Apple recycling information mailer not so green

An Apple Premium reseller in the UK sent us these photos of an Apple recycling information mailer they received: but the mailer itself was sent in a decidedly non-green way.

From photos the reseller sent, it appears the mailer consisted of two sheets of standard A4-sized paper. Those sheets of paper were placed inside a large, yellow clasp envelope. That envelope was then placed inside a corrugated cardboard box. The box was then mailed to the UK from Switzerland.

While all of these materials are recyclable, it seems like a little bit of a waste to send what could have fit in an everyday DL-sized envelope (that's about the size of a number 10 envelope for us Americans) in ridiculously oversized packaging. Plus, it probably would have saved them a bundle on postage.

Apple has been making a concerted effort to reduce its environmental footprint: not only with the program mentioned in this mailer, but for everything from iPhone packaging to how it makes its displays. Surely this isolated incident isn't representative of the company as a whole, but still. Sheesh.

Not-So-Green Mailer

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Source: http://www.tuaw.com/photos/not-so-green-mailer/

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An Apple Premium reseller in the UK sent us these photos of an Apple recycling information mailer they received: but the mailer itself was...

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David Hamilton

Apple aren't alone... last year Rackspace sent us a large certificate in a cardboard-backed envelope. Why...?

...To tell us about their eco-friendly initiative, of course! They'd planted a tree to offset the energy used by the servers we rent.

D'oh!

August 21 2008 at 4:06 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

clint Johnson

I'm going to file this under "who gives a rat's ass?"

August 21 2008 at 12:25 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

kURTaz

Oh, I'm so angry! I couldn't see the picture very well, so I printed it 11 x17. Once I could see the thing, I got so mad at Apple and TUAW that I copied it 20 times and posted it around work so people would never go to those websites.

People, we have to be serious about going green!

August 20 2008 at 9:41 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

duro

Couldnt find anything else to bitch about today huh?

August 20 2008 at 8:26 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

dan

it's US Americans, not WE Americans.

and no one said that this person can't reuse the box for something else, or recycle it themselves!

August 20 2008 at 7:26 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to dan's comment

Robert Palmer

I was all ready to get all grammar Nazi on you, but you're right! It's "us" Americans because it's the object of a preposition. I am duly shamed.

Thanks for the catch!

August 20 2008 at 7:34 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Luigi193

ALL the green crap (not from tuaw, but in general) drives me CRAZY!!!!!

It makes me want to burn the Rain Forest MORE

August 20 2008 at 6:15 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

jeff

When are people going to realize all this "green" stuff by corporations is a farce and simply for public relations?

If you really want to be "green" don't buy products with semiconductors, its a messy dirty process. Mailing cardboard around the world is nothing.

August 20 2008 at 5:50 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

apruk

Trust me, thats all we got in the box.

August 20 2008 at 5:26 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

lokipo

Working at an Apple premium reseller in Germany I can confirm that this is neither a return shipment box nor an one-off incident.

We did get our recycling posters in exactly the same packaging. In every single store.

Weird, even by Apple's standards... Normally these things are sent in some (recycled) brown envelope.

August 20 2008 at 5:16 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

shane

I recently bought a Macbook, and part of the purchase online was the option to recycle my old laptop. I selected yes, and they shipped me something that looks exactly like this. A recycle info page and a box to send my old laptop to Apple for recycling.

Are we sure that's not the case here? It's very coincidental that I received almost the exact same package.

August 20 2008 at 3:21 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply