How and Why We Recycle
We take eco-responsibility very seriously, and here’s why:
1- In Britain each year, we throw away a million tonnes of electronic waste – enough to fill Wembley Stadium six times over.
2 - According to surveys, the UK consumes 1.8 million electronic items per year and less than 20% of that e-waste is recycled.
3 - e-waste equals 70% of overall toxic waste. Studies indicate that the amount of lead in electronics alone causes damage in the central and peripheral nervous systems, the blood and the kidneys.
( Source recyclingyourit)
Keeping our carbon footprint low, and computers out of
landfill is our top priority!
The entire warehouse at click4mac is a treasure trove of computer parts, screens, cases, and keyboards - all to be refurbished and sold. But as a business, there are plenty of other ways in which we try to keep our carbon footprint low.
One way is by using this old machine!
Yes it is a fairly old piece of kit, but it works a treat at shredding cardboard to use in our packaging!
We once had a customer complain about the fact we had used old boxes to package their order...this is something we make no apologies about!
It’s not about cutting costs, it’s about reusing.
Reusing the resources we have is important to us, reusing cardboard is more energy efficient than recycling, or buying it brand new - so that’s why we do it!
We repair and reuse as often as possible.
However, over the years Apple has made it more and more difficult for us to do this.
Replacing parts in their products, especially their phones and tablets, has become increasingly difficult to do. This is a big frustration and, as industry leaders (who sit on pots of cash bigger than some country’s GDP), it makes you wonder why Apple aren’t leading the way
in this field?
Come on Apple, you can do better than this!
‘But what about Apple’s new recycling procedure?’ I hear you ask!
Apple claims to have recently improved their recycling procedure, ( you can read about it here.
https://www.apple.com/uk/recycling/nationalservices/) However their claim that ‘Apple make it easier to recycle in your country’ is more than a little misleading.
How do we know this?
Well, for the past 12 years we have been recycling, repairing and stripping Apple products and during this time we have seen a decrease in their suitability for repair.
A machine is simply a sum of its parts working together. When one part breaks if it’s replaceable then the machine will and can, last longer. If that broken part is hard or impossible to access, then the phone, tablet, laptop or computer ends up as e-waste.
For example, the glued in battery --- why oh why do they do this?!
Not only does it make removal of the battery dangerous due to this highly volatile nature of Lithium Ion batteries, but it is so time consuming that repair or dismantling for recycling is not economically viable.
This video in the Washington Post explains it well!
If they replaced glue with small screws, many of the parts no longer replaceable, would become easy to replace and therefore extend the life of each product.
If Apple is truly interested in sustainability and being eco responsible, this is one change they could make, which, overnight would benefit the environment. As we often say; recycling is the worst, best option.
We view recycling as a last resort. Even if all the re-useable materials are successfully separated and recycled, there is considerable energy and resources used to do this and then to manufacture new products from those material. Far better is repair and re-use where
products are kept useable for longer.
The tragedy is, not only are computers recycled unnecessarily but many 1000s of machines get dumped as e-waste and leak their harmful chemicals into the soil and water ways in the area they are discarded.
Of course, this tends to take place thousands of miles from those of us who use them as we often send our waste to poorer communities who are left to deal with it. In many cases - these machines didn’t need to be discarded.
How do we reuse machines?
We take no-longer-needed machines to break down and use as parts where they have stopped being functional as a whole machine. Or, if they have life left in them, we clean them up, refurbish them, perhaps add memory or system upgrade if needed - and then sell them.
It means that the machine gets another few years being used, rather than wasted = result!
If you have an Apple product you no longer use, or has stopped functioning in the way you need it to, simply visit our super simple trade-in site, mac2cash.com to see what we can pay. You can even trade it in against a replacement new or refurbished item from click4mac.com.
We may be eco-enthusiasts, but we are also Apple enthusiasts and know how important it is
to have beautiful design and functionality which meets your needs.
Even buying an Apple product which is 1 or 2 years old will save you money. You can select up to 12 month warranty, and in many cases you can upgrade elements of the product you choose online, should you require.