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Apple sued the contractor, but abandoned the claim – probably to avoid publicity regarding their anti-environmental practices. It is believed that the company is destroying perfectly usable old devices so that the demand for new ones does not decrease.
The details of the story are outlined in a lengthy Bloomberg report, but the basic gist is this: Apple accepts old devices from customers for trade-in and recycling, but most remain in fully working condition and can be refurbished and resold on the used market. Instead, the company paid an outside contractor known as GEEP to shred more than a quarter million of them a year.
In the first two years of this contract, Apple shipped more than 530,000 iPhones, 25,000 iPads, and 19,000 Apple Watches to GEEP. However, a company audit found that at least 99,975 working iPhones destined for shredding ended up instead in China, where they are sold on the second-hand market.
In 2020, Apple sued the contractor for breach of contract, but nothing has happened since then – the case was automatically closed in January 2021, and it seems that the iPhone maker has no plans to renew it. The same goes for GEEP's own lawsuit against three former employees who were accused of theft (the lawsuit expires in August of this year).
In fact, information about the lawsuits first surfaced back in 2020 – the same year Apple publicly promised to achieve 100% carbon neutrality over the life cycle of its product by 2030 and stated in an environmental report that “re usage is our first choice.” The shredding, critics say, was at odds with Apple's green marketing—and likely destroyed perfectly serviceable old devices to keep demand for new ones.
Apple declined to comment on the details of the case, but noted that “everything has changed” since then and it now creates “long-lasting products that often last multiple owners.”
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