Apple E-Waste Ethical Issue – Case Study Assignment Sample

TASK 1 REFLECTIVE REPORT

INTRODUCTION

Self-reflection implies for the process of communicating internally for determining One’s behaviour, feeling and the reason behind the same. Apple is the American Multinational technology organization which established in the year of 1976 by Steve Jobs (Description of Apple, 2025). The current report is based on utilising Gibbs’s reflective model for sharing my experience while analysing the Apple’s ethical issue. It is the six step framework which includes critical reflection and offers opportunity to transform it into valuable learning opportunities (Gibbs’s reflective Model, 2024).

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Description

In the summative assessment, my chosen topic was Apple’s Ethical Dilemma in E-waste Management as well as analysing the firm’s recycling and Take-back program. I have identified that Apple is unable to manage its E waste due to high consumption and obsolesce rate which eventually impacts the overall country’s environment. Apple has generated over 78000 tonnes of E-waste among which only 33000 tonnes were recycled in the Year of 2023 indicating the huge ethical issue (E-waste issue of Apple, 2025). Moreover, organization has been accused of Green washing as firm claims to introduce a robot for disassemble Iphone which could not able to work accordingly.

Feeling

I have developed interest toward identifying information regarding the E-waste issue of Apple. However, I was very confused while selecting the case study but with continuous research I was able to select the most optimum case for the assignment. Lastly, this assignment helps me in understanding e-waste issue and techniques through which such issue could be overcome.

Evaluation

This assignment has helped in developing the significant amount of academic knowledge and cognitive skills that contribute in the attainment of future goals. While undertaking assignment, I have encountered the large number of issues which were resolved with the help of tutor and peers. Further, I also faced issues in selecting the most appropriate case which indicates the lack of researching and critical thinking skills.

Analysis

From the current assignment, I have identified that focus needs to be placed on improving my problem solving skills. Moreover, I was unable to take any decision by my own. Moreover, I need to improve my researching skills which aids in gaining accurate and reliable information.

Conclusion

By summing up reflection, it has been depicted that ineffective e-waste management is the major ethical issue faced by Apple. This issue have risen due to the high obsolesce rate and ineffective firm’s recycling policies. Further, I need to develop problem solving, critical thinking and researching skills for successfully attaining goal in upcoming time.

Action plan

Skills	Resources	Development strategies	Time period
Critical thinking	Mentoring session	I will attain mentoring session which guides me in evaluating all the positive and negative aspect of topic based on which accurate decision could be taken (Shefner et al, 2020).	1-4 months
Researching skills	Coaching	For developing researching skills, emphasis will be paid over attaining coaching session. This will help me in developing knowledge regarding research process as to easily identifying all the required information.	4-8 months
Problem solving	Technology	I will focus on resolving large number of situation based question that contributes towards developing my problem solving skills (Schwepker et al, 2021).	8-12 months

CONCLUSION:

Conclusively, it has been identified that E-waste is major ethical issues impacting on overall environment and natural resources. Further, I will attain mentoring & coaching session and resolve situation based questions for developing the required skills.

TASK 2 CASE STUDY ANALYSIS

INTRODUCTION

Ethical issue implies for the situation and circumstance in which moral conflicts developed at the workplace. Incapability in managing ethical issue results into reputational damage, creates legal consequences which ultimately impact overall financial position of the business entity. Moreover, ethical issue also leads to losing trust and confidence of customer and thereby creates issue in maintaining the long term stability. The current report is based on the evaluating ethical issue facing by Apple and sustainability measures undertaken by the organization. Moreover, various theories and concepts will be used for evaluating sustainability and ethnicity of Apple. It will also include information regarding the company’s diverse stakeholder and their perspective regarding the prevailing ethical issue.

Company’s Background

Apple is the American multinational technology organization, headquartered in California, which established in the year of 1976 by Steve jobs. The organization was started with the partnership of Steve Woznaik, Ronald Wayne and Steve jobs who designed and build computer known as Apple I. To finance the business, they sold their HP-65 computer Club and Volkswagen Bus. Currently, Apple is the world’s largest technology company by revenue which amounted to 391.04 billion pound in the year of 2024 (Company Profile of Apple, 2025). Apple offers wide range of product that includes AirPods, Ipad, Iphone, Apple TV, MAC and watches. Apple is having market share of 23% and employed over 164000 workers in the year of 2024.

Mission statement: Firm aims at offering the best user experience to customers through regular innovation and updated hardware, software and services.

