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Apple offers free product recycling, plans to be better for the world

Apple CEO Tim Cook has released a new video entitled “Better”, explaining how Apple will become a greener company that is better for the environment.

In line with Earth Day 2014, Cook and the Apple team have outlined how Apple’s environmental efforts are helping to reduce its emissions, energy footprint and reliance on fossil fuels.

“We have a long way to go and a lot to learn, but now more than ever, we will work to leave the world better than we found it and make the tools that inspire others to do the same”, said Cook in the Better video posted on the Apple website.

Apple announced that as part of its environmentally friendly efforts, it will offer free product recycling around the world. If the device can still be reused, Apple will actually buy it off you in exchange for Apple store gift cards or offer free recycling if it can’t be reused.

The company even accepts PC desktop and notebooks with its recycling program, if you don’t have any Apple kit to recycle.

In fact, the majority of the kit Apple does recycle aren’t Apple branded products, 90 per cent are from other manufacturers.

“In 2010, we set out to achieve a worldwide recycling collection rate of 70 per cent of the total weight of the products we sold seven years earlier. Since then, we have consistently reached 85 per cent.”

The company also outlined its removal of any harmful toxins from the materials used to build its products like the iPhone 5S and has recycled more than 421 million pounds of electronic waste to date.

On the gigantic Apple Environment hub on the website, the company revealed the iPad Air is 31 per cent lighter than the original iPad, cutting down on material and therefore saving energy.

The iMac aluminium stand is made up of 30 per cent recycled content and the overall machine is 31 per cent lighter and had 40 per cent less volume than the previous model.

Read more: iPad Air vs iPad 4

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