Almost Nothing About the “Apple Harvests Gold From iPhones” Story Is True
Jason Koebler (via Slashdot):
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.
[…]
In this sense, electronics recycling often works a lot like carbon offset credits, according to Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, a company focused on helping people reuse and repair their electronics rather than recycle them.
“What they really do is cut recyclers a check and say ‘Can we have credit for a million of your pounds?” Wiens told me.
[…]
“The ironic thing is most of the gold is in old PCs and servers,” Wiens said. There’s very little gold in an iPhone.”
