Scored 3 2015 15 inch Intel MBPs

[Mr. Dee]

This week was a sweet one for me. Monday morning I arrived at work, but got an email that I need to be else where. I remembered there was some IT stuff that needed to be ecycled and I had to be there to get the team in. I was dreading this, rushed down to the building which was about 0.5 miles away. Got in and went up to the floor. OMG! There were like over 200 2015 MBP's vast majority in great condition sitting there ready to go to eWaste. I looked for the very best and picked out a few and grabbed a charger.

So far, I've restored a Mojave Time Machine on one and now have my Photoshop CS6 back. No plans to update it any further. I don't know what I plan to do with the other two though. Factory reinstalled OS X Mavericks on one because I was curious what it was like. Its so much like Leopard but beautiful on the retina display. I reloaded the factory Yosemite on the other, but I might upgrade it to Monterrey. They are all in such great condition: 512 GBs of storage, 16 GBs of RAM and nVidia graphics.

One man's trash is another mans treasure. I know those guys who came by to do the Ecycle, none of them look like they were really gonna be taking any of that stuff to e-waste. Its unbelievable how really good stuff just gets thrown away. I hope in the next 7 years I get that 16 inch with M1 Max, 64 GBs of RAM I saw in the order list.

 

[MultiFinder17]

I mean, if you’re looking for a home for one of them, I know of a classroom that wouldn’t say no to one. Just sayin’.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

It’s awesome you snagged three, but this also bums me out. When you consider the sheer amount of ppl who could use those for school (primary & secondary) and at best they get ewasted, that epitomizes wastefulness to me when the social need for such devices is so high. They’re more than still fully useable on the modern web as is. Such a drag. I feel like we (private industry) can do so so much better than ewaste. iBooks or core2duo MacBooks- ok I get that, but 2015 mbps? There is zero reason these should hit ewaste or landfill when kids families are paying good $$$ for crap spec’d chrome books that are trash out of the gate.

Anyways, I don’t mean to bring down your thread. I truly am super stoked that you were able to snag three - that’s really cool.

 

[Amethyst1]

Yeah, let's just hope the remaining MBPs don't end up going to waste!

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

Yeah, let me apologize again - just expressing my feelings on corporate e-waste policies. This is not in any way a moral judgement on you @Mr. Dee . Again, super stoked that you were able to divert three from e-waste/landfill. It's just fresh in my mind as I just took my 5.5 y/o to his first "science night" at his school where I was talking to his technology/computer lab teacher and she was talking to me about the age of their old iMacs and how they can't find replacement computers and right now, there is no clear path forward for them to source newer machines for their kindergarteners through 5th graders.

The public school program doesn't have money for that and so I feel & see the need that @MultiFinder17 was expressing in our school systems. Heck, I say send all 200 to his school because heaven knows I am 110% sure that their school system could use the heck out of them in their education programs vs marching them off to stupid e-waste.

 

[MultiFinder17]

Yeah, most of the computers in the labs at my school are a decade old this year. And most of those were just upgraded this summer from machines that came out around the XP/Vista transition. I’ve been half-heartedly looking for a replacement for my trusty rusty old 2008 15” because I use it so much on a daily basis in my classroom, and man something like a 2015 15” would be a dream come true!

Those old machines still have a lot of life left in them, especially in environments where every second of render time doesn’t make or break things.

 

[Mr. Dee]

I mean, if you’re looking for a home for one of them, I know of a classroom that wouldn’t say no to one. Just sayin’.

I'll think about it.

Yeah, let me apologize again - just expressing my feelings on corporate e-waste policies. This is not in any way a moral judgement on you @Mr. Dee . Again, super stoked that you were able to divert three from e-waste/landfill. It's just fresh in my mind as I just took my 5.5 y/o to his first "science night" at his school where I was talking to his technology/computer lab teacher and she was talking to me about the age of their old iMacs and how they can't find replacement computers and right now, there is no clear path forward for them to source newer machines for their kindergarteners through 5th graders.

The public school program doesn't have money for that and so I feel & see the need that @MultiFinder17 was expressing in our school systems. Heck, I say send all 200 to his school because heaven knows I am 110% sure that their school system could use the heck out of them in their education programs vs marching them off to stupid e-waste.

