Apple Drops in Guide to Greener Electronics

While Apple touts its new products as being even greener than their predecessors, the latest Greenpeace survey says otherwise. Although it got high marks for reducing toxic chemicals, the Mac maker scored low in the organization’s Guide to Greener electronics for not supporting global recycling initiatives or using more recycled plastics.

As with all Greenpeace Guides to Greener Electronics, the 12th report ranks tech companies on three main criteria: reducing overall environmental impact, eliminating toxic chemicals, and recycling efforts. The PDF report can be downloaded from this location.

“Apple’s score remains at 4.7 points but it drops one position in this edition of the ranking to 11th place,” Greenpeace reveals. “All Apple products are now free of PVC and BFRs with the exception of PVC-free power cords which are in the process of being certified. But Apple fails to score top marks on this criterion because it uses unreasonably high threshold limits for BFRs and PVC in products that are allegedly PVC-/BFR-free,” the organization claims.

“The company needs to be commended for running a bold advertising campaign highlighting the green credentials of its MacBooks,” Greenpeace stresses. “Apple still needs to commit to phasing out additional substances with timelines, improve its policy on chemicals and its reporting on chemicals management.”

Greenpeace does have some nice things to say about Apple, mentioning that, on the e-waste front, Apple has improved coverage of its take-back program with take-back and recycling services now extended to the Asia-Pacific region, including India, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Korea and Australia. The organization posts recycling rates reported by Apple itself for the year 2006, but claims the Mac maker still has to provide details on how this is calculated. Apple is known to have set a new goal of achieving a 50% recycling rate by 2010.

On the energy side, Greenpeace again lauds Apple for reporting that its greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by three percent year over year from 2006 to 2007. Still, Apple has yet to report the proportion of renewable energy in the electricity it uses, Greenpeace claims.