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Media (Apple) Media Music

Apple to Recycle your iPod for Free 290

Posted by CowboyNeal from the reduce-reuse-rerock dept.
rdarden writes "After you get your dough from the recent iPod settlement, why not recycle your old iPod at an Apple retail store (US only). Starting today, that worthless hunk of environmental unfriendliness can be turned into a 10% discount on a new iPod (purchased at the same time)."
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Apple to Recycle your iPod for Free More

Apple to Recycle your iPod for Free

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  • This sounds funny. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Saven Marek ( 739395 ) on Saturday June 04, 2005 @09:34AM (#12722959)
    It's funny how rewording something can make shit sound good.

    "We will recycle your iPod for free!" doesn't sound like half as much a ripoff as "I'll buy your iPod for $30"
    • Well, looking on eBay, if the iPod is dead then a $9 (assuming you can buy a shuffle as part of this deal) to $45 discount isn't a bad idea. If you are a student or work for an educational institution, your discount, coupled with the trade-in, would bring the price of a 60GB iPod down by $75 or so...

      However, if the iPod is still working - sell it on eBay! Do a search of completed auctions for the original 5GB iPod and you'll find them still going for $130 or so. Dead iPods, on the other hand, are going

    • Are consumers so repressed to where it is socially acceptable to sell a well-known poorly made product, and then offer us a coupon towards another one when it breaks?
      Kudos to Apple, keep them jumping through the hoop... makes me wanna dance.

      (perhaps this is just a rhetorical question)

  • 10 fricking percent? (Score:2, Redundant)

    by RMH101 ( 636144 )
    and they get free spares?
    • more importantly, they get to sell more new ones. 1. make mp3 player 2. market heavily so most ppl don't know other exist 3. drop quality so they break down faster 4. offer to buy back and sell new one 5. profit! 6. repeat

  • Seems fair (Score:3, Funny)

    by JoshMKiV ( 548790 ) on Saturday June 04, 2005 @09:35AM (#12722966) Homepage Journal
    $20-$30 seems fair... I'm sure they won't resell them. Snort.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Or... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Tyrdium ( 670229 ) on Saturday June 04, 2005 @09:36AM (#12722970) Homepage
    You could sell it on eBay for well over $100. Which sounds better to you?

    • Re:Or... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Johnboi Waltune ( 462501 ) on Saturday June 04, 2005 @09:41AM (#12723000)
      If it's broken, or the battery won't charge anymore, trading it in sounds pretty sweet. eBay is too difficult for some people, and it is sometimes a hassle for me as well, even though I've sold over a hundred items there. If you are well-off and just want a new iPod, trading it in may be the way to go.
    • Um the apple deal for me because only Apple could rip you off in such a stylish manner whilst making you feel good about saving the environment at the same time. Selling on ebay is such a distainfully common thing to do.
  • ...to getting the US to sign up to Kyoto.

    That said, it's a pretty good step by a company to reduce the problems with just dumping consumer electronics in tips. It would be nice to see this globally though, and also across all Apple products. But lets be honest - perhaps if the government actually got behind stopping pollution and industrial waste...over here in the UK, the government environmental agency announced yesterday it was asked employees to wear thermal underwear over winter, so they could turn th
  • No hardware vendor makes money from secondary sales ('used' sales) of their hardware. This is also a good tactic from the DRM angle for Apple. It's a benefit to them to 'lock' each individual iPod to an individual.
    • And yet they don't do this (lock individual iPods to individuals).
    • That explains why there are no used car dealerships on the planet... or used computer shops for that matter.

  • Worthless? Not so fast (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ihatewinXP ( 638000 ) on Saturday June 04, 2005 @09:39AM (#12722985)
    >
    >that worthless hunk of environmental unfriendliness
    >

    Actually between the screen and battery (I personally have a dead iPod with a perfect battery) there are still many a useable part on those old pods. Hold buttons, dock connectors, all sorts of parts. Even if gutted outright for internal Apple refurbishing the 10% will surely be recouped if not moreso.

    And the rest will be responsible recycled.

