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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)."

13 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 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. 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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  4. No way by LittleGuernica · · Score: 4, Funny

    No way they are going to make me trade in my iPod for one of those new ones with an intel processor in it!

  5. I used to never like apple by brickballs · · Score: 5, Informative
    I used to never like apple, but my opinion of them is starting to change. I dont see their products as superior, but I do consider them acceptable nowdays.

    I bought an iPod Photo 60GB. Within a month the thing crashed. And I dont mean crashed, where you hit two buttons and it reboots. (that happened the day i got it.) I mean crashed as in it wont reboot, the battery didnt charge, and winblows didnt recognize it. For all intents and purposes it was an expensive brick.

    I sent it back and they fixed it for free, got it back to me in just a few days.

    The thing still crashes occasionaly but now the two button reset always does the job.

    Moral of the story: apples good, but not perfect.

    --
    "What does slashdotting mean?"
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  6. This is a ripoff! Sell on eBay instead. by enosys · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The story makes it seem like this is a great deal but in fact it is a terrible ripoff. Search for "broken ipod" on eBay.. For example "ipod 15 gig 3g 3rd gen broken" with what appears to be a broken hard drive is at $82.01 after 8 bids and with 5 and a half hours left.

  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: iPod Photo 60GB problems by King_TJ · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Actually, one of my good friends works a second job at a large electronics retailer, and he said they had a "large number of returns" of the 60GB model of the iPod photo. None of the other models were affected. He suspects they had a bad production run of the 60GB microdrives in them, and Apple hasn't openly acknowledged it yet (perhaps because it's such a limited issue).

  10. Re:$100 to replace the battery? by hunterx11 · · Score: 3, Funny
    In which parallel dimension is this not considered predatory price gouging?

    You do realize the predatory pricing is anti-competitive because you charging "too little?" And that price gouging is charging "too much?" So to answer your question, in this dimension there is no predatory price gouging. However, there may be in other less logically consistent dimensions.

    --
    English is easier said than done.
  11. iPods as replacements under battery settlement by Go_Ask_Alex · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Is it possible that Apple will use recycled iPods as replacements under the recent iPod battery settlement?

    http://www.appleipodsettlement.com/
    http://www.appleipodsettlement.com/claim.pdf