Apple computers are falling further from the tree of life and leaving a sour taste in some purchaser’s mouths. The maker of all things “i” recently dropped the eco-friendly EPEAT certification from 39 desktop computers, monitors and laptops.
“They said their design direction was no longer consistent with the EPEAT requirements,” Robert Frisbee, CEO of EPEAT said in the Wall Street Journal’s CIO Journal. The EPEAT certification is an electronics industry registry that allows purchasers to look for products that are recyclable, energy efficient and minimize other environmental damage.
Apple’s slim, light-weight machines may have shed a green image to achieve their pancaked profile. The miniaturized machines rely on components that are glued together to save space. The new model Mac Book Pro, for example, has it’s battery glued to its case and the glass on the display is glued to the backing, according to iFixit.org.
“If the battery is glued to the case it means you can’t recycle the case and you can’t recycle the battery,” Frisbee said in CIO Journal.
“Apple’s decision to opt out of the most basic of eco-standards demonstrates that, despite the costs, design supersedes the environment,” wrote Kyle Wiens co-founder of iFixit on their website.
The choice to drop the certification cost Apple business from San Francisco’s city government, reported CIO Journal. All 50 of the city’s agencies and 28,000 employees will no longer be able to use city funds to buy Apple products.
Ford, HSBC, Kaiser Permanente, many universities and the U.S. government are some of the other major electronics buyers of EPEAT electronics.
This isn’t the first time environmentalists have found a worm in Apple. Greenpeace launched a campaign to decry the coal power used to energize Apple’s data centers. The company’s supply chain has also been subject to environmental audits in China.
IMAGE:
An Apple store (Dweider, Wikimedia Commons)
