Leaving aside the turmoil around the company's decision to switch to Intel processors, Jobs and the gang are having some trouble of a different kind. Apple was forced to give in into the protests of the environmentalist groups, and launched on Friday a recycling program for iPod. Within this program, the owners of such devices are encouraged to bring them back to the Apple retail stores, and receive in exchange a 10% discount for buying any other iPod product, provided that they buy the other product the same day.

The company from Cupertino, which manufactures the iPod series, one of the most successful digital player lines of the new millennium, is accused of having an improper policy for environment protection, many of its products ending up in landfills all around the world, after their owners decided to buy the next available model.

The decision to launch this program follows the continued protests of Computer TakeBack Campaign, an environmentalist group which proved to be very active in their attempt to make the electronic industry aware of the need to deposit and recycle in an environmentally-friendly manner its wastes. This group launched a nationwide anti-Apple campaign in January, holding protests in front of its headquarters in Cupertino, but also in front of the Apple retail stores, and encouraged its members to send as many e-mails and letters to the company as possible, in order to draw its attention to this subject.

Apple did not comment on the launch of this program, but only made a reference to an older press release, which stated the company's decision not to ship any wastes abroad for processing.

We mustn't forget that iPod is the smallest of all Apple products, and that's the reason why Gopal Dayaneni, sustainable technology program director at the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, considered this initiative just a small step to solving the problem of the electronic industry's wastes.