Saving iPods from the Landfill
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 08.11.06
Matt Bremner was fixing notebook computers and buying parts on eBay, where he noticed that there were lots of broken iPods for sale. He even heard of people just tossing them in the garbage and buying new ones. Seeing a niche, Matt tossed up a website and in late June opened a storefront in Toronto . In keeping with the theme, it is elegant, tiny and white, and feels like a high style reception room, albeit nano-sized at 250 square feet. Our daughter Emma having a dead out-of-warranty iPod, we paid him a visit.
Matt and employee Jordan Stacey see 30 patients a day, 60% walk-in and the rest by mail from Canada and the US. "We get loads of walk-ins, like a million people walk by here" and being on trendy College Street, most have iPods. He tells us that it is a pretty straightforward process given that there are four basic components- the screen, the battery, the mainboard and the hard drive. Apple doesn't sell parts, but except for the mainboard all of the components are available from the manufacturers. He gathers the motherboards from eBay units and even sometimes buys new ones for parts. The work is done while you wait, usually in 10 minutes. While we were there two other customers crowded in.
Emma's machine had a fried mainboard; you could see the burn from it on the hard drive. 10 minutes (happily spent yakking with the other customers and watching the operation) and C$70 later we were out the door. Compared to a repair under warranty (two weeks, C$40 shipping), the experience was a joy.
We used to live in a culture where there were shoe repair and appliance repair shops all over town. These all faded away as the gear was designed to be pitched rather than fixed and was cheap enough that people didn't think twice about it. iPods, although expensive, are treated as if disposable and some say Apple wants it that way. To their discredit, Apple offers no support to entrepreneurs like Matt, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't. Thanks to Matt, one less dead iPod got stuck in a drawer or tossed in the garbage. ::irepair.ca
Read our earlier post on our ::Nano.
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It's too bad that the end of life for many electronics and small appliances is the landfill or if a person bothers electronics recycling. My approach is I try to fix the item but I don't always know how so if there's no repair shop around it gets stored and recycled. Things electronics recycling doesn't take I will disassemble for useful parts and recycle what I can of the rest. Sometimes if you carefully take something apart you can see how to fix it or make it useful in some way. Make's web site is a good place to look for ways people use things in new ways.
I'm going to be replacing my iPod in a few months, but I'm not going to be selling or throwing out my perfectly serviceable third generation iPod. I'm going to be installing Linux on it and Encyclopodia, which is Wikipedia formatted to work on your iPod.
In case people don't know the website Tim is referring to above is
www.makezine.com
It's a pretty cool site, basically it's a Blog (they have a magazine too) of articles on how to make all sorts of stuff yourself.
You never know what cool stuff, you're going to find on that site, kinda like here!
In the US, a lot of electronics repair doesn't exist anymore because the barrier to entry is too high with having to be licensed and all. But these up and coming electronics have a glimmer of hope.
You should get the ipods that are'nt wanted fix them and sell them again for a cheaper price.
The day I walked into the “I-pod repair store”, I must say, I was a bit skeptical. Nevertheless, in two shakes, I was getting mentally shook. I walked up to the counter and told, “The guy at the front desk” Matt. I was having a problem with my i-pod freezing, mind you I wasn’t prepared to leave my i-pod just yet, I was just enquiring about prices. If it was too expensive to fix, I’m in the market for the 80GB anyway, so with the prices they are now, I’ll just get a new one soon. Anyway, Matt took the i-pod, told me it’s free to see what the concern was, then in a matter of approx 4 min told me, the problem I was having would be approx $60 to fix. Not only was it cheap, he advised that he will have the repair done in about 20min and apologized for the length of time. Wow!!! Now I know in this day and age, it seems that everywhere you turn businesses are taking advantage of people just because they can. Over pricing everything, we seem just to take it in the behind with a smile. “But” Man was I wowed!!!! Matt, as corny as an infomercial this may seem, Thanks so much for putting music back in my ears. ;-)
Dave Henry
Here's an alternative, promote reuse by trading in your used or broken iPod for cash or instant store credit! We buy, process (erase music, test, restore) and resell used iPods. We serve as an "aggregator" to the community and responsibly resell or recycle end of life parts. We were founded on the principal of doing what's right for the environment while giving consumers an economic incentive as well. It's the win-win we feel that will really move the needle for all. Feel free to check out our website for more details or feel free to write me on any suggestions that you may have. Thanks!