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FIVE
leading brands of cellular phones are making significant
progress in the greening of their electronic products,
according to environmental group Greenpeace.
Greenpeace’s released yesterday the latest Guide to
Greener Electronics, with Nokia topping the greener
electronics ranking.
With the
latest result of the Greenpeace survey, Nokia gains back
the lead, ranking seven points out of 10. Its
table-topping score is due to improved take-back and
recycle practice in India.
According to Greenpeace India’s Take-Back Blues: An
Assessment of E-waste Take-back in India, published in
July, Nokia has one of the best take-back policies of
all global brands in the country.
Nokia
last ranked first in the fifth edition of Greenpeace’s
Guide to Greener Electronics in September 2007.
Greenpeace Southeast Asia toxics campaigner, Beau
Baconguis, said most of manufacturers are responding to
the more stringent chemical and e-waste criteria in the
Greenpeace Guide, as well as in the recently added
energy criteria.
Top
scorers on energy efficiency for individual products are
Apple, Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung. Toshiba is an
example of one company that has improved its climate
policy, Baconguis pointed out.
Fujitsu
Siemens Computers jumped to third place—up from 15 in
June—with a score of 5.5 points. The company has set in
late 2010 as its deadline for eliminating polyvinyl
chloride (PVC) plastic and all brominated flame
retardants (BFRs) across its product range. Sony
Ericsson ranked fourth followed by Sony, both scoring
5.3.
According to Greenpeace, so far, no company has released
a computer completely free of BFRs and PVC, though
several have recently launched new products with
restricted amounts of the toxic components. Last week,
Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that the new iPod line
will be free of BFRs, PVC and mercury, following the
lead of companies like Nokia and Sony Ericsson.
“We see
this as a very positive step by Apple towards its
commitment to eliminate these toxic elements from all of
its products by end of 2008. But, we are disappointed
with the new iPod’s built-in obsolescence—high battery
replacement costs encourage a new product purchase,”
Baconguis added.
Philips
stands out as the company with the worst position on
e-waste and recycling. It ranks 12th with 4.3 points,
retaining its penalty point for negative lobbying on
Individual Producer Responsibility in the European
Union.
Languishing at the bottom is Microsoft, which received
2.2; Sharp, 3.1; and Nintendo, which remains rooted to
the bottom with 0.8.
The
Guide continues to drive significant change in the
industry with Intel’s recent announcement that its new
Xeon 5400 processors use transistors made from Hafnium
so avoiding the use of fire retardants such as BFRs.
Greenpeace says a company receives a penalty point if it
is found to be lying, practicing double standards or any
other corporate misbehavior.
Philips,
Sharp and Sanyo were members of the Electronic
Manufacturers’ Coalition for Responsible Recycling, a
coalition of TV producers in the US, which lobbied
against Producer Responsibility for financing e-waste
recycling. It was finally dissolved in August.
Samsung,
Sony, LGE, Toshiba and Panasonic left the coalition
after either being penalized or threatened with a
penalty in previous editions of the Guide for their
membership of the body. |
