Is Greenpeace Off the Mark on Apple? – BusinessWeek.com: We have previously reported on this blog about Apple’s bad score in regards to recycling and disposal of old PCs. Now a report from Business Week seems to indicate that there might be some bias on this matter coming from Greepeace.

Greenpeace is bringing the rhetorical hammer down on Apple for what it considers environmental offenses, namely for not moving fast enough to eliminate nasty chemicals from its products. Its latest headline-grabbing maneuver: pressure on former VP and current Apple director Al Gore, improves the chances that Apple’s board will amply consider two eco-friendly shareholder proposals.

The proposals call on Apple to do two things: one, bolster efforts to help customers recycle old computers and other electronic equipment by adding take-back centers in Apple stores, for instance; and two, study the feasibility of setting a timetable on eliminating PVC and BFR from its products. The letter also says all board members, Gore included, are on the record as opposing the proposals.

This is just the latest effort by Greenpeace to shame Apple into taking what it considers corrective action on environmental practices. In that same report, marked by a squishy scoring system that rated some things as “partially bad” and others as “partially good” Dell scored much higher, alongside Nokia.



  1. Joe says:

    they need to make headlines.

    its as simple as that.

  2. Podesta says:

    Apple is the target because of its star quality, not because its environmental record is worse than other computer makers. The standards that Greenpeace is pushing are, in some cases, unproven as remedies. And, remember that the whole thing is prospective. Those who sign on say they will meet the standards at some point in the future. That may never happen.

  3. Kermit the Frog says:

    It aint easy being green….

    how laughable is this??? (really!)
    With all the other toxic chems and heavy metals used making electronics, i would think they could come up with a better list than those two worries…

  4. Jim W. says:

    To paraphrase Captain Renault. I’m shocked, shocked to find that Greenpeace is Biased!

  5. jbellies says:

    If we’re talking about forcing companies to do things … I wonder if the life of old computers could be extended, rather than landfilling them. For example, what if there were a pin-compatible replacement for the Pentium 133 MHz CPU, using contemporary technology? With lower power consumption, you might be able to disconnect the fan(s). Quiet computing–hey, what a concept! Could there be speedups due to increased throughput? Or at least the new CPU wouldn’t be limited in MHz and could run the full speed of the motherboard. I’m sure that somebody will tell me that the benefits are too slim, the machines would all end up in the garbage just as fast. But we’ll never find out because AMD and Intel will never produce such a retro chip for economic reasons. It would simply compete against their higher-priced & profit current line.

    I once ran a 3,000-member organization with a computer that had 64K RAM, no hard drive, and that ran at 4 MHz. Computers going into landfills today are 300x the computer that one was.

  6. bs says:

    #7 AMD and Intel are reluctant to do so because companies that have specialized in processor upgrades have not been profitable.

    Do an internet search for Evergreen Chip or Evergreen CPU. This company actually had a product that was a direct replacement for many chips, even the 133p that you are so fond of.

    Their old website was evertech.com

    I actually owned one of their chips. Not bad, but motherboard and CPU tech advances so fast that it is penny wise and pound foolish to pursue this option.

  7. Podesta says:

    Macs are not“kings of obsolescence.” in fact, Macs last longer, as one can tell by installed base versus current sales. Give me a sawbuck for every old iMac I’ve seen still running and I could buy myself something really nice.

    Perhaps what the chronically confused Pedro means is that Apple doesn’t support backward compatibility in either hardware and software for more than a few years. That is true. We’ll not see OS 9 run on Mactels or a return of the modem port. But that is a different matter than lifetime of Apple computers. Macs running the vintage OS on Power PC chips are still alive and well.


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