A factory worker going by the fake name James Johnston has leaked an image of what allegedly seems to be perfectly fine “looking” Apple equipment being compacted and smashed in a warehouse in Sydney, Australia.
The report which first showed up on apcmag.com, claims that most of the macs shown in the image are in working order. “Apple Computer has been busy getting labourers to smash a rubbish skip full of computers in a Sydney warehouse, many of them in seemingly working order.”
Johnston (which is a fake name remember), “assumed he was in for an everyday job until he saw what he estimated to be $200,000 worth of Apple hardware, peripherals and equipment.” He doesn’t skimp on the details either.
“There were up to nine pallets,” Johnston remembers, “two were of MacBooks, both Pro and 13 inch versions, two were of iMacs, two were of Mac Pro towers, one had few Xservers on it and a few Mac Pros and one had Mighty Mice and a copy of Final Cut Studio – we went as far as manually tearing up the manuals.”
Upon discovering the equipment, Johnston says him and his team were surprised to discover that most of the Macs started up with no problem. “Several machines in the first batch I was involved in had emails included in the box or taped to the outside.” Allegedly, “Someone who’d been there about nine months said Apple had replaced the units because it was too expensive to send them to China for repair.”
However, Johnston claims that him and his team were instructed to destroy all of it. “The supervisor told someone to get some tools and they came back with two hammers and several screwdrivers. They wanted us to separate the two halves of the MacBooks and smash the screens of the iMacs with hammers.”
Apparently, someone who represents Apple on the site permanently gave Johnston the order to destroy the equipment. When they dumped all of the equipment into a large dumpster outside of the warehouse, people complained that it was sticking above the edge of the bin, and Johnston’s crew had to crush it down with a forklift.
Apple Australia Marketing Director Rob Small explained, “We only destroy stock that’s either beyond economic repair or is been deemed not fit for sale to a customer again.” Which means they do not destroy perfectly good Macs for no apparent reason. “Anything we recycle is done responsibly through certified recyclers. Nothing goes to landfill and we do not donate second hand products to charity or move them off-shore,” Small added.
E-waste has been a big deal for the technology industry around the world. Recycling has become more important, and as we progress and evolve as a society, our population increases and so does the need for efficient and proper waste management. CBSNews put together an incredible report tracking the origins of e-waste half way around the world.
13 Comments to “Leaked Image Shows Apple Destroying Macs In Warehouse”
What a WASTE!
Reply
Yeah. To say the least. Something doesn’t seem right about the entire scenario though. I don’t think Apple would be wasting these machines, and how could nobody “off-duty” walk away with working Apple computers?
Reply
There is nothing odd about this.
I have worked work a few retailers, and they all do “field destroys”
It sucks, But it is often cheaper to destroy product then try and resell. At an electronics store, virtually all cables, PCI cards, and software were destroyed when returned. (The manufacturer insists on it) They don’t want it being resold, and it would cost them more to have it returned, checked out, repackaged(as used/refurbished) and then sold. They then credit back the store. They want it destroyed so does not take away from future sales.
At another store shoes that were returned or discontinued, were cut up before being put in the dumpster.
I have also seen it many times with computers, a pallet of computers(G5 towers) were damaged in shipping, just cosmetically. The freight company had their insurance company pay, but then they had to be destroyed. (it killed me watching them be smashed, and the manager was very complete, nothing would have been usable)
Same with older returned computers. Manufacturers only allow so many computers to be returned per year. so sometimes an excess builds up that cannot be returned that year. If the managers are not paying attention they can end up with years worth of returns. They slowly send this stuff back year after year, but its 3-5 years old by then and the manufactures then just say destroy it.
Or sometimes a manager will reduce his inventory by destroying a small amount each month. These computers still have a huge “cost”, but since they are older will not sell for much. He needs to clear out some inventory $$ to get more newer stock, so destroys a small amount at a time. I’ve seen tons of iPods destroyed, because when they were returned no-one tested them and they just piled up, eventually they were a few generations old and were smashed to clear out.
Many of these situations are the stores fault, but its very common practice.
I know nothing about this warehouse, but it could be older, broken computers that Apple has credited the reseller back for and now they are to be field destroyed
Reply
those aren’t new machines. the towers are G5, you can tell by the processor heatsink. And the laptop has an old style power connector on the left side, which means those are g4 laptops.
Reply
no-one thought maybe send them to the third world…
Reply
No surprise here. They were returned to Apple following replacement, etc. Many units will “start up OK” then fail after 10 or 15 minutes. Sometimes these units aren’t economically repairable. You destroy them so some dumpster diver won’t pull it out, take it home, then post comments on line about crappy Apple equipment is because his portable/desktop doesn’t work.
Reply
I’m crushed.
Reply
Recycling, anyone? !! I see lots of toxic waste involved here w/ poor disposal!
Reply
How true! They ought to let computer lovers who want them come in and get them on terms that they not whine online.
Reply
Not only are they older computers. They are unlikely in working order. The G5 tower that you can clearly see inside is missing its optical drive. It seems to be missing its processor card too. It is likely that these Macs were broken and stripped of their working parts before being destroyed.
I do think it is poor management to crush them when an empty G5 housing still sells on eBay for $50. Recycle. Reuse!
Reply
All I see are old PPC machines of which supposedly won’t work with OSX 10.6 when it comes out.
Apple can’t sell those as refurbs since they’re not supported anymore. Repair parts probably will run out in a short period of time as well.
And while a empty G5 housing sells on eBay for $50, the time and money spent to pay an intern to sell them on ebay will probably cost them $50 too, so it’s a wash. It’s guaranteed money when you send all that crushed aluminum to a recycler who’ll probably just melt it down and send it back to you to make new unibody Macbooks out of.
Reply
$200,000? not likely, these look like all obsolete G4 powerbooks* and G5 Powermacs**. As for ’send them to China for repair’ that’s not going to happen. Repairs are done in whatever country they are in, it would make NO sense to ship a tower back to China for a MB replacement and so on, even if this is in Australia. Years ago I worked at a place where we regularly destroyed computers that were more than 6 months old. A waste sure, but more common than people realize. It’s a shame they didn’t make the effort to get them recycled but it’s hardly unusual. Heck, even the person who reported this says; “assumed he was in for an everyday job” so it’s not like they’ve not destroyed other old products as well. You just put them in the recycle dumpster and let it go from there.
*No visible remote IR or iSight
** Heatsinks/fans and powersupply location indicate G5s
Reply
Where can I get some of these. Been meaning to do a G5 transplant for ages. Anyone know of any in Brisbane ?
Reply