Apple Recycling

Ugg.  I haven't blogged in a few days mostly because it's been a little crazy here.  This past weekend we had 4 birthday parties to go to.  My birthday was last week, Ellie's was the week before, Caden's is coming up in a few weeks....I've been a little overwhelmed.  So to REALLY put me over the edge, Caden was messing with the computer Saturday.  I'm not sure what he was doing, playing minecraft, or something.  I did hear him say he was waiting for the computer to reset, which I took to mean reboot, but I didn't really think anything of it.  But he meant reset.  He reset the computer to factory settings.  Wiped the whole thing clean.  All my word documents (resumes, address labels, Thirty-One documents, templates I've created) gone.  All my pictures...gone.  Microsoft Office-gone.  Everything on iTunes-gone.  I lost it.  I screamed. I sobbed.  I kicked myself for uploading the last two months of pictures, deleting them from the camera and then not uploading them to Shutterfly.  I have one picture of Ellie's 6th birthday (the one I posted on here.)  I have nothing from Olivia's 5th and 6th month.  I have a call into a computer guy to see if he'll be able to recover any of the pictures (that's my main concern), but I'm not super hopeful.  The Geek Squad already told us there was nothing THEY could do. 

The good part is that this comes right when our tax refund does.  Our computer isn't really running all that well, the  memory (was) almost full.  It looks like it might be a good time to shop for something new.  Evan has been thinking about getting a Mac for awhile.  So we checked out the website to look at some options.  I'm not real knowledgeable about TB and how much memory we need, I leave that up to Evan.  What attracted my attention was the word "recycle" on their website. 

Get an Apple Store Gift Card for the value of your old device.

Turn that iPhone, iPad, or computer — Mac or PC — you’re not using anymore into something brand new. Send it to us and we’ll determine if it qualifies for reuse. If it does, that means your device has monetary value that we’ll apply to an Apple Store Gift Card, which you can use for purchases at any Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. If your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or PC doesn’t qualify for reuse, we’ll recycle it responsibly at no cost to you.

Recycle your computer or display free.

If all you want is to dispose of your unwanted equipment — regardless of brand — we can help you do that. Apple contracts with Sims Recycling Solutions to responsibly recycle computers and displays from any manufacturer. Just call 800-966-4135 to receive a free prepaid shipping label. Then pack up your equipment using your own box and send it off. For more information about Sims Recycling Solutions, visit oem.srsapp.com/ApplePoweredBysims/.

Recycle Mac batteries free.

Bring your old Mac batteries to an Apple Retail Store near you and we’ll recycle them free.


How cool is THAT?!?!  I love that they'll take it even if you can't get a gift card.  Even if you don't use the gift card, you've still found a recycling site for electronics!  I know that around here, there are only certain times they recycling places will take items like electronics.  

I've read a lot about how horrible the production of only one iPhone is the the planet.  Apparently, so have a lot of other people and we're not happy about it. Apple has a whole section on it's site dedicated to discussing the company's carbon footprint.  I was trying to cut and paste some of the key points, but I was having formatting uses and Olivia is having not-being-in-Mom's-arms issues so I'll just have to leave it as "Check it out for yourself!" 

Wish me luck on my photo recovery mission!