Apple was rumored to be planning to destroy hundreds of thousands of iPhones, but is that true? Things ended up not going as planned, this was what was going on.
Did Apple Want to Destroy Working iPhones?
Apple indeed wanted to have a huge number of iPhones destroyed. A few years ago, the company ordered GEEP to destroy approximately 100,000 usable iPhones. This is evident from a report from Bloomberg. It would be a conscious choice on Apple’s part to keep the supply of second-hand iPhones limited. This creates more demand for new models. Enough reason for Apple to destroy the iPhones, after all, they had already been sold by Apple.
GEEP did not destroy the iPhones, but shipped them to China. There they were still sold on the second-hand market. Apple filed a lawsuit against GEEP in 2020, but now appears to have abandoned it. Presumably, Apple does not want to publicly admit that it ordered the destruction of perfectly usable iPhones. This is in stark contrast to it environmental policy from Apple.
iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches
Bloomberg’s report says in summary: Apple accepts older devices from customers for trade-in and recycling. Many of these devices are still in working order and can easily be cleared and resold on the second-hand market. Instead, Apple paid the company GEEP to destroy more than a quarter of a million devices per year. It now appears that GEEP did not do this in all cases.
In the first two years of this partnership, Apple sent more than 530,000 iPhones, 25,000 iPads and 19,000 Apple Watches to GEEP for destruction. At least 99,975 working iPhones that GEEP claimed to have destroyed were shipped to China. The usable devices were resold there, which is exactly what Apple was trying to prevent.
Apple has said it has been committed to reuse for years
Apple also promised in 2020 to be completely CO2 neutral by 2030 and said in an environmental report that it would from now on opt for the reuse of devices. The company does not want to comment on this matter now, but does indicate that things have improved since then. So has Apple recycling robot Daisy introduced. One of the two Daisy recycling robots that Apple uses worldwide is located in Breda.
Around that time, an employee of Re-Teck (another Apple recycling partner) saw many AirPods, Macs and Apple Watches being smashed with a hammer. This contradicted Apple’s own images, in which as many parts as possible were removed from the devices for reuse. Re-Teck also does not want to respond to Bloomberg’s report.
Kyle Wiens, co-founder of iFixit, believes that destroying working iPhones that can be repaired or used for spare parts should be illegal. In any case, with the arrival of recycling robot Daisy, it seems that many parts are now being saved.
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