I would have grabbed more, but the 15 inch models are huge, those three alone weighed down my back pack so much. Its a good thing I removed my lunch kit before going down there. In hindsight, I should have grabbed a few more, but I had to be in multiple locations in the building at the same time. There were also a couple 27 inch Cinema Displays and many Microsoft Surface Pro's. Maybe if I had a car my mind would have felt more confident taking more. But the minute I took up one, I said, darn, this is heavy. My thought process behind taking three was if one or two was a lemon, I would at least get one working one.

I definitely agree with you though, these are nowhere near ready for ecycling. The one I am using as my main machine actually had Big Sur already on it and another had Catalina. So, they were actively being used. But I suspect what this means is they are probably gonna start deploying new Apple Silicon models.

I'm bringing a trolley with me in the next 5 years that's fa sure! 😄

Forgive the mess...

 

[m1maverick]

Those old machines still have a lot of life left in them, especially in environments where every second of render time doesn’t make or break things.

Which is most environments. We are a very wasteful society. Since these systems can run the current OS (if only for a few more days) they still have useful life in them. Even after they can't Monterey will continue to receive security updates for at least a couple of more years.

I think the good news is that "ewaste" typically means wipe the HD (or remove) and put on Ebay.

 

[theMarble]

Factory reinstalled OS X Mavericks on one because I was curious what it was like. Its so much like Leopard but beautiful on the retina display. I reloaded the factory Yosemite on the other, but I might upgrade it to Monterrey. They are all in such great condition: 512 GBs of storage, 16 GBs of RAM and nVidia graphics.

If you're able to install Mavericks on them, and they have NVIDIA GPU's then they are not Mid 2015's. The 2012, 2013 and 2014 15" Pro's had NVIDIA GPU's (650M 1GB on 2012 and Early 2013, 750M 26GB on Late 2013 and Mid 2014). The 2015 used a Radeon R9 M370X and can only run Yosemite or later.

 

[teh_hunterer]

This week was a sweet one for me. Monday morning I arrived at work, but got an email that I need to be else where. I remembered there was some IT stuff that needed to be ecycled and I had to be there to get the team in. I was dreading this, rushed down to the building which was about 0.5 miles away. Got in and went up to the floor. OMG! There were like over 200 2015 MBP's vast majority in great condition sitting there ready to go to eWaste. I looked for the very best and picked out a few and grabbed a charger.

So far, I've restored a Mojave Time Machine on one and now have my Photoshop CS6 back. No plans to update it any further. I don't know what I plan to do with the other two though. Factory reinstalled OS X Mavericks on one because I was curious what it was like. Its so much like Leopard but beautiful on the retina display. I reloaded the factory Yosemite on the other, but I might upgrade it to Monterrey. They are all in such great condition: 512 GBs of storage, 16 GBs of RAM and nVidia graphics.

One man's trash is another mans treasure. I know those guys who came by to do the Ecycle, none of them look like they were really gonna be taking any of that stuff to e-waste. Its unbelievable how really good stuff just gets thrown away. I hope in the next 7 years I get that 16 inch with M1 Max, 64 GBs of RAM I saw in the order list.

My understanding is e-waste means anything of value will be data wiped and auctioned off. Usually the organisation who bought the stuff in the first place gets a kickback from that as well, so you might want to be careful and double check that you didn't "score" the MacBooks so much as "steal" them from your organisation.

I wouldn't be caught dead taking things from e-waste where I work. That is straight up theft and a fireable offense, at least at my job. Actually, some guy got caught selling things from e-waste and fired a month or so ago, and we're still not sure if the org is going to take legal action against them or not.

All our assets that get e-wasted are entered into a spreadsheet before they're taken away as well, so we would know if the company that comes and e-wastes for us decides to "score" something for themselves.

 

[Mr. Dee]

If you're able to install Mavericks on them, and they have NVIDIA GPU's then they are not Mid 2015's. The 2012, 2013 and 2014 15" Pro's had NVIDIA GPU's (650M 1GB on 2012 and Early 2013, 750M 26GB on Late 2013 and Mid 2014). The 2015 used a Radeon R9 M370X and can only run Yosemite or later.

