Apple agrees to pay $450K to settle charges of mishandling e-waste in California
Apple has agreed to pay $450,000 to settle claims it improperly dealt with e-waste at facilities in Cupertino and Sunnyvale, the California Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday.
In Cupertino, Apple allegedly operated an e-waste shredding facility between 2011 and 2012 without informing regulators, also mishandling metal dust from the facility, Reuters reported. The complex took in 1.1 million pounds of waste before being closed in Jan. 2013.
The Sunnyvale complex is said to have processed 800,000 pounds of waste before regulators were told it existed. On top of this, the company is accused of taking toxic dust swept off the floor to a site lacking the authority to handle it.
Apple further failed to report and track waste exports, regulators said, or mark used oil containers as hazardous.
The incidents conflict with the public image Apple has crafted for itself, which depict it as one of the most environmentally responsible companies in the world. Its electronics have been stripped of many dangerous chemicals, and the company has worked aggressively to use renewable energy at as many of its stores and offices as possible.
In Cupertino, Apple allegedly operated an e-waste shredding facility between 2011 and 2012 without informing regulators, also mishandling metal dust from the facility, Reuters reported. The complex took in 1.1 million pounds of waste before being closed in Jan. 2013.
The Sunnyvale complex is said to have processed 800,000 pounds of waste before regulators were told it existed. On top of this, the company is accused of taking toxic dust swept off the floor to a site lacking the authority to handle it.
Apple further failed to report and track waste exports, regulators said, or mark used oil containers as hazardous.
The incidents conflict with the public image Apple has crafted for itself, which depict it as one of the most environmentally responsible companies in the world. Its electronics have been stripped of many dangerous chemicals, and the company has worked aggressively to use renewable energy at as many of its stores and offices as possible.
Comments
Yah, this was 3 years ago, and was obviously a big oversight on their part. Apple was responsible at the end of the day, and this was clearly a big learning opportunity for them. Several irresponsible actions that conflict with their very-public statements of caring for the environment. I'm glad that they were fined. It would be nice for them to share more information on their recycling processes beyond Liam, their dissassembly robot.
Apple has every reason to stand on the correct side of the countless ethical, environmental and social ills that confront humanity.
are you so shallow, you haven't heard that equality is the goal of a more perfect union, or company, society or marriage?
As for the environment, have you not heard, Sog, we have a big problem with climate change? You may not care, but Apple as an institution, most of Apples employees, many of its customers, many of the nationals of its home nation, the nations and treaties upon which it is regulated and .... most marginally enlightened people throughout the world understand and expect that companies and governments must lead the way and will be held to that standard. As well it should be! A lot more people would be bitching, I assure you, if the held the opposite opinion about the worlds ills.
Come out of your cave.
Also, realize Tim Cook is a good man, represents Apple in an exemplary manner as an administrator, front man and lead strategist. He has served as a role model, going forward for countless Executives, both corporate and Government.
is he perfect, no. Only those in the rarefied world of s...5 are so prescient.
Apple: "This matter involves an oversight in filing paperwork to close one of our recycling facilities as part of our expansion to a larger site," Apple spokeswoman Alisha Johnson told Reuters in an emailed statement.
"We've worked closely with [the Department of Toxic Substance Control] to ensure that going forward we have the proper permits for our current site. As we do with all our facilities, we followed our stringent set of health and safety standards, which go well beyond legal requirements."
I don't mind Tim's trying to get out front and lead on social issues.
But if they do, the old saying (from Top Gun?) of having to do it "cleaner and better" fully applies.
It can not be possible for any internal decisions to approve anything that contradicts Apple's stated publicly positions. To contradict one calls all into question. One would also do well to remember Churchill's quote: "a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth gets its shoes on", so is it with bad news and the costs of countering bad news are higher and less effective remedially than just doing things right the first time.
For Apple to continue to command a price premium they need to remain emotionally aspirational, they cannot focus strictly on the bottom line and they need to jealously guard their reputation and image.
People like to know that they buy from companies that have positive principles; they even can convince themselves that some of the price premium is covering the costs of Cleaner and Better.
Mac sales are own BECAUSE computer usage is declining in favor of mobile. This is a factor for all computer manufacturers for the past 4 to 5 years. The impact on Macs (to this shift in technology) has been less (only showing in the last couple of quarters) than it has been on Wintels, BECAUSE Macs have a much longer economic life.
iPhone sales have flattened or declined during the last 4 quarters BECAUSE of economic weakness worldwide, excepting the US . This has led to a dramatic shift is foreign exchange rates that are detrimental to US exporters. Today's balance of trade report shows continuing weakness in US exports and increasing imports due to the strength of the US$.
Apple is impacted the same as US exporters because all of its products are priced in US$ or the local equivalent. As the US$ goes up in value foreign currencies go down (in relation to the US$). In the last 12 months Apple products sold outside the US have gone up 10% to 15% in order to maintain US$ equivalency of a year ago. Stated simply: US produced products become more expensive in foreign markets while foreign manufactured products become less expensive in the US.
Tim Cook has little to no control over these issues. You can blame him, but that only shows the level of ignorance you have on the subject.
A large part of what's utterly noxious about Sog35's hysterical ravings is that
they are so clearly devoid of reliance on anything he hasn't decided is "a fact".
Companies make mistakes, especially large ones, and they can't all be laid directly
at the feet of a company's CEO...whoever actually was CEO when this started.
i shouldn't be surprised. Their image means more to them than anything. Actions that aren't likely to be easily seen... well...