Vision statement: The organization focuses on developing the best product on earth and leave earth better than we receive.

Values: Apple concentrate over offering the best services to public, empower citizens and binds all together. 

As Apple emphasises over regular innovation, it leads to higher device obsolesce rate which ultimately results into increasing amount of E-waste. It has been found that there is 14.8% increase in Apple’s E-waste in the year of 2024 as compared to the previous year which indicates the huge amount of negative impact on the environment (Apple’s E-waste management issue, 2024). Moreover, Apple lacks transparency while providing information regarding their recycling campaign and waste disposal strategies which impacts the overall reputation and goodwill of the organization.

Sustainability

Sustainability may be defined as a process of optimally utilising resources to manage availability for the future generation. There are three crucial pillars in sustainability that includes preserving environment, managing economic growth and promoting human right & equality within communities. Each organization aims at operating in a sustainable manner which helps in reducing the negative impact on community as well as environment and supports overall development of the country (Azim and Nahar, 2020). Moreover, sustainable operation helps in building reputation and goodwill of the firm which further helps in attracting the large number of customers. This also helps organization in acquiring and retaining employees for the longer time which aids in managing the overall cost of business entity.

Apple has formulated diverse sustainable and ethical policies with the aim of operating in a fair manner and avoiding any type of negative impact on environment, society and community. Firm is aiming at attaining Net Zero carbon emission at the end of 2030 which helps in safeguarding the quality of air and natural resources (Belgasem-Hussain and Hussaien, 2020). Moreover, Apple is also concentrating on including 100% recycling material in its product at the end of 2030 as to reduce the overall wastage. For attaining the goal of Net Zero, Apple has adopted Carbon neutral shipping method and EV vehicles for the delivery of product. Moreover, all the Apple’s physical stores have integrated renewable energy which helps in reducing the carbon emission and pollution within the country.

 Further, Apple’s has renewed its packaging strategies and currently 90% of company’s packaging is fibre based (Sustainability Policies of Apple, 2025). Moreover, company has also focused on reducing the electricity consumption of their product by introducing IP radian solar project. Along with this, Apple has introduced Daisy in its operation which works toward dissembling 200 Iphone in an Hour as to reduce E-waste. This policy helped organization in recycling over 40000 tonnes of electric material and reducing overall E-waste (Recycling Policy of Apple, 2023). Further, firm has made strict supplier policies through which sustainable suppliers are chosen by the business entity. Due to this policy, 320 suppliers of Apple have committed over utilising renewable electricity at the end of 2030. Besides this, Apple has also aligned its operations with the Human right policies which aids in fulfilling the need of the employees and supports in carrying out the operations in an ethical manner (Ferrell, Hartline and Hochstein, 2022). Further Apple has introduced various recycling initiative in which discount or cash is offered for old devices based on its condition.

However, even after aligning with large number of sustainable policies and strategies, Apple is accused for not managing E-waste. This in turn places adverse impact on the overall quality of natural resources. This increase in E-waste results into releasing over 1000 different chemical substance in the environment such as neurotoxicants and lead that impact on overall health condition of the society (Ford, Milne and Curlewis, 2023). Further, Apple is not able to provide clear information regarding its waste management policies and the impact of Daisy’s introduction on environment. Further, Apple’s recycling policies are not impactful as firm is only emphasising on over take- back product but does not concentrated on adopting recycling process in supply chain and manufacturing process. Moreover, Apple’s recycling initiate is not capable in effectively managing the overall wastage. Moreover, only 25% of the total waste is recycled and rest creates huge impact on environment and health condition of the citizens.

Along with this, Apple has been criticised for Green washing cases while describing recycling policies and thereby reducing overall trust and confidence of the customers. It has been identified that entity does not provide accurate information regarding total E- waste and its policies which misguides the stakeholders in identifying the firm’s ethical practices (Hassan, Kaur and Vijayasingam, 2023). Further, there is 59% of carbon emission and 29% of E-waste is generated while manufacturing of devices which eventually impact the overall environmental condition of the country (E-waste Green washing of Apple, 2025). This indicates an ethical gap in the Apple’s policies which adversely influences the overall environmental condition of the country. To overcome the ethical issue, Apple should align with ESG theory of sustainability which defines measures by which negative impact on environment, society and governance could be reduced. Based on this theory, manager should evaluate the impact of each decision on society and environment which will help in carrying out the operations in an ethical and sustainable manner.

