Apple Is Going To Help You Be More Environmentally Friendly

Apple is trying to help you take care of the disposal of your electronic waste.

Back in 2013, we’d written about Apple, despite being the world’s leading smart-device manufacturer was extremely focused on it’s social and ecological responsibilities.

We’d showcased how Apple was moving towards better energy management in it’s data centers and other energy-hungry infrastructure.

Well, Apple does a lot more than that and we’d like to talk about how it’s working to alleviate some of the pressure on the ecology through it’s Reuse and Recycle Trade-in program.

This program began in 2013, as Apple’s initiative to dispose off electronic waste in an environmentally conscious way, and has over the years become an initiative that Apple drives strongly, wherever it can.

Now, Apple’s decided to expand its trade-in program significantly — to include more devices, even from other brands, and offer better prices for the exchanges, just to encourage people to return the devices to Apple who then disposes off the silicon, Li-Ion and other materials responsibly.

Electronic waste has increased manifold, over the years, and with mobile devices becoming more and more inexpensive, people are changing devices more frequently — more and more for reasons of convenience, than necessity.

Instead of investing in repairs of the current device, a lot of us prefer to just get a new one. With e-waste growing and with no adequate ways or means to dispose it in an environmentally conscious manner, manufacturing companies taking responsibility towards the looming concern brought about by their devices and promote proper disposal by incentivising the recycling programs, is an ideal initiative.

Apple has partnered with Brightstar Corporation, a waste disposal company, to take care of the disposal of its electronic waste. Brightstar’s website now lets you find out what credit can you get in return for your device.

Until now the company used to accept only functional iPhones, offering about USD 35 for an iPhone 4s, USD 85 for an iPhone 5 and USD 175 for an iPhone 5s and so on.

With the recent expansion, Apple has decided to start paying more credit for each trade-in. The company has incorporated an increase of USD 25 in the pay-out for the higher end devices (5S and higher), and a USD 15 for the lower end devices approximately, so for the iPhone 5s.

The company has planned to not only increase the amount it offers to its customers for the trade-in, but also to start accepting more devices.

In fact, Apple has democratised this returns process — earlier this year Apple has expanded its trade-in program to include not just Apple devices but smart devices from other companies too. This money offered back is in the form of credit towards buying new Apple devices.

Devices from brands like HTC, Nokia, LG, Sony, Samsung and BlackBerry can now also be turned in for credit in the Apple Trade-in program. A BlackBerry Z10 in working condition would get you an Apple Store Gift Card for USD 100, for example.

Apple’s not stopping there. Their program also even accepts computers from certain manufacturers, the details of which can be found on Brightstar’s and Apple’s respective websites.

The pay-out increase is minor, but think of the impact this increase could have on the market as a whole!
The first thing the trade-in program does for Apple is that it encourages the customers to lock their relationship with the company, and to keep coming back to it for more products.
The second, and the more impactful, thing it is going to do is perhaps get more people to swap in their devices more frequently, since they will have to invest lesser and lesser each time in a new device.

While the pessimist you might think Apple’s being shrewd with their trade-in program as it encourages users from other brands to flock to Apple, by making it easier for them to get rid of their present devices — however when you stop to think about it, there’s nothing that’s causing you to get an Apple device in the first place — it’s just your conscience yelling at you to do something responsible, is all.

We’ll talk about what Apple does with the returned devices in a subsequent article, sometime in the future. In the meanwhile, if you are thinking of buying a shiny new gadget, be kind to Mother Earth and find a responsible way to dispose it off — Apple trade-in or not!

Originally published at Chip-Monks.