Apple’s effort to e-cycle its products result in recycling 85% (by weight) of a device. The industry goal is to collect and recycle 70% of a device. Apple’s current e-cycling program accepts old iPhone or eligible smartphone, iPad, Mac or PC for reuse or responsible recycling. However, the collection process, not the processing of old electronics once collected, is the problem with the lifecycle of personal technology. Our objective is to figure out how to close the gap that prevents old personal technology from reaching Apple’s e-cycling program by visiting three homes to understand where and why old electronics are stored, if any.
Parents will commit to traditional recycling but have little knowledge or desire to recycle old electronics. The perception is that sending old electronics through the mail or traveling to recycling centers is seen as burdensome and time consuming. Parents store away and remind themselves that “one-day” they will repurpose the old device. We discovered that it is mostly kids that find out from Teachers and the Internet on how to recycle old electronics, especially old iPods.
To direct Apple’s focus in their e-cycling efforts to kids who are currently proactive about recycling old electronics. Apple will introduce an e-cycling machine called, iGive, in stores and available to e-cyclers of all ages. Kids will collect as many old electronics as they can and drop off the old devices into the iGive machine. As the child goes through the steps of turning in each device, iGive will educate and show exactly how they are helping the planet through an interactive experience only available to kids under 18 years old. As they build store credit with each device that is turned in, it is applied to their gift card, along with points, that is counted on Earth Day. The top ten kids with the most points receive a line of Apple products of their choice and a Mac lab for their current school. Many of today’s e-waste is manufactured by American electronics giant Apple, now Apple can claim to fame their efforts in properly recycling or reusing old electronics.
- Kids who influence their parents in electronic purchases
- Heavy internet users
- Cares about helping the environment
- Seek monetary incentives
These kids are scrappy and will do their online research to find ways to make money off of old devices. They are tech savvy and stay up to date with technological trends. They also care about saving the planet but need to see how their contribution is impacting the environment.
Create a future generation of e-recyclers through an incentivized experience.
Kids are hustlers. They have limited spending money and are driven by incentives.
Repurposing old electronics with the return of money matter more to kids than their parents.
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Team Members:
Strategists: Robin Greenbaum & Christin Johnson
Experience Designers: Abby Walters & Dheeraj Govindraju