Application of Business Ethics Theories

Apple has been accused for not aligning with the sustainable and ethical objective while carrying out their operations. Incapability in effective managing E-waste is one of the major ethical issues that have been faced by the company. In this section, various normative and descriptive ethical theories will be used to evaluate the company’s ethical issue.
Normative Ethical theories:

It is the branch of philosophical ethics and study of ethical behaviour which define the manner in which one individual ought to act (Huang, Kim and Schermer, 2022). Utilitarian, Virtue ethic and Deontology are the three crucial normative ethical theories which will be used to evaluate the Apple’s actions:

Utilitarianism Theory: This theory stated that an action will be termed as right or wrong on the basis of its consequences. Specifically, this theory stated that a decision will be termed as good if it is creating positive impact on the large section of the society. (Iliev, 2022) Apple’s sustainable policies and strategies of net carbon emission support in improving the quality of air and aids in avoiding the health issues resulting in good for the larger section of society. However, firm is not able to fully introduce sustainable practices in its operation and supply chain which negatively impact on larger section of society indicating non alignment with utilitarian theory.

Deontology Theory: According to this theory, an action should be evaluated to determine ethnicity instead of its consequence. It has been identified that Apple has not drafted an adequate E-waste management policies at the initial level and only focuses on the regular innovation which ultimately result into high wastages in the country (Jia, 2023). This policy of Apple is considered as unethical as firm was aware that regular innovation leads to high obsolesce rate which ultimately result into huge E-waste.

Virtue Ethics: This theory emphasises that an action will be termed as ethical if it has been carried out by a virtuous individual. This theory concentrates that an organization should have virtuous leaders which will take an ethical decision. From the Apple’s issue, it has been articulated that organization’s leaders are not virtuous and due to this facing huge amount of ethical issues.

Descriptive ethical theories:

It is another type of ethical theory which contrasts with the normative ethics and study the people’s belief about morality (Laser and Stowell, 2020). Stakeholder theory, Institutional theory and triple bottom line theories are three descriptive theories based on which Apple’s action are evaluated below:

Stakeholder theory: This theory stated that organization should initiated action while considering its impact on the entire stakeholder rather than only shareholders (Stakeholder Theory, 2025). In the current time, consumer focuses on utilizing sustainable product and services whereas Apple is incapable in introducing all the sustainable material in its devices which reduces their trust. Further, firm has introduced Robot in their operation for managing E-waste which leads termination of the large number of job and thereby dissatisfying society.

Triple Bottom line theory: According to this theory, organization should initiate actions with aim of maximising three bottom lines that is people, profits and planet. Apple’s ethical policies are not aligning with the triple bottom theory as inaccurate E-waste management strategies result into impacting on the people’s health, country’s environment and firm overall profitability (Lo and Sim, 2021). Informal recycling of E-waste results into losing various valuable materials which could be reused in manufacturing process and thereby increasing the demand of resource extraction and mining. This results in degrading natural resources which creates situation of shortage for upcoming generation.

Corporate social responsibilities: This theory emphasises over four core duties of organization which include economic, ethical, legal and philanthropic responsibilities. This theory stated that economic growth should be initiated without compromising with ethics and morality (Marke et al, 2020). Apple is unable to align with CSR as firm is not able to manage the environment impact, maintaining transparency in its operation and only focuses on regular innovation without considering the wider social impact.

From the above six ethical theories, it has been identified that Apple is unable to align with the ethical norms and regulation while carrying out its operation. This indicates the huge amount of negative impact on the environment, society and community which eventually impacts the overall goodwill and reputation of the business entity.

Stakeholder Perspective

Stakeholder implies for the various individuals and institutions who are interested in the working of the business entity and has power to influence overall decision of the organization. Each stakeholder of Apple has differential power and interest in the organization’s working which could be understood from below table:

Keep satisfied (High power, Low interest) Government High authorities Customer	Manage closely (High power, high interest) Project Manager Investors/Sponsor IT department
Monitor (low power, low interest) Local authority Not for profit organization Supplier	Keep informed (Low power, high interest) Employee Medium level manager Sales department

Analysing Stakeholder’s perspective on organization’s issue:

One of the most significant stakeholders of Apple is investors or sponsors who are interested in the profitability of organization and has huge power to influence the overall decision of manager (Stakeholders of Apple, 2024). Apple’ E-waste issue has created huge impact on the mindset and perception of investors. It has been discovered that indulging in non-ethical practices results in losing trust and confidence of customer which ultimately impacts the firm’s profitability and thereby investor’s return (Martin, 2020). However, investors have forced Apple’s management to take proactive actions to reduce the environmental impact and emphasising over maintaining transparency in their actions. Employee and workers are other significant stakeholders which place emphasis on gaining accurate compensation, effective as well as safe workplace environment and job security. However, Apple’s strategy of E-waste is not effective as introduction of Robot has developed job insecurity which ultimately impacts their overall satisfaction. NGO’s and other authorities are interested in identifying whether organization operating in an ethical manner or not. Apple is not able to align with environment policies as firm’s operations are resulting in increasing wastages, higher resource consumption and huge pollution.