One is Mid 2014 and has Intel Iris graphics, but all have 16 GBs of RAM and i7 processors, 512 GBs of storage. I will go through them again when I have some time. But they are high specced models. The 2014 is being offered Monterrey in Mavericks.

 

[teh_hunterer]

It’s awesome you snagged three, but this also bums me out. When you consider the sheer amount of ppl who could use those for school (primary & secondary) and at best they get ewasted, that epitomizes wastefulness to me when the social need for such devices is so high. They’re more than still fully useable on the modern web as is. Such a drag. I feel like we (private industry) can do so so much better than ewaste. iBooks or core2duo MacBooks- ok I get that, but 2015 mbps? There is zero reason these should hit ewaste

That's not really what e-waste means. Perhaps you shouldn't so easily criticise something you don't understand. Do you really think 200 2015 MacBook Pros are going to landfill?

If these computers are good for anything, they will be data wiped and sold on. Only something that is truly unusable and worthless will be scrapped for materials and/or end up in landfill.

OP's employer would have received a financial return once they were e-wasted, too, and I suspect they wouldn't be too happy to hear their employee had taken it upon themselves to pilfer them. if I took it upon myself to just grab whatever I wanted out of e-waste, my employer would almost certainly fire me. However, it could be totally different where OP works.

 

[Mr. Dee]

That's not really what e-waste means. Perhaps you shouldn't so easily criticise something you don't understand. Do you really think 200 2015 MacBook Pros are going to landfill?

If these computers are good for anything, they will be data wiped and sold on. Only something that is truly unusable and worthless will be scrapped for materials and/or end up in landfill.

OP's employer would have received a financial return once they were e-wasted, too, and I suspect they wouldn't be too happy to hear their employee had taken it upon themselves to pilfer them. if I took it upon myself to just grab whatever I wanted out of e-waste, my employer would almost certainly fire me. However, it could be totally different where OP works.

As long as the data is wiped, it’s fine. I asked and they said just make sure it doesn’t have the company image on it. I know the three are safer with me than the remaining 197 those three guys from the ecycling company my company contracted to take them away. Let’s just say, they don’t look like saints. When I went back and told the co-workers the same, they didn’t even care. On the Windows side, I’m seeing 2019 and even 2020 devices already getting ecycled.

I remember one day going to the cage where we normally store this stuff for pickup. I had dropped off some old mice and keyboards; some ecycling folks were on site picking up. They were going through some Dells. I overheard one of them say “dude, is that a MacBook Pro?” When they checked it closer, “nah, it’s just a Dell”. 😄

Now, that initial excite pretty much told me if it were a MacBook Pro, it wasn’t gonna go where it’s supposed to go. 😄

 

[planteater]

That's not really what e-waste means. Perhaps you shouldn't so easily criticise something you don't understand. Do you really think 200 2015 MacBook Pros are going to landfill?

If these computers are good for anything, they will be data wiped and sold on. Only something that is truly unusable and worthless will be scrapped for materials and/or end up in landfill.

OP's employer would have received a financial return once they were e-wasted, too, and I suspect they wouldn't be too happy to hear their employee had taken it upon themselves to pilfer them. if I took it upon myself to just grab whatever I wanted out of e-waste, my employer would almost certainly fire me. However, it could be totally different where OP works.

I was surprised to hear that the OP would “take” the machines and then post on the internet about it. Employers I've worked with would also consider that stealing.

 

[teh_hunterer]

As long as the data is wiped, it’s fine. I asked and they said just make sure it doesn’t have the company image on it. I know the three are safer with me than the remaining 197 those three guys from the ecycling company my company contracted to take them away. Let’s just say, they don’t look like saints. When I went back and told the co-workers the same, they didn’t even care. On the Windows side, I’m seeing 2019 and even 2020 devices already getting ecycled.

I remember one day going to the cage where we normally store this stuff for pickup. I had dropped off some old mice and keyboards; some ecycling folks were on site picking up. They were going through some Dells. I overheard one of them say “dude, is that a MacBook Pro?” When they checked it closer, “nah, it’s just a Dell”. 😄

Now, that initial excite pretty much told me if it were a MacBook Pro, it wasn’t gonna go where it’s supposed to go. 😄

I'd want to hear directly from my manager that it was OK to take stuff from e-waste. Anything less than that and you could be making a serious mistake.

