Originally published at: https://tidbits.com/2018/04/23/apple-introduces-new-iphone-disassembly-robot-and-recycling-program/
Apple is showing off Daisy, a new robotic iPhone disassembly system that works with several different models and can break down up to 200 iPhones per hour.
If only their recycle program worked as well when it came to outside. My experience was:
- wasting my time on Brightstar, the UK/Ire provider, then giving up
- bringing three iPhones to the US
- setting a Genius bar appointment
- have them all evaluated as worthless
- having to fill in by hand three separate sheets of paper
- waiting around quite a bit.
I’m with Greenpeace on this one. Instead of showing off robots that allow disassembling damaged iPhones without workers, Apple would rather focus on repairability of their devices and replicability of parts. Designing light and nice things is a lot easier if you assume people will just toss em out after a few months. Designing those same lightweight svelte gadgets with longevity in mind demonstrates some real skill. Of course that’s also a business issue. So I guess we’ll see how much of Apple’s green talk leads to action, and how much of that is just talk.
I philosophically agree with the concept of repairability and upgradability, but I just can’t see how it can happen with mobile devices while advancing the state of the art in terms of performance, capabilities, and size.
You can only really repair and upgrade a piece of technology effectively if there’s a lot of extra room in the case.
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In the US your best bet is to take older phones to a 3rd party.
You may get the same amount but the paperwork is less. 
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People value size and bulk over repairabiloity. Greepeace can (and of course will) whine about it as they try to get their name into the press so they can get more money so they can whine more, but the facts aren’t going to change.
Greenpeace, unlike some organizations, goes to great lengths to mention high-profile companies, often ignoring much worse companies, because their primary motivation is generating donations.
I lost all respect for them when they first pulled this with Apple, calling out Apple in the headlines for a report that clearerly showed Apple was better than the other companies in the report,. But saying "Dell sucks at being green”woudln’t have gotten the same headlines. I haven’t given them a dime since.
So, I am highly suspicious of anything Greenpeace says or does as they’ve proven themselves duplicitous.