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Recycling awaits old iPods

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W here do old iPods go to die? Not that any iPod is really old, but where do the ones that are worn out or just unwanted end up?

“Millions of iPods are sitting in junk drawers around the country,” says Ryan Arter, owner and president of iResQ in Olathe. His company, mainly Internet-based, repairs Apple products such as iPods, iPhones and Macintosh computers.

If an iPod can’t be fixed, it can be recycled. The company separates out the batteries, which are recycled, and removes any parts that can be used to fix other iPods. The rest of the iPod is sent to be reused or repurposed.

“In this whole process, we accumulate crates of e-waste and recyclable material,” Arter says

Apple also has an extensive recycling program. Last year 13 million pounds of e-waste were recycled, according to the company Web site at apple .com/environment/recycling. Apple also has dramatically reduced the packaging that comes with products, Arter says.

The recycling effort at iResQ is both a business and an ethical decision, he says. The company moved to Olathe from California in 1994.

“It stems from my experience of doing business in California, where the recycling rules are much different,” he says. “We groomed ourselves early to understand what’s legal and right and what makes us sleep better at night.”

For information on iResQ, go to iresq.com.

Send ideas for Green Home to home@kcstar.com or House+Home, FYI, The Kansas City Star, 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, Mo. 64108. | Jan Landon, Special to The Star

Posted on Thu, Nov. 15, 2007 02:15 PM

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