  • Gabba Hey! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Sporkinum ( 655143 )
    Apple sold millions of them. Many of them to retarded, wealthy, fashionistas who would think this is a "really good deal" and helps save the Panda from extinction.

    • Re:Gabba Hey! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by cowscows ( 103644 ) on Saturday June 04, 2005 @10:28AM (#12723199) Journal
      Most of them were actually sold to people who like to have an easy way to listen to music, but good job making up your own stereotype.

      Apple making it easier to recycle ipods is not going to save the rainforests, and noone expects it to, but that doesn't make it a bad idea, or a worthless one.

      Your cynicism does not make you look smarter than the any ipod owner, sorry.
    • I've never read truer words on Slashdot! Thanks for telling it like it is.

      I live about 1 mile from Apple HQ, and need lots of tin foil on my walls to keep the reality distortion field out.

  • Only one battery replacement and I've still got a useful mp3 player. I do wish they would have taken that battery back, instead of the ipod though. *That* would have been useful. --M

  • Finally (Score:2, Funny)

    by m85476585 ( 884822 )
    Apple is catching up with everyone advertising free iPods!
  • It might look as if the recycling is free. But as a former middle management executive of an IT company, I can attest that in the real world, "nothing is free!"..."there is no free lunch anywhere." How do you justify that to stock-holders? Apple has made calculations to the effect that the money spent will be re-obtained [from consumers] somehow. Like it or not. This is for PR purposes. Remember M$ giving away US$ 1 billion in software "for free?" Was the software really free of charge? You answer that.

    • ...not from "consumers" (Score:3, Interesting)

      by lxt ( 724570 )
      You point is completely true - but the money is not reobtained from consumers, but from savings made in the repair shop. Apple (like other electronics companies) state in their warrenties they can replace defective parts with refurbs, which are obviously cheaper than new items (example - my battery replacement they gave me for my iBook was a refurb). Thus, the cost of repair is reduced, and that's where the money is recouped.
    • How do you justify that to stock-holders?

      Ethically selling recycling is a good thing, and fairly easy to any large body of people.

      Fiscally proving that it's a good deal--well, that's where "reducing potential liabilty" and "advertising" and "goodwill" alll come ine.
    • "the money spent will be re-obtained [from consumers] somehow."

      How about in the form of:

      1) The 10% discount goes toward another $350 device.
      2) The "recycled" iPod is refurbished and resold for a hefty profit.
      3) The publicity and goodwill is worth just as much as marketing dollars.

      They won't need to raise prices or anything like that. It's not that different from a car dealer accepting trade-ins on new purchases. The profit from the additional sale is plenty to account for disposal fees (if that's what yo
    • This it has to do with being compelled by gov't regulation and trying to get ahead of the curve. More and more states are starting to pass 'e-cycling' bills which require computer manufacturers to provide a way to direct waste from the landfills.

      U.S. consumers retire or replace roughly 133,000 personal computers per day, according to research firm Gartner Inc.

      See for example http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic le/2005/05/31/AR2005053101502.html/ [washingtonpost.com] (registration required)

  • Great... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by wpiman ( 739077 ) *
    All of the hazardous material is handled domestically! Excellent news. So the engineering is outsourced (or partially), the manufacturing is done else where, but the really dangerous work- the stuff that impacts the environment the most- is done stateside by US workers. Globalism rocks.

    • Re:Great... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by stevejsmith ( 614145 )
      The "really dangerous work"? Huh?

      Oh, I get it -- you're talking about the deplete uranium reserves in iPods.

      Yeah, terrible. Poor US workers.
      • > Oh, I get it -- you're talking about the deplete uranium reserves in iPods.

        The depleted uranium is not a problem. It's the un-depleted uranium that you have to look out for. In your iPod. OK, moderate me off-topic. :-)

        jfs

    • So in other words, "not in my back yard please?"

      I'm not sure who has the more narrow view of globalism, here.

