10/15/2007, 9:35am, EDT
Monday, October 15th
Greenpeace takes Apple to task on iPhone
Apple's iPhone is not in keeping with CEO Steve Jobs' promise to "green" the company, says Greenpeace. The environmental group claims that tests conducted by its UK labs reveal the presence of PVCs and brominated flame retardants (BFRs), both potentialy dangerous compounds. Of 18 internal and external parts, half of them are said to contain brominated material, including the antenna. The PVC in the headphone cables, meanwhile, contains toxic forms of phthalates, chemicals used to increase the flexibility of plastic.
Two of the phthalates are considered dangerous because they may hinder the sexual development of mammals, and are officially listed by the European Parliament as toxins. This does not make they illegal in cellphones, but they cannot be used in toys or any childcare products sold in the continent. Nokia is said to have eliminated PVCs from its phones; Motorola and Sony Ericsson have not, but they have released BFR-free devices.
Greenpeace also takes Apple to task over the iPhone's battery, which is glued and soldered into place, preventing easy replacement and recycling. Likewise, Apple does not have a take-back policy akin to those of Nokia and Sony Ericsson, who reuse and recycle phones old phones sent in to them.
Apple has been a target of Greenpeace for much of 2007, beginning with support of shareholder measures opposed by the company's board of directors, and then sharp criticism for the company's continuing use of toxic chemicals, among them PVCs and BFRs. Greenpeace did raise the company's environmental rank earlier this year, but has remained critical of the company's speed in implementing green products, as well as expanding its recycling efforts.
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Here is the issue with user replaceable batteries.
How many poeple replacing their own battery is actually disposing of the old battery correctly? Just like how many people that do their own oil changes dispose of the oil correctly, by "soldering" the battery to the board (btw it is NOT soldered to the board) they ensure any battery replacement is done by someone that is going to properly dispose of or properly recycle the battery. Greenpeace assumes that by not making the battery user replaceable the user will just throw it out. I'm pretty sure the $400 price tag will prevent that.
I'm sure. Do you know of a take-back policy. Can you find information about such a policy? If there is no public and easily findable policy, then there is no policy.
And why should it take two years to find out? How hard is it to just come up with these things up front? Other people do it, and yet it always seems the same with apple (and their promoters). Its always "Wait until a need is required, then find out!". You think they could be proactive on such matters, since aren't they supposed to be more than just about the money. (oh, right, I forgot, its the new Apple, they've proven with the iPhone they're all about the money).
Greenpeace's other complaints are valid.
According to: http://www.apple.com/environment/ "Apple plans to completely eliminate the use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), brominated flame retardants (BFRs), and arsenic in its products by the end of 2008."
Gee, this has been posted on the Apple website for weeks. Interesting they needed to do lab tests to figure it out. Your donation dollars at work there. Clearly they needed to report this issue with the PVC and BFRs now since they'll have less to complain about soon, and that means one fewer press opportunity. If they were interested in being fair, the press release would have noted that Apple plans to eliminate those chemicals by the end of 08. If Apple fails to eliminate them then, sure, call them on it.
And I agree with the poster who pointed out that making the batteries non-user-replacebable means that all of them should get disposed of properly, through Apple, instead of going into landfills when they are swapped out with something from Walgreen's.
I'm a pretty liberal guy, and I used to be quite the Greenpeace fan. I miss the days when they drove boats in front of whales. Now they're just another SIG with PR to generate.
http://www.apple.com/environment/recycling/
Fücking bs green peace