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Apple to Recycle your iPod for Free

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the reduce-reuse-rerock dept.

rdarden writes "After you get your dough from the recent iPod settlement, why not recycle your old iPod at an Apple retail store (US only). Starting today, that worthless hunk of environmental unfriendliness can be turned into a 10% discount on a new iPod (purchased at the same time)."

16 of 290 comments (clear)

  1. This sounds funny. by Saven+Marek · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's funny how rewording something can make shit sound good.

    "We will recycle your iPod for free!" doesn't sound like half as much a ripoff as "I'll buy your iPod for $30"

    1. Re:This sounds funny. by numark · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There are a couple other reasons you're missing for why people might choose the iPod. For one, it's the only one that plays iTunes Music Store files. Regardless of anyone's personal feelings against the store, it's still the most popular and largest music store online, and people might want to use it and then get an iPod to listen to the songs.

      Also, on the Mac, the iPod is still the best choice in many respects. Virtually every Mac user uses iTunes, and between that and prevalent Firewire ports, it's just a lot easier to use an iPod that's almost guaranteed to work rather than another solution which is designed largely from a Windows standpoint (there may be other ways of loading music, like direct disk access, but most non-iPod devices are still designed for Windows first).

      So, there are a number of valid reasons why people may choose the iPod over the competition, regardless of whether they think it's "cool" or not. The average consumer doesn't want a litany of features that they may never use. Most of them are focused on simplicity, and especially if they own a Mac, the iPod usually comes out on top for them.

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    2. Re:This sounds funny. by Meagermanx · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Extremely good pricing, huh?
      Okay, do whatever you want with your money, but I think I'll stick with a $20 walkman and a spindle of 50 blank CDs.

    3. Re:This sounds funny. by galfridus73 · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Well, looking on eBay, if the iPod is dead then a $9 (assuming you can buy a shuffle as part of this deal) to $45 discount isn't a bad idea. If you are a student or work for an educational institution, your discount, coupled with the trade-in, would bring the price of a 60GB iPod down by $75 or so...

      However, if the iPod is still working - sell it on eBay! Do a search of completed auctions for the original 5GB iPod and you'll find them still going for $130 or so. Dead iPods, on the other hand, are going for like $40 or $50 - basically what you would get if you bought a new iPod with the trade-in.

      So, it's a good deal - if the iPod is dead (or if the bottom falls out of eBay's iPod sales any time soon).

  2. Or... by Tyrdium · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You could sell it on eBay for well over $100. Which sounds better to you?

    1. Re:Or... by Johnboi+Waltune · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If it's broken, or the battery won't charge anymore, trading it in sounds pretty sweet. eBay is too difficult for some people, and it is sometimes a hassle for me as well, even though I've sold over a hundred items there. If you are well-off and just want a new iPod, trading it in may be the way to go.

      --
      "The advanced societies of the future will be driven by competing systems of psychopathology." -JG Ballard
  3. crush those secondary sales. by SA+Stevens · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No hardware vendor makes money from secondary sales ('used' sales) of their hardware. This is also a good tactic from the DRM angle for Apple. It's a benefit to them to 'lock' each individual iPod to an individual.

  4. Worthless? Not so fast by ihatewinXP · · Score: 4, Insightful

    >
    >that worthless hunk of environmental unfriendliness
    >

    Actually between the screen and battery (I personally have a dead iPod with a perfect battery) there are still many a useable part on those old pods. Hold buttons, dock connectors, all sorts of parts. Even if gutted outright for internal Apple refurbishing the 10% will surely be recouped if not moreso.

    And the rest will be responsible recycled.

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    1. Re:Worthless? Not so fast by Reaperducer · · Score: 2, Insightful

      A lot of large multinational companies do a lot more recycling than you do. Just because they're large or operate across borders doesn't make them evil. That's just your personal bias showing through.

      --
      -- I'm old enough to have lived through six different meanings of the word "hacker."
  5. Great... by wpiman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    All of the hazardous material is handled domestically! Excellent news. So the engineering is outsourced (or partially), the manufacturing is done else where, but the really dangerous work- the stuff that impacts the environment the most- is done stateside by US workers. Globalism rocks.

    1. Re:Great... by stevejsmith · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The "really dangerous work"? Huh?

      Oh, I get it -- you're talking about the deplete uranium reserves in iPods.

      Yeah, terrible. Poor US workers.

  6. This doesn't make a lot of sense. by daviddennis · · Score: 2, Insightful

    There are about a billion ways you can replace the battery for about $50, so I'm not sure what the big deal is here. Even Apple will do it for $99.

    Since a new iPod with similar functionality is $250-$299 (depending on how important extra storage space is to you), I'd say battery replacement is normally going to be worthwhile.

    Unless you have an iPod broken for some other reason, I think the recycling is a bum deal.

    D

  7. Missing the point by sammy+baby · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The cracks about "why not just sell it on ebay" aside, this is a very good program.

    Manufacturing computers and consumer electronics is a messy process, and the rapid speed of upgrades ensures that many tons of computer equipment are entering landfills regularly. Many of the components in computers are quite toxic. On a smaller scale, I'm sure the same is true of the iPod.

    Apple's recycling program is probably worded as broadly as it is so as to avoid confusion, but the important part is that they don't exclude iPods that are utterly broken and irreperably from the program. That means that assuming you can get it to them, they'll put it in the recycling program no matter how badly bashed up it is.

    Incidentally, Apple, IBM, and probably a few other manufacturers have recycling programs in place for computers. Many of them require you to pay the company to take your old, beat up jonx.

  8. Re:Gabba Hey! by cowscows · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Most of them were actually sold to people who like to have an easy way to listen to music, but good job making up your own stereotype.

    Apple making it easier to recycle ipods is not going to save the rainforests, and noone expects it to, but that doesn't make it a bad idea, or a worthless one.

    Your cynicism does not make you look smarter than the any ipod owner, sorry.

    --

    One time I threw a brick at a duck.

  9. Re:yet more apple suck by ChePibe · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Well, obviously your replaceable batteries are wonderful, and I'm sure you dispose of them safely and properly every single time. No environmental damage from your MP3 player, no-siree-bob.

  10. Re:yet more apple suck by toddestan · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Planned obsolesence? Is this instead of using the magic batteries everyone else has that last forever?

    Sure, it would be nicer to get inside the case without having to use some sort of industrial clamping device, but I don't think Apple did that as a timed self-destruct mechanism.

    Then, why do you suppose that Apple designed the iPod that way?