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Almost Nothing About the 'Apple Harvests Gold From iPhones' Story Is True (vice.com)

Posted by msmash on from the eye-opener dept.

Jason Koebler, reporting for Motherboard: You may have seen a viral headline floating around over the last few days: Apple recycled $40 million worth of gold last year, which was extracted from iPhones. Almost none of what was reported is true. [...] Here is the truth: Apple paid independent recyclers to recycle old electronics -- which were almost never Apple products, by the way -- because it's required by law to do so. Far from banking $40 million on the prospect, Apple likely ended up taking an overall monetary loss. This is not because Apple is a bad actor or is hiding anything, it's simply how the industry works. All electronics manufacturers that sell products in the United States are required to do e-waste recycling under laws enacted in 25 states. The laws are different in each state, but none of them require Apple to recycle Apple products. Instead, they usually require manufacturers to recycle a certain amount of pounds of e-waste, which is linked to either their market share or to the overall weight of products they sell. That's why you see Apple noting that it recycled "71 percent of the total weight of products we sold seven years earlier."

9 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Who cares what products they recycle? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As long as they do it, it's a good thing.

    1. Re:Who cares what products they recycle? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Almost nothing about the "Almost Nothing About the 'Apple Harvests Gold From iPhones' Story Is True" story matters.

    2. Re:Who cares what products they recycle? by alvinrod · · Score: 2

      Yes, but you don't get a claim good karma just for following the laws. I followed the traffic laws today and didn't blow through any intersections, etc. but that doesn't mean I should go around bragging about what a great person I am. We're not going to celebrate you for paying your taxes, so let's not toot Apple's horn for fulfilling their obligations.

      I'm sure they release this information in the hopes that idiots take the bait and Apple gets some good press, but if they want praise for being virtuous they'll need to go beyond the requirements. Recycle more waste than you contribute into the system because even though it costs them to do so and there is no one to force them to do it, they still do it anyways and we can start talking.

      Businesses rarely behave altruistically and typically when they appear to be acting that way it's for the sake of good publicity to market themselves.

    3. Re:Who cares what products they recycle? by alvinrod · · Score: 2

      Where are people buying iPhones that cost 20% more than where they are available for purchase elsewhere? Also, who's going to rationalize that instead of returning it and getting it from the cheaper source?

    4. Re:Who cares what products they recycle? by BasilBrush · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It seems to be you who's keen to rationalise buying something else. Insecure that you bought something not as good, but 17% cheaper.

  2. Huh? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How does the author take a statement such as "Apple recycled $40 million worth of gold from phones last year" and basically end up with "that's not true because it wasn't $40 million in profits"?

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  3. it's not "gold from phones", it's TVs by raymorris · · Score: 2

    > How does the author take a statement such as "Apple recycled $40 million worth of gold from phones last year"

    That's false because the article is based on data that isn't about recycling phones. Mostly it's CRT televisions and monitors. So if we take out the incorrect words "from phones", we get "Apple recycled $40 million worth of gold". Of course "Apple recycled" isn't true either, so take that out. The (possibly) true part is "$40 million worth of gold". So half the words are true, half aren't.

    1. Re:it's not "gold from phones", it's TVs by 14erCleaner · · Score: 3, Informative

      CNN's headline was "Apple recovered 2,204 pounds of gold from broken iPhones last year". But it wasn't recovered by Apple, almost none of it was from broken iPhones, and it was for the 2015 fiscal year, which started on October 1, 2014. But yeah, there was 2204 pounds of gold. Presumably not troy pounds (usually used for gold), though, which are 82% of a "normal" pound. Other than that it was all correct, maybe.

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      Have you read my blog lately?
  4. Re:But my shit still won't stink if I buy one righ by lucm · · Score: 2, Funny

    Please tell me I can still show off the Apple logo to everyone in the coffee shop.

    Only if t's the latest model otherwise it's worst than having a copy of Mein Kampf with highlighted sections and multiple bookmarks.

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    lucm, indeed.