Introducing Hack Market

On Earth Day, we had a message to deliver

So we decided to invite ourselves to the Apple Store, the temple of new. Check out what happened.

New vs. Refurbished.

Fact: the industry of new is terrible news for the planet. Every new phone manufactured increases CO2e emissions, wastes tons of water and precious metals, contributes to the growth of electronics dumps all over the world, and causes so many other problems you'll think that Doomsday is just around the corner.

But worry not because here’s the good news: there is an alternative to new - refurbished. According an ADEME (The Ecological Transition Agency in English) study published in January 2022, buying refurbished instead of new avoids 91% of the CO2, 91% of raw materials use, 82% of water waste, and 88% of the e-waste. Say hello to a way of consumption that the planet can actually keep up with.

With these numbers, you’re probably wondering… why do people continue to buy new? We wondered that too. So on Earth Day we decided to do something sort of mind blowing to change their minds. We AirDropped ourselves into the lap of one of the biggest players in the tech market, the temple of new, the one and only, Apple.

AirDropping a little message

We used AirDrop to mass deliver messages promoting more sustainable tech right onto Apple’s best sellers: their display iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks. And thanks to that little AirDrop on Earth day, Back Market hit back at the market of “New New New!”.

People definitely got our message.

"We airdropped hundreds of messages inside the Apple Stores of Berlin, London and Paris. People testing the new models received a funny video informing them that they could buy the same phone but cheaper and much more sustainable (-91%carbon footprint). Sure, it was risky, but hey we did it for the Planet. Happy Earth day to all!