A friend advised me the other day to look at the Greenpeace report on computers. He asked me if I owned an Apple Mac. I said “no.” I told him that I have a four-year-old Toshiba laptop and a two-year-old Dell desktop. I had a look at the Greenpeace report on the Net.
I did not find the report an easy read because of the technical jargon but it made clear that some of the worst known toxic chemicals, such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic and brominated flame-retardants (BFRs) are found in laptops Greenpeace said that Apple computers contained the highest level of contamination among the computers they tested in Danish laboratories – followed by Hewlett Packard.
The report appeared in various newspapers around the world. One newspaper carried the headline “rotten to the core” as a comment on Apple computers with its famous logo.
Apple claims it is looking for alternatives.
Apple computers are famous for their beautifully sleek designs as well as creative and innovative features. Having reading the scientific support for the Greenpeace research, the belief that Apple is a ‘cool’ company now sounds like typical corporate hype. The thought arose in my mind. “Apple Mac is all fur coat and no knickers.” –as we say in England about brash appearances.
Currently, companies ship off unwanted computers to India to be dumped where poor men, women and children spend countless hours daily dismantling them and, at the same time, exposing themselves to these dangerous chemicals.
I can only suggest that users of Apple Mac and Hewlett Packard, and the rest of us who use other computers, try to find ways to put more pressure on the manufacturers to take back their old computes and engage in a genuine recycling programme.