How Much Money You’ll Make When You Recycle Through Apple’s Renew Program

Apple’s Renew program pays you in Apple gift cards and good Earth vibes to recycle old iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other devices. Here’s what you can expect to get back if you send in your used stuff.

Recycling with Apple Renew is simple. Just head here, and provide some information about the model of device you want to recycle, its storage, its condition, and a few other things, then the site will give you a return value. To simplify things, here’s what you can expect to get back, organised by device.

What You’ll Get for Your Old iPhone or iPad

Provided your device is still in decent working condition, here’s what you can expect to get back for recycling an old iPhone (Brightstar is Apple’s recycling partner), regardless of device colour or carrier. Keep in mind, these are all estimates and the actual value you get back may change once Apple gets your device and inspects it. The prices listed here are quotes for phones that are in very good condition.

• iPhone 4s: $25 Apple gift card for 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models
• iPhone 5: $65 Apple gift card for 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models
• iPhone 5c: $60 Apple gift card for 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB models
• iPhone 5s: $130 Apple gift card for 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models
• iPhone 6: $320 Apple gift card for 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB models
• iPhone 6 Plus: $370 Apple gift card for 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB models
• iPhone 6s: $420 Apple gift card for 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB models
• iPhone 6s Plus: $440 Apple gift card for 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB models

Here’s what you’ll get for recycling an old iPad:

• iPad Mini: $45 Apple gift card for 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models (Wi-Fi only). $65 Apple gift card (Wi-Fi and Mobile-enabled)
• iPad Mini 3: $175 Apple gift card for 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models.
• iPad Mini Retina: $110 Apple gift card for 16GB, 32GB 64GB, and 128GB models
• iPad 2: $65 Apple gift card for 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models
• iPad 3: $90 Apple gift card for 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models
• iPad 4: $110 Apple gift card for 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB models
• iPad Air: $165 Apple gift card for 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB models
• iPad Air 2: $220 Apple gift card for 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB models

It’s important to note that your return will be lower if your device does not power on properly, has a severely damaged screen, has a bent or broken metal enclosure, has been damaged by water, or if any of the buttons aren’t working. Also, the site doesn’t mention anything about engraved models, so it’s possible that may affect your device’s value. If your device is really messed up, they may not offer you anything at all. They do, however, offer environmentally safe disposal for free no matter what.

Apple’s Renew program sees your old iPhones and iPads as a sum of the materials inside. It doesn’t really matter what colour it is or how much memory it has. This is a fair deal for the folks that purchased base models, but not so great for those who forked over a few hundred extra dollars for more memory. You could probably get a little more for your devices if you tried to sell them (and get cash instead of Apple gift cards), but it isn’t a bad deal overall if you’re looking to upgrade within the Apple lineup. Apple will also take your old iPods and other gadgets as well, but there’s no gift card incentive. If you want to safely dispose of your iPod, they will do it for free, but all you’ll get is the satisfaction in properly disposing old electronics (which is still worth plenty to some). If you take your old non-Shuffle iPod into an Apple Store, however, you can get 10% off the purchase of a new iPod.

As for Macs, Apple Australia currently doesn’t offer gift cards for if you surrender your device, but it can help you dispose of it responsibly through its recycling program.