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Apple sues recycling collaborator for reselling more than 100,000 iPhones , iPads and watches it has been contracted to disassemble.
Apple is suing former recycling partner GEEP Canada — now part of Quantum Lifecycle Partners — for reportedly stealing and reselling at least 103,845 iPhones , iPads and Watches employed to disassemble. At least 11,766 pounds of Apple devices have left GEEP premises without being destroyed-a finding that GEEP itself has documented, reads a section of Apple's lawsuit, as stated by The Reasoning (via AppleInsider).
Apple sent over 500,000 iPhones , iPads and Apple Watches to the recycling company between January 2015 and December 2017, according to The Logic 's report. When Apple did an examination, 18 percent of all users were already accessing the Internet via wireless networks. The 18 percent doesn't count Apple devices without a cellular phone, meaning an even larger number of phones may be resold.
Apple is demanding at least $31 million in Canadian dollars (approximately $22.7 million) from its former employer. The recycling company disputes any wrongdoing, although it does not deny that there was a theft — it allegedly lodged a third party suit alleging that three workers took the machines on their own behalf. Apple disagrees, arguing that these workers were in fact senior managers at the recycling company, contrary to The Reasoning.
Last year, humans left behind a record amount of e-waste, adding up to 53.6 million metric tons of tablets , laptops, appliances and other equipment. As other tech firms, Apple has been striving to strengthen its sustainable policies, including an attempt to shift in-house recycling of its own Daisy and Dave disassembly robots built to reclaim iPhone components that typical recyclers can't.
However, the firm also depends on other suppliers to recycle useful products from discarded machinery, and GEEP Canada was one of them from 2015 to 2018. Refurbishing and reselling devices were also part of GEEP 's market, although: although the company provided various e-waste management services during that time, it also specifically mentioned on its website that its goal was to promote re-use wherever possible.
But from Apple's point of view, reselling these gadgets may not have been OK. Just because goods may be resold on the underground market doesn't mean that they meet Apple's consistency or safety requirements. Products submitted for recycling are no longer available to sell to customers and, if they are reconstructed with counterfeit components, they may cause severe safety concerns, including electrical or battery defects, The Verge said.
Apple lodged a lawsuit in January 2020, but robberies have been documented since they were found between 2017 and 2018. Since then, Apple has not connected for GEEP Canada.
In 2019, we released a study on how one golden child of recycling businesses, Complete Reclaim, marketed its ethical standards when actively exporting radioactive waste overseas without the following legislation.
