Despite what the critics from the environmental organizations say, Apple is in many cases ahead or will be ahead of most of its competition when it comes to E-Waste. Apple is criticized for not being the leader in reducing and removing toxic chemicals from its new products and also for not properly recycling the old products. However the critics have overlooked what Apple is doing right and focused on what they are not. Apple currently has goals and is making progress in reaching them with new practices in place and plan to become greener.
Three major things that Apple is doing to fight e-waste are:
- Removing toxic chemicals
- Recycling Their Products (E-Waste)
- Becoming a Greener Apple
Removing Toxic Chemicals
There are many dangerous chemicals that should be eliminated from electronic products but it can be argued that lead is the most dangerous chemical within them. It is also the most commonly used chemical. Many of the dangerous chemicals we want to eliminate from products are found in very small amounts however many companies ship lead by the pound. This lead is contained in their cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays. A typical cathode-ray tube has around three pounds (1.36kg) of lead. Around the middle of 2006 Apple became the company in the industry to totally eliminate CRT's. The effect of this is unbelievable. Their first iMac (CRT-based) had 484 grams of lead in it. Their current third-generation iMac (LCD-based) has less than 1 gram of lead.
Recycling Our
Products (E-Waste)]
In 1994 Apple started recycling, today they are operating recycling programs in countries where more than 82% of all Macs and iPods are sold. By the end of the year that will increase to 93%.
You might be asking "How successful are these programs?"
At the current moment in time there is not scale to measure exactly how effective companies methods of recycling are. However Dell has proposed a simple measure that may give you a feel of where things are at.
Assuming you use you product for the entire seven years of its life. The companies would then measure the weight of how much recycling they have every year to the present year and compare it to the total weight of the products sold seven year prior. This method makes sense and adds the advantage of clarity and simplicity. Apple recycled 13 million pounds of e-waste in 2006 that is equal to 9.5% of what they sold seven years earlier. Apple expects this percentage to grow 13% in 2007, and 20% in 2008. By 2010, they will recycle 19 million pounds of e-waste per year- nearly 30% of the product weight they sold seven years earlier. Here is a graph to better clarify things.
Weight recycled as percent of total sale
Becoming a Greener Apple
Apple is bringing environmental issues to the table. Not only have they put in recycling programs and are removing toxic chemicals from their products they are also coming up with new ideas for products that are energy efficient and have a longer life span. They have begun exploring their overall carbon footprint of their products, to try and reduce their mark on the environment.
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