Anybody else getting increasingly uncomfortable with the shelf life of all the very expensive technology available to us? I know I am! It all seems to be manufactured with disposability rather than longevity in mind! And here we go again with not one new version of the iPhone, but three of them!
Who hasn’t got a draw full of old mobile phones, digital cameras, associated accessories and even packaging! Yes, I can’t bring myself to throw away the packaging simply because it seems too good to throw in the bin and is definitely not widely recyclable! Crazy!
We are an Apple household! I don’t remember choosing to be, and at times I’ve tried to transfer my entire life to Android, but it inevitably ends in failure and disappointment, because some very clever people have spent a lot of time and money ensuring that never the twain shall meet! With that in mind, we do what we can to be responsible Apple consumers! Many people are attracted by aesthetics and we’d be lying if we said we were any different! But we make sure that everything that comes into this house exits it in the most responsible way. What more can you do?
At the moment who knows what the new iPhone will be packaged in? The Apple website outlines all sort of responsible sourcing policies in their ‘touchy feely blurb’ on the subject, but in my experience these things come in indestructible plastic, that just isn’t widely recycled! They do tell you to talk to a recycling company, but that’s hardly an accessible solution to most!
It does, however, offer a device recycling service – you can either pop it in to your local Apple store, or get a postage label on line. In theory this sounds like a good plan! Apple will, they say, refurbish or recycle your item and you might even qualify for a gift card!! So that’s what we’ll be doing with our mountain of defunct devices! We’ll let you know how that goes!
https://www.apple.com/uk/recycling/
Recycle Your iPhone
Of course most local authorities, and many retailers have electrical waste recycling services too, so do check in your local area as well if you need to dispose of any electrical products. I never ever throw anything even remotely electrical in the bin, even the spare cables in a printer box – it all goes in electrical waste in the perhaps fanciful hope that it won’t reach landfill and may lead a more useful life in the future!
