Today is Earth Day and Apple has refreshed its environment microsite, detailing several measures it is taking to become a greener company. The headline addition to Apple's recycling program will be the acceptance of old tech equipment which is not worth refurbishing and reselling. In some world regions, including the UK, Apple stores will even be accepting third party PCs and smart devices. In another environmental move Apple says that it will also be implementing a scheme to power all its stores, offices and data centres with renewable energy.
Narrated by Tim Cook
Apple started offering gift cards in exchange for old and unwanted iTech that could be reconditioned and re-sold last year. Now Apple Stores are going to extend the programme to include all Apple products. However those products judged to be of little or no resale value will be responsibly recycled – with no gift card in exchange. This will help reduce the environmental waste impact of the large amount of Apple tech waste – the company has sold "more than 1 billion iPhones, iPods, iPads and Mac computers," in the past seven years, reports ABC News. In some countries Apple will also take old tech products to recycle regardless of the manufacturer.
Looking at the products it sells currently Apple says that they are designed both for durability and for minimising energy wastage with thought for the environment. Examples given include:
- Today's Mac Pro uses 74 percent less aluminium and steel than the previous design.
- The newest iMac is made with 68 percent less material than the first iMac.
- Today's iMac uses 0.9 watt of electricity in sleep mode which is 97 percent less than the first iMac.
Apple is also, as mentioned in the intro, seeking to become a 100 per cent renewable energy powered company. ABC reports that already Apple's data centres in North Carolina, Oregon, Nevada and California all run entirely upon renewable energy – so that iTunes users "can feel comfortable that they are not adding any carbon pollution to the atmosphere". Apple has also made great progress in powering its offices around the world and about 94 per cent of office power requirements are catered for by renewable. That's up from 35 per cent in 2010. Looking down the chain to retail, around half of its US stores run entirely on renewable energy.
