Apple Recycling Old Macs for Free 190
charleste writes "CNN is reporting that Apple is going to recycle Macs for free. I wonder if this means they will actually recycle them in Cupertino, or sent overseas to be dumped as many 'recycled' computers do, or if they will actually mine them. And does this make the MacQuarium obsolete?"
Old Computers are a Gold Mine (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Old Computers are a Gold Mine (Score:5, Informative)
Very true. There are also a lot of metals besides gold that are worth more (though in smaller amounts, like platinum). I've been part of a business before where we chunked up old Macs and PCs, packed all the circuit boards up in huge wooden crates, and sent them off to a recovery mill... a couple months later, a few tons of scrap is turned into a check for $20,000. It's not bad money but it takes a lot of manual labor to separate it out (i.e. separating circuits from CRT's and plastic) or the mill will charge you to do the separation and sorting.
Also, newer computers have much lower amounts of these materials, making them almost worthless. The sweet spot are the 68020's and 486's (the heavy processors are where you get the most precious metals per oz.).
Staying in the US (Score:4, Informative)
Re:recycling... (Score:1, Informative)
That said, my vote is for dumping, since it would be more wasteful and polluting, energy-wise, to reduce the electronics to usable stock of "raw" materials. Aside from that, I know of at least one company that reduces the electronics to parts, and sells them. So it's quite do-able, however, the broken parts still get dumped.
Re:I will do one better! (Score:5, Informative)
Not necessarily. Often these old machines are highly inefficient in terms of the computing power they provide vs the electricity they consume. Sure, having one of these [sun.com] at home would be cool - in fact I did used to use the next model down as my home server - but these days I just don't want to either pay the power bill or try to justify the waste of resources. Sometimes it really is better just to let this old kit go to silicon heaven.
Re:Not about being green (Score:2, Informative)
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition vs. Apple (Score:5, Informative)
How has Apple handled recycling?
According to the "The 2005 Computer Report Card [svtc.org]" by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, "Apple, Dell, Gateway, and HP are the companies that use recyclers that have signed the Electronic Recyclers Pledge of Stewardship. To learn more about the Recycler Pledge go to: http://www.svtc.org///cleancc/recycle/recycler_ple dge.htm [svtc.org]".
In that report, note that Apple received the second highest score in the category of "DISPOSAL CHAIN". That category indicates the degree to which a company will audit the entire disposal chain (including work sub-contracted to suspicious companies in China, Taiwan Province, and Korea) to ensure that recycling of old computer equipment is done in accordance with the most ethical, most responsible practices.
Note that Apple management actually signed the Electronics Recycler's Pledge of True Stewardship [svtc.org], committing to the gold standard of ethical, responsible recycling.
Finally, the recent decision by Apple management to take back old equipment for free is probably due to the tireless efforts of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition [svtc.org] (SVTC) and other groups in the Computer TAKE-BACK Campaign [computertakeback.com] (CTBC). When Steve Jobs gave the keynote speech at the 2005 graduation ceremony at Stanford University, CTBC flew a banner over the ceremony [e-takeback.org]. The banner exclaimed, "STEVE - DON'T BE A MINI PLAYER - RECYCLE ALL E-WASTE".
Re:Not about being green (Score:3, Informative)
What you wrote might be true if the program was restricted to recycling old Macs. This program covers any computer; the only requirement is that you purchase a new Mac to participate. More details [apple.com]. More info [apple.com].
HP, AFAIK, charges a small fee [hp.com] to recycle your computer.
If you're going to slag on companies, at least get your info straight. Then you'll have some factual basis for your cynicism.
Not just Macs... (Score:2, Informative)
Here's a snippet from the Shareholder meeting stating so. [tripod.com]
Re:I will do one better! (Score:5, Informative)
So your dead mac is worth money. Pull the roms, send the rest back.
Re:recycling... (Score:3, Informative)
As you can imagine, these people are not exactly working in healthy conditions. In fact, the report I was listening to recently said that the operations were polluting the area so badly that this little village by a river had to start importing bottled water because the river was now poisonous. It's also likely that the ground will be unable to support crops for hundreds of years (until the toxins ALL wash into the river and downstream to poison some other places).
All in all, you're probably better dumping the stuff in a landfill here. At least in the US, landfills are contained areas that are monitored and controlled. Send them to a "recycler" and they'll get released into the environment in the worst possible ways.
Indeed... (Score:3, Informative)
They've been really aggressive about getting letters, etc. to Jobs and BOD members about doing take-backs on the computers (They already do them on iPods for free...) and to handle the returns in a responsible manner.
Links from the horse's mouth (Score:3, Informative)
Re:recycling... (Score:2, Informative)
Uhh, the free program starts in JUNE. (Score:3, Informative)
The old program costs you eight bucks, while the new one is free [apple.com]. The old program was still very reasonable.
It's just you. (Score:3, Informative)
From the
Or clearer details: http://www.mpccorp.com/about/california_fee.html [mpccorp.com]
* Actually, they might. I didn't check.
sent overseas? (Score:3, Informative)
Do a little research before you submit a story next time.. especially if the story is several days old. From Apples homepage [apple.com]:
Hazardous materials
No hazardous waste from Apple's U.S. recycling program is shipped outside North America. All recovered materials are processed domestically, with the exception of some commodity materials that can be recycled for future use. Apple's recycling policies prohibit the use of recovered plastics as fuel in smelting.
Not all electronics recyclers do that (Score:1, Informative)
In fact when i worked there we got 3 or 4 calls per month from people wanting to pay US for our dead monitors (usually to be shipped to the orient & dismantled as you say) and we always turned them down & sent them instead to the site where we PAY to have it done correctly...
This is why they charge $12 per for dead monitors.
Anyway, my point is, there are eco-friendly electronics recyclers out there, they arent all crooked, just do your homework & check them out. and PLEASE dont put your old computer in the landfill!
Re:recycling... (Score:2, Informative)
Apple tried that already [wikipedia.org] when in 1989 they dumped about 2700 Apple Lisas in a Utah landfill, because the tax writeoff was better that way than if they donated them to charity.
Re:I will do one better! (Score:3, Informative)
I used it to replace a server in my house (old server: HP Vectra VLi8 PIII-650, 46 watts idle, new server: Toshiba Tecra 8100 PIII-650 laptop, 15 watts idle), and find some surprising waste, such as a set of Boston Acoustics speakers that drew a continuous 40 watts, even when "turned off", and my HP Laserjet 2100, which draws 13-16 watts in powersave mode. (The speakers are now on a power strip, and the printer gets switched off when I'm done with it.)