Hidden AirTags crucial in Singapore recycling failure investigation
AirTags have been used to investigate whether a program by the Singapore government and chemical producer Dow really recycled sneakers, but instead found most were exported to another country.
An AirTag on a keyring
In 2022, the government of Singapore and Dow promoted an effort to turn the rubber soles and midsoles of donated shoes into a material used to construct playgrounds and running tracks. An investigation into the program determined that not all shoes that were donated actually got recycled, but instead were sent abroad.
After hearing of previous recycling failures by Dow, Reuters tested the shoe project by donating pairs of shoes to the effort. However, journalist secretly placed AirTags into the soles of 11 pairs, to try and find out where they actually went.
Multiple pairs of donated shoes were recovered by the report, with most found in Indonesia. One pair did stay in Singapore, but it seems someone may have taken them from the donation bin, as the pair were located about a mile from the bin itself.
According to the report, the tagged shoes were taken by a second-hand goods exporter who was allegedly hired by a waste management company involved in the recycling scheme.
On being presented the findings, Dow opened its own investigation along with state agency Sport Singapore and other program sponsors. Dow later confirmed the exporter would be out of the project from March 1.
A statement from Dow insists it and project partners "do not condone any unauthorized removal or export of shoes collected through this program and remain committed to safeguarding the integrity of the collection and recycle process."
Commonly appearing in crime-related stories, AirTag does sometimes become involved in some surprising developments.
In June 2022, AirTag helped a passenger discover a lost luggage graveyard in an airline's offices. Meanwhile, in January 2022, a researcher managed to send an AirTag to a mysterious "federal authority" in Germany, in a bid to try and prove it was a secret intelligence agency.
Apple's Find My system has also been used with other hardware for other surprising results. In April 2022, a Ukrainian man was able to track the movements of retreating Russian forces, by checking the position of AirPods stolen from his home near Kyiv.
Read on AppleInsider
An AirTag on a keyring
In 2022, the government of Singapore and Dow promoted an effort to turn the rubber soles and midsoles of donated shoes into a material used to construct playgrounds and running tracks. An investigation into the program determined that not all shoes that were donated actually got recycled, but instead were sent abroad.
After hearing of previous recycling failures by Dow, Reuters tested the shoe project by donating pairs of shoes to the effort. However, journalist secretly placed AirTags into the soles of 11 pairs, to try and find out where they actually went.
Multiple pairs of donated shoes were recovered by the report, with most found in Indonesia. One pair did stay in Singapore, but it seems someone may have taken them from the donation bin, as the pair were located about a mile from the bin itself.
According to the report, the tagged shoes were taken by a second-hand goods exporter who was allegedly hired by a waste management company involved in the recycling scheme.
On being presented the findings, Dow opened its own investigation along with state agency Sport Singapore and other program sponsors. Dow later confirmed the exporter would be out of the project from March 1.
A statement from Dow insists it and project partners "do not condone any unauthorized removal or export of shoes collected through this program and remain committed to safeguarding the integrity of the collection and recycle process."
Commonly appearing in crime-related stories, AirTag does sometimes become involved in some surprising developments.
In June 2022, AirTag helped a passenger discover a lost luggage graveyard in an airline's offices. Meanwhile, in January 2022, a researcher managed to send an AirTag to a mysterious "federal authority" in Germany, in a bid to try and prove it was a secret intelligence agency.
Apple's Find My system has also been used with other hardware for other surprising results. In April 2022, a Ukrainian man was able to track the movements of retreating Russian forces, by checking the position of AirPods stolen from his home near Kyiv.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Laters...
We are really screwing it up as a species.
i hope they continue and even widen the approach of using rather than dissecting.
The main “failure“ is to call continued use a „failure“ in recycling.
so yeah, reduce, reuse, recycle, in that order is better. But sadly that didn’t happen here.
so yeah, reduce, reuse, recycle, in that order is better. But sadly that didn’t happen here.
Apple itself has come a long way in its recycling process, but is the exception to the rule.
"Recycling" of plastics is a con created by the plastics industry to fend off regulatory legislation and provide consumers a way to rationalize purchasing single-use plastics.
We used to recycle dutifully until about 10-15 years ago when a local news story exposed the recycling fraud going on here. It seems that every time it is looked into, the recycling claim turns out to be BS.
The best exposé on the recycling fraud was on Frontline a few years ago:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/plastic-wars/
We stopped participating in the fraud a while back. It's best to avoid plastics, especially single-use plastics, as much as possible. I haven't figured out how to do that myself 100% though. It's embedded pretty deeply in our consumer stream.
I personally agree with your assessment of the plastic industry's deception with respect to recyclability. The fact that only a small fraction of plastic containers that contain recycle affirming markers are actually recyclable makes it difficult to believe much of what the industry says. It ends up in a waste stream somewhere. Whether it is dumped locally or dumped remotely comes down to who has the most money to make it "go away" from their backyard.
I half jokingly predict that with all of the plastic/polymer material ending up in the environment it will eventually infect the entire food chain. As alpha predator, humans will eventually be infused with polymers and silicon at a cellular level. At about the same time, AI will be able to jump the biological barrier into an evolved polymer-silicon-human hybrid and the transformation of humans into machines with finally be achieved. Maybe in a billion years?
Save the date.