[elmimmo]

Both the link and the article deliberately mix “charger” and “cable connector”, misleading, for clic-bait purposes.

iPhone, iPod & iPad chargers have always had a USB Type A connector with no hardwired cable, like, forever, even before there even was an institutionalized initiative to have all phone chargers be USB. You’ve always been able to use Apple chargers to charge other phones, and use other USB chargers to charge iPhones. Actually many phone makers followed suit precisely after Apple shipped their phone chargers like they did.

You don’t like the connector on their cables being proprietary? Fine. Let’s just first acknowledge cable and charger are two different things, then we can debate.

Now tell me again, how do iPhones and their chargers contribute to “more than 51,000 tonnes of electrical waste per year” by having a standard USB connector?