable and worthwhile methods for getting rid of their old devices.
Truth is; manufacturing a new Smartphone isn't an environmentally friendly process. Based on records from Apple, 79 percent of the carbon emissions linked to the total lifespan of an I-Phone 11 is produced during the manufacturing phase. To be fair, the company has attempted to lessen these negative impacts.
Another attempt is that they now use recycled tin and rare-earth elements, which is a big improvement over using virgin materials. And Apple's trade-in program offers a stable stream of used phones that can be renovated and resold. In its most recent environmental record, Apple states that it revamped 11.1 million devices for new users in 2019, and highlights the fact that each one "represents a smarter and more environmentally efficient use of the resources and materials we rely on to build our products."
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