Approximately 100,000 iPhones that Apple paid contractors to dispose of were stolen and exported to China, according to a detailed report.
Apple sued the company, but now appears to have abandoned the case, which is in stark contrast to the company’s environmental stance, as it reportedly ordered the shredding of fully usable devices. It has been suggested that this is to avoid publicly admitting that…
bloomberg’s The report is long, but the main points are: Apple accepts old devices from customers for trade-in and recycling. Many of these devices remain in perfect working order and can be easily wiped and resold on the second-hand market. Instead, Apple paid her outside contractor, known as GEEP, to shred more than 250,000 files a year.
During the first two years of the deal, Apple sent GEEP more than 530,000 iPhones, 25,000 iPads, and 19,000 Apple Watches.
However, an Apple audit found that at least 99,975 working iPhones that GEEP claimed to have disposed of were instead siphoned off to China and sold on the Chinese second-hand market.
In 2020, Apple sued GEEP for breach of contract, but nothing has happened since. Unless Apple moves forward with the lawsuit, it will be automatically dismissed in January next year. The same is true of a related lawsuit filed by GEEP against three former employees accused of the theft (which expires in August of this year).
The lawsuit means Apple is throwing away hundreds of thousands of usable devices because a decline in products on the used market means an increase in demand for new products. It means that it will become.
Industry insiders were stunned when the lawsuit came to light, first reported by Canadian news outlet Logic in late 2020. It wasn’t just the shocking scale of the so-called robbery. The incident suggests that Apple forced its recycling partners to shred tens of thousands of iPhones that were clearly in perfect condition for refurbishment. The timing was tricky. That same year, Apple pledged to achieve 100% carbon neutrality across its product lifecycle by 2030 and specified in its environmental report that “reuse is our first choice.” Did. Critics said the shredding contradicted Apple’s green marketing and was likely a way to ensure that cheap used hardware didn’t hamper sales of new products.
Apple declined to comment on specifics, but said things have changed since then.
An Apple spokesperson said that since the GEEP lawsuit was filed, today’s electronics recycling has advanced “by leaps and bounds,” and the company often develops long-lasting products that serve multiple owners. He said that “Apple’s industry-leading recycling program provides an easy way for customers to take their devices home for analysis, refurbishment, and reuse,” a spokesperson said.
One of those changes was the launch of an improved iPhone recycling robot, Daisy, which replaced the first version of Liam. However, this article suggests that this is primarily for his PR purposes and that there may be a completely different story behind the scenes.
When Apple was offering Daisies online in the Netherlands, someone working at Re-Teck, another Apple recycling partner down the street, saw tons of AirPods, Macs, and Watches being crushed. I remember that most of them looked normal. (Re-Teck declined to comment.) In some cases, workers used hammers to break equipment, employees said.
iFixit co-founder Kyle Wiens believes it should be illegal to shred a working device that can be used for repair or as a spare.
Photo: Apple
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