I don't know how it's done at your workplace, but every asset we have is tagged and catalogued, from when it's purchased all the way through until it's e-wasted. If it gets e-wasted, it's recorded that the e-waste people took it. If their report of what they took for e-waste doesn't match our report of what we asked to have e-wasted (ie there are items missing), questions are asked. If the device never gets e-wasted, someone from the hardware asset management team is going to start tracking it down and trying to find out why.

Just because the guys coming to take it look shifty to you, doesn't automatically mean you can take it upon yourself to pilfer devices from work. You do you, but unless I was told explicitly I could do it, I would assume it would be looked upon as theft.

As for 2019 devices getting e-wasted, well yeah, they'd be out of warranty after three years. Time to upgrade them to a new device that's under warranty and e-waste the old ones. I don't know why you are assuming they're being recycled or going on to landfill - they are almost certainly being sold, and your employer getting money back from that sale, which they use to subsidise the purchase of the new devices, and the cycle continues.

 

[Mr. Dee]

I was surprised to hear that the OP would “take” the machines and then post on the internet about it. Employers I've worked with would also consider that stealing.

Like I said, when I went back to the office I spoke to the same folks who instructed me to go there in the first place. They did not have any problems with it. In fact, the Dell I use as my work machine was pulled out of ewaste, reimaged and its what I use. Also, I remember going to a site where new deployments were being done with a Project Manager. Now, this is the person who does the procurement of the actual IT equipment which gets dumped years later. There was a MacBook Air left in one of the buildings that was about to be renovated. They simply took it and wiped it. It simply had no value anymore. That same day, down stairs there was a similar set of HP notebooks getting ready for ewaste. I asked them if I could grab one. They said, grab as many as you like! IT folks who worked on site even came and grabbed a few themselves.

Here is another interesting story from that same site, the previous folks who were working there left a $9,000 Surface Hub in the building. I asked the Project Manager, whats gonna happen to this. Their response, I don’t know, dumped I guess.

 

[Mr. Dee]

I'd want to hear directly from my manager that it was OK to take stuff from e-waste. Anything less than that and you could be making a serious mistake.

I don't know how it's done at your workplace, but every asset we have is tagged and catalogued, from when it's purchased all the way through until it's e-wasted. If it gets e-wasted, it's recorded that the e-waste people took it. If their report of what they took for e-waste doesn't match our report of what we asked to have e-wasted (ie there are items missing), questions are asked. If the device never gets e-wasted, someone from the hardware asset management team is going to start tracking it down and trying to find out why.

Just because the guys coming to take it look shifty to you, doesn't automatically mean you can take it upon yourself to pilfer devices from work. You do you, but unless I was told explicitly I could do it, I would assume it would be looked upon as theft.

As for 2019 devices getting e-wasted, well yeah, they'd be out of warranty after three years. Time to upgrade them to a new device that's under warranty and e-waste the old ones. I don't know why you are assuming they're being recycled or going on to landfill - they are almost certainly being sold, and your employer getting money back from that sale, which they use to subsidise the purchase of the new devices, and the cycle continues.

Another story, when I just started there, I remember there was a rack of 24 inch Dell monitors outside the office area, also getting ready for ewaste. The project manager ask two of us, could you guys go take this down to ewaste for me and if you want to grab some for yourself, please do so. I took a couple then did a gut check, I asked the PM and a Project Lead, are you sure its ok to walk off the compound with these? What if the security guard see’s me walking home with two monitors, isn’t that gonna look suspicious? Response: perfectly fine!

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

That's not really what e-waste means. Perhaps you shouldn't so easily criticise something you don't understand. Do you really think 200 2015 MacBook Pros are going to landfill?

If these computers are good for anything, they will be data wiped and sold on. Only something that is truly unusable and worthless will be scrapped for materials and/or end up in landfill.

OP's employer would have received a financial return once they were e-wasted, too, and I suspect they wouldn't be too happy to hear their employee had taken it upon themselves to pilfer them. if I took it upon myself to just grab whatever I wanted out of e-waste, my employer would almost certainly fire me. However, it could be totally different where OP works.