      -b

  • No way (Score:4, Funny)

    by LittleGuernica ( 736577 ) on Saturday June 04, 2005 @09:47AM (#12723028) Homepage
    No way they are going to make me trade in my iPod for one of those new ones with an intel processor in it!

  • I used to never like apple (Score:5, Informative)

    by brickballs ( 839527 ) <brickballs@g[ ]l.com ['mai' in gap]> on Saturday June 04, 2005 @09:52AM (#12723048) Homepage
    I used to never like apple, but my opinion of them is starting to change. I dont see their products as superior, but I do consider them acceptable nowdays.

    I bought an iPod Photo 60GB. Within a month the thing crashed. And I dont mean crashed, where you hit two buttons and it reboots. (that happened the day i got it.) I mean crashed as in it wont reboot, the battery didnt charge, and winblows didnt recognize it. For all intents and purposes it was an expensive brick.

    I sent it back and they fixed it for free, got it back to me in just a few days.

    The thing still crashes occasionaly but now the two button reset always does the job.

    Moral of the story: apples good, but not perfect.

    • RE: iPod Photo 60GB problems (Score:4, Interesting)

      by King_TJ ( 85913 ) on Saturday June 04, 2005 @10:30AM (#12723210) Journal
      Actually, one of my good friends works a second job at a large electronics retailer, and he said they had a "large number of returns" of the 60GB model of the iPod photo. None of the other models were affected. He suspects they had a bad production run of the 60GB microdrives in them, and Apple hasn't openly acknowledged it yet (perhaps because it's such a limited issue).
    • My regular 4th gen 20gb has NEVER caused me a second of grief..

      I bought it the week they were released and have yet to have any troubles in daily use, save one time i caused my own troubles when i reformatted and didnt have the power pack handy.. doh!

      But the actual device, works perfect...

      However a note to apple: ditch the chrome on the back, it may be cool looking, but that stuff scratches just by looking at it sideways...
    • and winblows didnt recognize it

      You story would sound so much more serious if you'd use the real names of the products.

  • Microsoft will pay you $500 rebate to exchange your ipod for something with its software on it. Only Microsoft employees will be allowed to use the real ipods.
    • Microsoft will pay you $2 bucks rebate to exchange your ipod for some crippled piece of junk with a tenth the capacity, corrosive materials and its software on it and offer to kick you in the mouth.

      and it will be successful.
  • Since Apple's margin on the iPod is more like 40% they're still making a nice profit, and a certain amount of the sales will be to people who hadn't planned on buying a new iPod but are reminded of the old 1st gen with the cracked screen in their drawer.

    And at least some of the returns will be good enough to refurbish and feed back into their support and warranty system.

    I don't see this as a cost for Apple at all.

  • This is a ripoff! Sell on eBay instead. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by enosys ( 705759 ) on Saturday June 04, 2005 @10:06AM (#12723113) Homepage
    The story makes it seem like this is a great deal but in fact it is a terrible ripoff. Search for "broken ipod" [ebay.com] on eBay. [ebay.com]. For example "ipod 15 gig 3g 3rd gen broken" with what appears to be a broken hard drive is at $82.01 after 8 bids and with 5 and a half hours left.
    • In fact, if you do that eBay search, you find that 1st generation broken iPods go for about $20. Now, you could trade them in for a $45 discount on the highest end iPod photo. Sounds like a pretty decent deal to me.

      Right now, not too many people will want to recycle their iPods yet, but every year, there are going to be more iPods that have outlived their useful lives. This year, Apple got picketed over the iPod recycling issue, so offering this program seems like a good idea.

      It's not a deal anybody is FO
    • Yeah, but if it was a first-generation, 5GB iPod with a battery that won't take a charge, or a broken screen/hard drive etc, then getting $20-$30 is a decent deal. These types of situations would usually result in the iPod going into the garbage.

      A side note: I actually had an iPod run over by a bus. It got pulled off my hip as I was getting off the bus, and it was pulled under the back wheels. Not only is the screen destroyed, but so is the hard drive (it sounds like-and probably is-just a bunch of sand ra
    • Yeah, eBay.

