Greenpeace Criticizes Apple's 'Daisy' Recycling Robot, Says Focus Should be on 'Repairable and Upgradeable Product Design'

[entropys]

You missed the part where Greenpeace regularly gives Apple high marks for most of their other environmental initiatives.
No matter what Greenpeace says or does, nothing is ever good enough for you.

We get it, you hate Greenpeace, you hate the environment, you hate anyone who dares to criticize Apple.
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Because they have a good track record of being right.

What does despising Greenpeace as a corporate entity clothing itself in virtue got to have with his views on the environment, which I did not see expressed here?

I remember when Greenpeace got started. It was all about Whales. It won that victory, but by then it had incorporated and like any entity, looked for other reasons to live for the benefit of its executives and their remuneration. It even squeezed its founders out.

What I don’t like about Greenpeace and many other environmental groups is that their executives can be very well paid while their business model relies on volunteers as foot soldiers to gather donations and act as shock troops to help achieve their goals.

 

[69Mustang]

Apple could do like other manufacturers and just let them go into landfills. At least they're doing something but Greenpeace can't even recognize that.

Instead, they use Apple's notoriety to attach them and gain publicity for themselves.

Did you not finish reading the article before posting? I ask because the last 3 paragraphs do exactly that; recognize what Apple does.

 

[ChrisA]

Nothing is ever good enough for Greenpeace. They criticize everyone.

And rightly so. Almost EVERYONE deserves it.

As it turns out almost everything we do is not sustainable. So it is reasonable to criticize almost everything. When I say "not sustainable" I mean it literally. Driving your car to work works for you and me today but people doing that for another 100 years is completely impossible. Same for borrowing money to pay for government's day to day costs. Works for us but it can't continue for 100 years as much as we want it to continue

"unsustainable" does not mean we SHOULD stop, it means we WILL stop even if we really don't want it to stop. It WILL. Yes almost everyone we do. Our entire lifestyle is unsustainable. It is good that at least someone is being honest about it.

 

[fs454]

Greenpeace can stuff it, this isn't realistic. The batteries and displays are already pretty easily replaceable considering the size and watertight nature of the current gen devices.


Apple will never go further than this, and they shouldn't. If you want a plastic device with a user-removable battery, there are plenty on the Android side but this does not fit within, and should not fit within Apple's design goals.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Nothing is ever good enough for Greenpeace. They criticize everyone.

Who needs to drive faster? 55 MPH is good enough.
Who needs to live longer? 60 years is good enough.
Who needs to make more? $5/day is good enough.

I could go on with stuff that many once considered good enough.

These old "good enough"s are laughable now because there were people who said they weren't good enough and pushed for better, as Greenpeace is doing now.

 

[Heltik]

And they're absolutely right. Recycling is great and all, but keeping products in use for longer would be even better. But Apple will just keep flying their eco-banner everywhere while making their devices more and more disposable. Such is their business model.

I'm still using my iPhone 5S. I have women coming up to me at the bar and asking if it's the new iPhone because it's so small. I tell them it's several years older than they're used to, but it's great because it operates beautifully with one hand. They usually turn their noses up at this point, as they prefer the younger models where they're expected to use two hands and a face.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Greenpeace can stuff it, this isn't realistic. The batteries and displays are already pretty easily replaceable considering the size and watertight nature of the current gen devices.


Apple will never go further than this, and they shouldn't. If you want a plastic device with a user-removable battery, there are plenty on the Android side but this does not fit within, and should not fit within Apple's design goals.

That's just silly. Make the battery smaller. Make the battery capable of going through more charge cycles. Make the components more energy efficient. Use solar power or an e-ink screen.

Too difficult to do today? Maybe. Next decade? Less likely. Ever? Doubtful.

All the times we supposedly reached the pinnacle of development, we found ways to push further and better. There's no reason to think that we're at the pinnacle for real this time.

 

[star-affinity]

I personally don't really care about what Greenpeace thinks about anything.

I personally find that a bit sad.

 

[PaulRustad007]

Greenpeace lives in fantasyland. Apple goes 100% non-fossil fuels and creates a means for efficient and minimal waste recycling. Still not good enough. Like a whining child.

Yup. And when Apple does offer better repairability, GP will come up with something else...... it is a no win game when you play with these people....

 

[sdf]

In a statement, Greenpeace Senior analyst Gary Cook said Apple needs to work on product designs that better accommodate upgrades and repairs, allowing for devices to be used for a longer period of time.

Because if there's one certainty in life, it's that people will use a good product designed to last forever… actually forever.

No, wait. It's that everything gets thrown out in the fullness of time.

 

[BeforeTheMeds]

I can't believe I agree with Green Peace, what's going on here? And the hate from the usually liberal Macrumors crowd, it's an upside down world we're living in.

