Apple's detox promise: close but not quite there yet

Mac fans in our office (and there are more than a few) were getting excited yesterday - we were expecting an announcement from MacWorld 2009 in San Francisco, confirming that Apple would as promised be removing all toxic PVC plastic and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from its entire new product range.

Confidence was high that this was going to happen because we've had the word from the man himself - Apple CEO Steve Jobs - from as far back as May 2007 that toxic PVC and BFRs in Mac computers would be history by the end of 2008. His enthusiam for the subject, of course, initially stemmed from the success of our Green my Apple campaign, which generated huge support and discussion from Mac addicts worldwide.

The latest edition of our Guide to Greener Electronics has revealed that very few firms are showing true climate leadership. Despite many green claims, major companies like Dell, Microsoft, Lenovo, LG, Samsung and Apple are failing to support the necessary levels of global cuts in emissions and make the absolute cuts in their own emissions that are required to tackle climate change.

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Company scores plummeted in the previous edition of Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics, when new criteria on climate change were introduced. However, leading brands like Nokia and Samsung are now making significant progress in greening their electronics products, with improved environmental policies responding not only to these new energy criteria, but also to the more stringent chemical and e-waste criteria.

Do you know what happens to your old telly once it conks out and you chuck it away? Well, it gets dumped onto developing countries in Asia and Africa as 'second hand goods' where unprotected workers (often kids) dismantle computers and TVs in search of metals that can be sold. The remaining plastic, cables and casing is either burnt in an e-waste pyre or simply dumped. Let me take you on a virtual journey to the 'scrapyards' of Ghana where some of the electronic waste from the western world ends up.

I don't know what's made Apple post the iPhone 3G's Environmental Status Report but it's definitely a step in the right direction. Maybe Apple Chief Steve Jobs read my blog and decided to act before our scientists got their hands and screwdrivers on his latest phone. While the new iPhone has less polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and Brominated Flame Retardants (BFR) than the original one, Apple has yet to eliminate these and other harmful substances like antimony, beryllium and phthalates.

Making phones without any PVC or BFR isn't a problem for Sony Ericsson and Nokia so why is Apple lagging behind? The iPhone in my opinion is a very stylish handset that scores high on usability and enjoys a cult following judging from the queues to buy it. It's a pity that it's not as green as the others when there's no reason why it couldn't be. Apple has promised to get rid of PVC and BFRs by the end of this year though. Let's see if they fulfil it.

Update 17 July 2008: Apple releases iPhone 3G's Environmental Status Report

Get ready folks, the Apple iPhone 3G is out today. What are you going to do? Run to the nearest store and join the queue or find out whether Apple has lived up to its green promises? Well, I have some good news and some bad news for you. The good news is that the iPhone 3G will come in potato starch packaging which is definitely greener than plastic. But what we are concerned about is the nasty stuff inside the iPhone like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and Brominated Flame Retardants (BFR).

With expanded and tougher criteria on toxic chemicals, electronic waste and new criteria on climate change only Sony and Sony Ericsson score more than 5/10 in our latest Guide to Greener Electronics. Nintendo and Microsoft remain rooted to the bottom of the Guide.

The Greener Electronics Guide is our way of getting the electronics industry to face up to the problem of e-waste. We want manufacturers to get rid of harmful chemicals in their products. We want to see an end to the stories of unprotected child labourers scavenging mountains of cast-off gadgets created by society's gizmo-loving ways.

Nintendo's Wii. Sony's PlayStation 3 Elite. Microsoft's Xbox 360. They promise a whole new generation of high-definition gaming, but when it comes to the crunch, it's the same old story. As our search for greener electronics continues, it was time for the game consoles to go to our labs for scientific analysis – and all of them tested positive for various hazardous chemicals.

Our analysis, published in our new report, Playing Dirty, detected the use of hazardous chemicals and materials such aspolyvinyl chloride (PVC), phthalates, beryllium and bromine indicative of brominated flame retardants (BFRs).

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This time last year Steve Jobs was ignoring our calls for a greener Apple, but yesterday he revealed the new MacBook Air – the thinnest notebook on the planet and Apple’s greenest computer so far.

It uses less brominated fire retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), but it hasn’t eliminated them entirely. Had it done so, it would have made Apple an ecological leader.

I can remember my first games console, the Atari 2600, a Christmas present in 1984. It seemed space age at the time, fake wood panel, RSI inducing joysticks, Pac man, Asteroids, I think I even played Pong on that thing, and for hours. I’m sure there was nothing green about it, I didn’t even understand boys, let alone the toxic chemicals lurking in my beloved games console.

But we’ve come a long way since Pac man, although I still don’t understand boys, I do know that games consoles don’t have to come with toxic chemicals. Nor should they contribute to the mountains of e-waste once kids tire of them a few months after Christmas.