Philip Jacob

Apple's Take-back/Recycling Program

· Philip Jacob

As reported elsewhere (Slashdot, CNN, Digg, Business Week, etc.), Apple recently started an “expansion” of their computer take-back and recycling programs. They patted themselves on the back with a nice little press release:

Apple is committed to supporting our customers and protecting the environment throughout the entire product life cycle, from purchase through to retirement, said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

That’s really great to see a big computer company voluntarily supporting environmental friendly policies. I mean, just great. Super.

Just one small thing:

Recommendation

The Board recommends a vote AGAINST the proposal entitled Electronic Waste Take-Back And Recycling.

That’s from page 22 of Apple’s “NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS”, in which they recommend voting against the “ELECTRONIC WASTE TAKE-BACK AND RECYCLING” proposal submitted by an Apple shareholder known as “The Education Foundation of America.”

The only reason that I happend to notice this is because I didn’t throw away the recent proxy vote envelope that came to me via mail a few weeks ago (all Apple shareholders receive this).

It’s not all roses, eh? Note that this little fact was not reported by any of the news outlets that reported this Wonderful New Happy Super-Duper Apple recycling program.