If it wasn’t against apple they would be with greenpeace. Apple has “defend at all costs favorite rich corporation” status.

Kind of like favored nation status on steroids.

 

[vipergts2207]

Reduce the number of breaths/min, breathing releases Carbon Monoxide.

If you're exhaling carbon monoxide, you may want to see a doctor.

 

[veeco3110]

Hey Greenpeace... suck a tip. Go focus and figure out how to clean the garbage mass in the pacific or stop Japan from dumping th Fukushima contaminated water into the ocean...

 

[Doomtomb]

Who needs to drive faster? 55 MPH is good enough.
Who needs to live longer? 60 years is good enough.
Who needs to make more? $5/day is good enough.

I could go on with stuff that many once considered good enough.

These old "good enough"s are laughable now because there were people who said they weren't good enough and pushed for better, as Greenpeace is doing now.

 

[alphaod]

I personally find that a bit sad.

Why is that? I do my part about ensuring that what I do is "green," I recycle, reuse resources, use renewable energy. I also fix all my stuff whenever possible instead of tossing stuff out.

So does that make you sad?

 

[fs454]

That's just silly. Make the battery smaller. Make the battery capable of going through more charge cycles. Make the components more energy efficient. Use solar power or an e-ink screen.

Too difficult to do today? Maybe. Next decade? Less likely. Ever? Doubtful.

All the times we supposedly reached the pinnacle of development, we found ways to push further and better. There's no reason to think that we're at the pinnacle for real this time.

All of the suggestions above are so easy to suggest from a consumer standpoint. "Waah! Make it better!"

Of course they're going to make it better over time, to suggest otherwise is insane. I'm not saying we've reached the pinnacle and Apple should stop making better devices, I'm saying a removable battery, a more easily "upgradeable" device, etc. are flat out dumb to even suggest in the realm of Apple. I don't think Apple's just sitting around in a "512k RAM is more than enough for everyone" state.

 

[jonnysods]

Gosh at least you can use an iPhone for a few years, what do they say to android phone users??

 

[Jakexb]

One, it's the incorrect assumption that people are replacing their phones because they're irrepairably broken. That is the minority

Two, Better to make a simple device that doesn't need repairs than to make make a more complex device that is repairable but also needs repairing. A modular "repairable" device is much more complex with a lot more "moving parts" that can break, with less ability to seal the device from outside hazards like water and dust.

 

[Arcus]

Greenpeace shroud go see what China and India are doing to the environment.

iPhones are just as reusable as any other phone and name me one phone that is "up gradable" .
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One, it's the incorrect assumption that people are replacing their phones because they're irrepairably broken. That is the minority

.

Exactly, I just got rid of my Pixel 1 to get an X . Nothing was wrong with the pixel .

 

[69Mustang]

If you're exhaling carbon monoxide, you may want to see a doctor.

I admit to laughing a little too hard at this. Probably because it took a few seconds for the "haha" in the joke to register. Also, if he's exhaling carbon monoxide, I don't think there's much a doctor can do for him.

 

[Santabean2000]

Overly simplistic thinking there.

With servers for example, they're left running 24 hours/7 days by necessity. Newer generations of them use FAR less electricity than older models. At some point, discarding the thing makes more environmental sense than letting it burn huge amounts of power, doing the same tasks a newer system could accomplish even faster while using a lot less energy.

Heck, even with the Mac Pro, this is the case. The 2006/07 model draws hundreds of watts to run the dual Xeon CPUs in them. I recently saw a guy who attached a kill-a-watt meter to his 2006 Mac Pro that he had upgraded with Clovertown CPUs. He was re-purposing it to run VMWare ESXi server, but discovered it would increase his electric bill by about $50/month leaving it on all the time. A workstation or server with a generation newer of Xeon CPUs, by contrast, would cost him maybe $15/month to run, doing the same thing.

My point stands - reducing is best. Especially in the consumer arena.

 

[star-affinity]

Why is that? I do my part about ensuring that what I do is "green," I recycle, reuse resources, use renewable energy. I also fix all my stuff whenever possible instead of tossing stuff out.

So does that make you sad?

No, not that – good work there. Did you just do a strawman? https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/strawman

I didn't know that was what we was talking about, because you said: ”I personally don't really care about what Greenpeace thinks about anything.”

That's what I find sad. Because I sure think there are things Greenpeace thinks about that are worth caring about.

 

[NY Guitarist]

'Repairable and upgradeable product design' isn't as profitable as planned obsolescence. Selling 'units' is the end game.

 

[AsherN]

What is better, a non-user repairable device, that you send to Apple who can then bulk recycle the old parts, or a user repairable device, where individuals will just toss the old part in the garbage?

 

[Jsameds]

F Greenpeace