So if you buy one charger now, and use it to charge your next 2/3/4 ipads, how is that worse for the environment than getting another one in the box every time?
Something about the maths just doesn’t add up for me.
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iPad Why do some countries not receive a charging brick with the new iPad?
- Thread starter ric22
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Something about the maths just doesn’t add up for me.
So you're telling me you dislike the idea of having one charger in your study/home office, one in your bedroom, one in each of your kids bedrooms, one in the living room and one in the kitchen? I don't know about anyone else, but I only have 3 USB-C chargers at home and would happily accumulate some more for my family.
Since when has one family = one charger ever been a thing? Most households could do with some good quality higher wattage chargers.
I believe the official aim of the regulation is to reduce the amount of charging bricks thrown away because they are incompatible with other devices.
Personally I believe this aim is achieved by the charging brick and cable being separate.
However, preventing so many charging bricks from needing to be manufactured in the first place is a lot better for the environment.
It would be interesting to know how many fewer charging bricks Apple manufactured since removing them from the iPhone box.
Seems the UK didn't adopt any amendments to the e-waste laws since 2019, and commented that they didn't plan to make changes:
UK says it won't copy EU USB-C mandate, but that won't matter for iPhone
The UK says it has no plans to follow the EU's USB-C charging mandate, but a USB-C iPhone for the EU means a USB-C iPhone for everyone.
www.imore.com
But now all devices and charging bricks will be compatible USB-C devices, the incompatibility thing you mentioned doesn't make sense, surely? That can't have been their reason... well, unless they didn't think it through. It seems very anti consumer, considering everyone will pay just as much but get a little less for their money. ☹️
The incompatibility issue never made much sense because for many years the charging brick and cable have been separate.
Don’t forget the underlying aim was to reduce the amount of charging bricks being discarded. This has been achieved by a) standardising the shape of the socket on the charging brick and b) encouraging people to re-use existing chargers by not including new ones with products. It’s a classic carrot and stick approach
If they'd brought the "no chargers in the box" law in in 5 (or even 10) years time, that would have made sense... it would have let people accumulate a few of the things first. Now Apple just get to laugh at Europeans as they save a few extra bucks by not producing the chargers, while also selling more separately.
It’s been on the cards for many years. The charging brick being removed from the iPhone box in 2020 was very widely publicised; people knew this was coming.
I know. But that doesn't change the fact that most people only buy a device that comes with a USB C charger every few years. Hence the lack of chargers with a decent wattage (I'm talking a mere 25w and up) in the average person's home. I'm a tech geek and I only have two higher watt chargers at home! (While my equally tech-geeky partner only has one, and that technically belongs to her employer.)
Those people can buy a higher wattage charger from any number of shops. That’s kind of the point; you only acquire what you need.
Well, I'd say at least we know we can blame the EU rather than Apple, but that's because I'm in Germany. Back in the UK (where I'm from), everyone simply has Apple to blame.
I don't disagree, I'm just pointing out that this is entirely at the expense of the consumer, who now simply has to spend money they otherwise wouldn't have had to, if the EU had delayed this by a good few years.
But then the 16" MacBook Pro would cost you £150 more if you wanted to charge it at full speed from an Apple charger? How's that a good deal?
Edit: If Apple were to reduce the sale price by £150, I'd be in agreement with you, though it would still gall me to trust some random brand with charging my £3000+ laptop, especially at a high wattage...
Correct, that’s the ‘stick’ part (make it more painful to acquire the thing, so that people only acquire the thing when they actually need it).
It’s not supposed to be a ‘good deal’. It’s supposed to be about manufacturing less and producing less waste.
If politicians really gave a teeny weeny hint of a crap about the environment, they'd be clamping down on real issues like the pollution created by the shipping industry, but instead they do comparatively utterly meaningless (many many orders of magnitude less significant) stuff like banning chargers from coming with electronics or banning plastic straws.
Yes! But they don't. They tackle highly visible insignificant bits while leaving alone 99% well enough alone. They assume the visible stuff will pull the wool over our eyes.
Edit: Did you read how future electric vehicles will have essentially non-replaceable batteries? Talk about e-waste...
Hence many people believe it is all a hoax.
But it’s ultimately about the debate as to whether doing something is better than doing nothing.
Also, funny how this is a big ol' gift to big business, eh? Somewhat convenient. "Hey, guys, have some free profit on us!"
What's the stat... one large container ship produces the pollution equivalent to 50 million cars?
Compared to that, chargers in boxes is millions of times less significant to the environment.
Typically in favour of business and not in favour of the common man, would you agree?