The article claims that Apple forces recyclers to do the shredding.

Read some iFixit teardowns of Apple products. Apple goes out of their way to make their computers very hard to repair. The environmental cost to repair a computer that is only a few years old is insignificant compared to building a new one. But that wouldn't help Apple's sales, would it?

MANY of the Apple products that were dumped by customers could've been rescued and reused easily if repair was a reasonable option.