• Login
    View Item 
    •   Home
    • Massey Documents by Type
    • Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    •   Home
    • Massey Documents by Type
    • Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Will Liam save us? : an analysis of Apple's zero-waste goals and waste networks associated with the MacBook : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Media Studies at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

    Icon
    View/Open Full Text
    01_front.pdf (124.8Kb)
    02_whole.pdf (922.6Kb)
    Export to EndNote
    Abstract
    As popular awareness of global environmental crises rises, the circular economy model is increasingly heralded as a means to address the environmental impact of traditional extractive economies. Technology provider Apple has been among high-profile corporations quick to adopt a circular model, announcing their plans to both end mining and become zero-waste. In this thesis, I analyse Apple’s zero-waste plans using my own notebook as a case study. A discourse analysis of the company’s 2017 Environmental Responsibility Report reveals that the zero-waste approach is (at least in part) a marketing strategy. It works to increase Apple’s power and consumer base. The zero-waste strategy is presented as distinct from their social responsibility, echoing the way that waste is conceptualised within the circular economy. Both Apple’s zero-waste plan and the circular economy rely heavily on technological innovation to offer solutions to waste. Waste is understood as something distinct from, and entirely controllable by, human intention. Individual case studies of my notebooks aluminium casing and hard disk drive demonstrate that vast waste networks of human and nonhuman actors enable Apple to function as they do, and are in fact integral to any economy organised around the pursuit of profit. Within this context, attempts to circumvent the worst harms associated with the extraction, production, consumption, and disposal contexts of ICT equipment will end up reinscribing or reinforcing wasteful practices. Through an auto-ethnographic description of dealing with the notebooks possibly failing battery, I argue that understanding ourselves as separate from waste networks (as zero-waste discourses encourage us to do) similarly forecloses the possibility of disrupting the most negative impacts of waste. Repair tentatively emerges as one way of destabilising the power of large corporations that benefit from capital such as Apple. Ultimately, the case studies presented here raise serious doubts about both Apple’s zero-waste strategy and the circular economy in general.
    Date
    2018
    Author
    Vonk, Lisa
    Rights
    The Author
    Publisher
    Massey University
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10179/15119
    Collections
    • Theses and Dissertations
    Metadata
    Show full item record

    Copyright © Massey University
    | Contact Us | Feedback | Copyright Take Down Request | Massey University Privacy Statement
    DSpace software copyright © Duraspace
    v5.7-2020.1-beta1
     

     

    Tweets by @Massey_Research
    Information PagesContent PolicyDepositing content to MROCopyright and Access InformationDeposit LicenseDeposit License SummaryTheses FAQFile FormatsDoctoral Thesis Deposit

    Browse

    All of MROCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    Copyright © Massey University
    | Contact Us | Feedback | Copyright Take Down Request | Massey University Privacy Statement
    DSpace software copyright © Duraspace
    v5.7-2020.1-beta1