 Further, Customer is focused over utilizing sustainable and high quality product at reasonable cost. They are also interested in evaluating the firm’s ethical policies which assists in developing the brand loyalty and reputation. Apple’s E-waste issue and unethical practices create issues in fulfilling the customer’s requirement which significantly impacts the firm’s profitability (Martinho et al, 2021). Moreover, recycling initiative of Apple results into higher cost which creates affordability issue for the customers. From the above analysis, it has been depicted that there is a huge amount of difference in the stakeholder’s perspective which create issues in fulfilling their needs effectively. If organization provides affordable product through non-sustainable material than it creates dissatisfaction within environmentalist group. Moreover, customers and investors perspective are also conflicting as high affordability could leads to lower profitability which creates issue for the firm is undertaking the adequate actions.

Conclusion

By summing up the report it has been identified that E-waste management is the most crucial issue which overall impacts the Apple’s operation. Further, it has been articulated that high obsolesce rate and regular innovation is the major reason behind such situation. Apple has undertaken diverse sustainable initiative such as utilising recycling material, acquiring carbon neutral technology, using renewable energy but fails to adopt recycling process that leads higher wastage. Further, it has been identified that organization is not aligning with the utilitarianism theory, Virtue ethics, deontology theory, CSR, stakeholder and triple bottom line theory which indicates the presence of huge unethical practices within the organization. Moreover, it has been determined that there are huge conflicts in the perception and mindset of diverse stakeholder which create issues for organization to adopt the new policies effectively.

Recommendation

Following are various strategies and policies which should be incorporated by Apple for managing its E-waste and operate in an ethical manner:

• Apple should focus on improving its recycling strategies in which all the material that could be used in new devices should be segregated which helps in reducing the wastages.
• Company should emphasis over extending the life of electronic equipment which helps in decreasing the number of obsolescence product and thereby reduces the level of wastages.
• Further, organization should introduce buyback program, in which old devices should be purchased which helps in reducing the wastages and easily recycling all the materials.

REFERENCES

Books and Journals

• Schwepker Jr, C.H., Valentine, S.R., Giacalone, R.A. and Promislo, M., 2021. Good barrels yield healthy apples: organizational ethics as a mechanism for mitigating work-related stress and promoting employee well-being. Journal of Business Ethics, 174(1), pp.143-159.
• Shefner, J., Heiman‐Patterson, T., Pioro, E.P., Wiedau‐Pazos, M., Liu, S., Zhang, J., Agnese, W. and Apple, S., 2020. Long‐term edaravone efficacy in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Post‐hoc analyses of Study 19 (MCI186‐19). Muscle & nerve, 61(2), pp.218-221.
• Alizadeh, L., Liscio, M.C. and Sospiro, P. (2024) ‘The phenomenon of greenwashing in the fashion industry: A conceptual framework.’ Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy, 37, p.101416.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scp.2023.101416
• Becker, U.C., (2024) Business Ethics: Methods, Theories and Application. 2nd Ed. NY: Routledge.
• Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (2019) Turkey: Investigation tracks production of 'sustainable' Zara hoody, revealing garment worker exploitation & low wages. Available at: https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/turkey-investigation-tracks-production-of-sustainable-zara-hoody-revealing-garment-worker-exploitation-low-wages/#:~:text=Public%20Eye%20released%20findings%20of%20its%20investigation,and%20low%20wages%20in%20the%20Turkish%20factories.(Accessed: 10 March 2025).
• Azim, M.I. and Nahar, S., 2020. How Green Is The Apple? Understanding Apple’s CSR Disclosure Practices. Accountancy Business and the Public Interest, 19, pp.309-329.
• Belgasem-Hussain, A.A. and Hussaien, Y.I., 2020. Earnings management as an ethical issue in view of Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning. Journal of Financial Crime, 30(2), pp.522-535.