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Should Greenpeace be praising Apple?

Sun, 19 Oct 2008

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Greenpeace is pretty happy with Apple for phasing out toxic materials in its new products, but has the company gone far enough.

Was it not the case that Apple planned to eliminate polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from ALL Apple products by the end of 2008, and to remove mercury and arsenic from its displays. Read A Greener Applee for a reminder of what Apple said at the time.

Here:

"Apple plans to completely eliminate the use of PVC and BFRs in its products by the end of 2008."

And here:

"Apple plans to completely eliminate the use of arsenic in all of its displays by the end of 2008."

The 'new' MacBooks get the thumbs up from an environmental angle, but what about the other products that are not new, but are still on sale?

What are the environmental credentials of the white MacBook and the 17in MacBook Pro? What about all the other displays that Apple manufacturers? Do they meet the environmental checklist?

If they did would Jobs only be discussing the new products in this statement? "I'm proud to report that all of Apple's new product designs are on track to meet our 2008 year-end goal," Jobs wrote.

It seems that Apple is being careful to state that its 'new' products meet the end of year environmental targets. But what of its old products that are still on sale?

Does this mean we are due new monitors before year end? Does this mean the white MacBook and 17in MacBook Pro may not be around for long? Or is Apple just hoping nobody noticed the change of phrase?

Incidentally, even Greenpeace aren't completely happy with Apple. They have noted that not all toxic pieces have been eliminated yet. Apparently they haven't got the PVCs out of the external power cord.

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