I understand the business model. When I think it through, I believe there can be another path to up cycle these machines - beyond a pure profit motive anyhow. We can rethink public-private partnerships so they benefit/connect our public education systems more directly to these machines. Ewasters can & do play an important role in wiping/securing sensitive data (& bringing them to resale market as you spoke to) but that service could also be subsidized or absorbed elsewhere and the machines moved directly on to educators & students. The solution can flow in more than one way to better serve differing needs.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

Another story, when I just started there, I remember there was a rack of 24 inch Dell monitors outside the office area, also getting ready for ewaste. The project manager ask two of us, could you guys go take this down to ewaste for me and if you want to grab some for yourself, please do so. I took a couple then did a gut check, I asked the PM and a Project Lead, are you sure its ok to walk off the compound with these? What if the security guard see’s me walking home with two monitors, isn’t that gonna look suspicious? Response: perfectly fine!

Yeah man, at my last job the IT director knew I was an Apple fan & gifted me a couple Macs (a mb & mbp) that were being ewasted. We were lucky enough to have/had thoughtful bosses that saw the value & culture of the gift beyond its monetary value as a deduction. Talk about building brand & allyship.

 

[Amethyst1]

The 2015 used a Radeon R9 M370X and can only run Yosemite or later.

The lower-end 2015s have Iris Pro 5200 GPUs just like the 2013s and 2014s and Mavericks can unofficially be run on them. The 15” didn’t get Broadwell CPUs.

 

[teh_hunterer]

Yeah man, at my last job the IT director knew I was an Apple fan & gifted me a couple Macs (a mb & mbp) that were being ewasted. We were lucky enough to have/had thoughtful bosses that saw the value & culture of the gift beyond its monetary value as a deduction. Talk about building brand & allyship.

Work in a big enough institution and there's going to be an asset management system such that every device is accounted for, and you can't just decide to give devices to your employees.

Each organisation is different.

 

[Mr. Dee]

Work in a big enough institution and there's going to be an asset management system such that every device is accounted for, and you can't just decide to give devices to your employees.

Each organisation is different.

I know those HP’s and Dells aren’t going back into no production. Not because they are MacBook Pro’s we should hold them to some different standard. What I got so far from this thread is, I hate that you got three perfectly good MacBook Pro’s.

What this thread also tells me is if I won the lottery, probably don’t tell anybody. People will find every possible way to guilt trip you.

 

[teh_hunterer]

I know those HP’s and Dells aren’t going back into no production. Not because they are MacBook Pro’s we should hold them to some different standard.

I honestly don't understand the above.

What I got so far from this thread is, I hate that you got three perfectly good MacBook Pro’s.

What this thread also tells me is if I won the lottery, probably don’t tell anybody. People will find every possible way to guilt trip you.

That's an odd response. You were either explicitly allowed to have them, or you weren't. I don't know where the rest is coming from.

If your boss gave you three MacBook Pros that would be great.

 

[dandeco]

Congrats! I work for an electronics recycling/reselling company, and we get lots of older computers from school districts and such. Lately we've been getting lots of Intel Macs (mostly iMacs and MacBook laptops, along with some Mac Minis), most likely due to educational institutions upgrading to new Apple Silicon Macs. As part of this, my workplace let me have a 2015 Retina 15" MacBook Pro that came from such a district that I use at my workplace now. Upgraded it with a 1 TB SSD (ever since Apple stopped making Macs using that proprietary PCIe-esque SSD standard, they let third parties now make compatible drives, including 1 TB models, for replacing such SSDs in compatible MacBooks) that currently runs Mac OS 12 Monterey (when Ventura comes out, I'm gonna install it on here using the OpenCore Legacy Patcher system) and a Boot Camp partition running Windows 11!
Not the first time I've gotten an older Mac from my workplace either; we don't bother to resell PowerPC Macs, so of course those are often mine for the taking! (Otherwise they'd just be recycled.)

 

[Mr. Dee]

I honestly don't understand the above.



That's an odd response. You were either explicitly allowed to have them, or you weren't. I don't know where the rest is coming from.

If your boss gave you three MacBook Pros that would be great.

Odd response? I was basically called a thief by someone in this thread who said I ‘pilfered’ them. What would you say if someone accused you of being a thief? Even when clearly said, the same people who instructed me to go there and escort way team didn’t have a problem with it. I personally see where these things go, it’s not a good home.