We're not missing something, the recyclers are. The original owner just has to use their Apple ID to disassociate the device. The problem is, that step isn't happening, and the juggling of devices from reseller to reseller results in the original "owner" becoming lost.

Juggling of devices from reseller to reseller sounds like laundering stolen goods to me.

If it’s a legitimate sale, the original recycler will require the seller to wipe/unlock the device or they will only give a steeply discounted price. If the seller is going to get hundreds/thousands less by not wiping the device, they will do it.

Thus, the only problem for recyclers is recycling stolen laptops.

Not necessarily, one of them gave the example of machines acquired at bankruptcy.

The bankruptcy court should have compelled the former owner to sell the laptops instead of scrapping them. The proceeds would go to creditors.

I’m sure there are plenty of court precedents around bankrupt businesses trashing assets out of spite rather than selling them.

If the IT staff have been laid off already, there is no one left to wipe the devices. You can't really expect the bankruptcy administrators to know this (yet).

If the problem is the "throwing out" part, they can just give it to Apple for recycling. Or to the police.

If the problem is the financial part, just go back to the person they bought it and get the money back.

If they're taking a risk and buying it legally from, for example, a police auction, or from someone who "might have forgotten to contact the owner": it's a risk.

If it was acquired illegally, I can't say they deserve a solution to their problem.

This isn't happening, so I guess we just deal with a ton of e-waste then thanks to Apple.

The poster you replied to had several points - which of them are you referring to with "This"?

All of them. These computers are being thrown out, so none of those scenarios are happening.

> none of those scenarios are happening

My last MacBooks were sold or refurbished by Apple.

I'm not sure I understand your comment here? Are you referring to the end of your MacBooks' life, or the beginning? It's somewhat ambiguous.

Assuming you are referring to end of life process:

Apple's kit sold as refurb is done from their incoming returns — faulty, or otherwise unwanted, systems.

Everything sent to them as a trade-in isn't handled by Apple at all: it's contracted out to third-party companies. (This likely applies to their recycling programme also, but I've not looked into it)

At least: these things certainly used to be the case — and there have been a whole bunch of articles online that support this, over the years. I would love to see evidence to the contrary if things have changed?

— But like I said: I'm not sure I understand your comment, so maybe my points here are irrelevant.

I wasn't talking about your MacBook. I was talking in reference to my above point that these are accumulating at recyclers and being thrown out.

If they are stolen, good.

It will prevent further theft if nobody made any profit.

I'm not missing anything. The recyclers are not the original owners so of course they cannot unlock them.

Now they have a financial incentive to talk directly with to the most recent owner, and people besides the owner have a lot less incentive.