      To succesfully sell something on eBay you need to:
      - take pictures and transfer them to your PC
      - write a comperhensive description
      - package up your item and get the weight so you can calculate shipping cost
      - search eBay so you can find a reasonable opening price, reserve price and/or Buy it Now price
      - list the item on eBay
      - answer a shitload of questions from people (that never bid)
      - Email notices to the winner
      - Calculate postage
      - Print label
      - with a bit of luck the bidder was from another countr

  • Missing the point (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sammy baby ( 14909 ) on Saturday June 04, 2005 @10:27AM (#12723195) Journal
    The cracks about "why not just sell it on ebay" aside, this is a very good program.

    Manufacturing computers and consumer electronics is a messy process, and the rapid speed of upgrades ensures that many tons of computer equipment are entering landfills regularly. Many of the components in computers are quite toxic [svtc.org]. On a smaller scale, I'm sure the same is true of the iPod.

    Apple's recycling program is probably worded as broadly as it is so as to avoid confusion, but the important part is that they don't exclude iPods that are utterly broken and irreperably from the program. That means that assuming you can get it to them, they'll put it in the recycling program no matter how badly bashed up it is.

    Incidentally, Apple [apple.com], IBM [ibm.com], and probably a few other manufacturers have recycling programs in place for computers. Many of them require you to pay the company to take your old, beat up jonx.
  • My mom's car ran over my iPod (I left it on her trunk in error... stupid).

    In any case, I kept it as a keepsake. It's good to know that I can now get something!

  • This is great. It's the Right Thing to do. It's also great to see grassroots pressure from consumers have an impact. Check out this campaign page [computertakeback.com] on iPod recycling from the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.
  • I wish cell phone manufacturers would offer the same service. Man, I'd be rich with all the obsolete cell phones I have.

    Heck, HP takes used toner carts back. Even though they might be worth some money, its good to see HP taking back what would otherwise be landfilled.
  • Some say this is a rip off, but first, nobody is forcing you to do it.

    Second, if you do give it back to able you can be fairly certain that it gets re-used or recycled properly. And that is a good thing, and important to many.
  • This is off topic, but some posts bemoan how "hard" it is to get some retailers to take old NiCd's etc.

    Just keep in mind there are lots of recycle-freindly stores called "Radio Shack". If you go in for nothing else, they will take old batteries for you.

    Also, Staples office supply stores have a big bin for old ink and laser cartridges, no human interaction required, just drop your junk in their box. (Of course the one closest to me always seems to be stuffed to near over-flowing...)

    • Also, Staples office supply stores have a big bin for old ink and laser cartridges, no human interaction required, just drop your junk in their box.

      And I wonder just how those discarded cartridges are handled. Are they sent off to one of those brownfield towns in China where peasants scrape them out by hand and then burn the remains? Or, are they actually recycled in a consciencious manner?

  • Some/many/most (?) ountries have industry programs to recycle old electronics equipment.

    E.g. swico [swico.ch] (CH), Fost+ [fostplus.be] (BE)

    from swico website :

    "The Swico Recycling Guarantee has been in place since 1994. It guarantees that used equipment is taken back comprehensively from the following sectors: informatics; office electronics, consumer electronics, telecommunications; the graphics industry and dental industry.

    Used equipment can be handed in free of charge for recycling. The recycling operations are financed b
  • From what i thought, its just due to bogus battery life..

    So spend 50 bucks and buy a new battery... Geesh.

    But, if anyone wants to give me theirs, great.
  • Will recycle it for free too. Just bop around a rough area with the ear-pods visible and someone may make you an offer to take it off your hands for no charge*. (* no charge for the iPod. Other charges may apply.)

  • iPods as replacements under battery settlement (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Go_Ask_Alex ( 459685 ) on Saturday June 04, 2005 @03:25PM (#12724852)
    Is it possible that Apple will use recycled iPods as replacements under the recent iPod battery settlement?

    http://www.appleipodsettlement.com/ [appleipodsettlement.com]
    http://www.appleipodsettlement.com/claim.pdf [appleipodsettlement.com]

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