October 14, 2007

Greenpeace: iPhone Not Good For The Environment

Duncan Riley

32 comments »

International environmental group Greenpeace has launched an attack on Steve Jobs’ claims that Apple is a company with green credentials by releasing an analysis of the iPhone that finds toxic chemicals that have or are in the process of being eliminated by other mobile phone manufacturers.

According to Greenpeace, the iPhone contains toxic brominated compounds (indicating the prescence of brominated flame retardants (BFRs)) and hazardous PVCs.

Two of the “phthalate plasticisers” found at high levels in the iPhone headphone cable are classified in Europe as ‘toxic to reproduction, category 2′ and are banned from use in all toys or childcare articles sold in Europe.The report noted that Nokia is totally PVC free and that Motorola and Sony Ericsson already have products on the market with BFR free components.

Greenpeace called upon Apple to truly revolutionize the mobile phone by producing an environmentally friendly handset for the iPhone’s European launch.

Sphere It

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ecoTumble

October 16th, 2007 at 2:29 am

Greenpeace says Apple iPhone not so green

October 16th, 2007 at 10:23 am

Cellfish - Mobile Opinions » Warning! Don't let your baby swallow your iPhone

November 1st, 2007 at 9:20 am

Comments

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.rb

October 14th, 2007 at 7:20 pm

Bet apple will do this if its in reasonable cost reach.

.rb
D

October 14th, 2007 at 7:20 pm

Very cool. A bit of pressure to clean up their act is good. +1 for Greenpeace.
Then, Apple can move on to fixing all the problems with their hardware breaking
Bong

October 14th, 2007 at 7:46 pm

Apple, being an innovative company, should lead innovations in environment friendly technologies.
Jeffrey

October 14th, 2007 at 8:19 pm

Exploding iPods and poisonous iPhones!
Justin Hamilton

October 14th, 2007 at 8:27 pm

I work for a Congressman and what has always struck me as funny/ironic is a particularly environmentally UNfriendly practice of Greenpeace: spamming 435 Congressional Offices with paper (yes from trees) faxes (yes the ones that use all those bad inks and chemicals) on a fairly regular basis.

I’m not saying they should use conflict-free hemp parchment when communicating with Congress, but it would be nice if they practiced what they so often preach.
Ding

October 14th, 2007 at 8:43 pm

@Justin: dude, you’re idiot. You can’t seriously compare the usage of paper (organic) with selling MILLIONS of phones with toxic materials.

Or have you seen Greenpeace complaining about schools writing “too many essays on paper” lately?
Don Wilson

October 14th, 2007 at 9:04 pm

They’re slowly climbing the ladder of PETA ranks.
Sammy

October 14th, 2007 at 9:05 pm

@ 5:

Agree with Ding.

What would you prefer? They deliver every petition in person via a singing human telegram?

They campaign for the environment, but that doesn’t mean they can’t take a breath for fear of emitting carbon dioxide and contributing to emissions or whatever.

Perspective and proportion. Key missing ingredients in the current mindset.
Der Wolfanwalt

October 14th, 2007 at 9:27 pm

I for one would prefer that Greenpeace go away. They occupy the end of my mental spectrum occupied by equally monomaniacal groups such as principled income-tax evaders, UFO and paranormal investigators, and Rothschild conspiracy nuts. Very comfortably-settled next to PETA.

I may have been nicely ignorant for the past few years, but the last big thing I heard about Greenpeace in any really interesting way was that the French were developing a sport around ramming and/or sinking their boats. Whatever happened to that, I ask you?
Fabian Schonholz

October 14th, 2007 at 10:58 pm

#6 & #8 and #5. If you live in a glass house do not throw stones. And what I mean is that if you are going to make certain righteous claims you need to live by those claims. It is not a matter of degrees and necessary evils. Also, any extremes are just as bad. So, if you claim to be eco-friendly, then you really should not use paper. Same deal with zero-emissions or carbon-free. You can not claim to be carbon-free when you are surrounded by plastic, the main product from oil exploitation.
Joy

October 15th, 2007 at 1:04 am

Greenpeace won’t be happy til another 100 million poor people are killed (socialists already killed 100 million poor people in the last century.)

Greenpeace doesn’t care about the environment anyway- they are just a shakedown racket.

In fact ,real environmentalists are very rare- and they recognize that one device replacing four is a net improvement, and that plastics are not actually bad for the environment, and that economics is a much more powerful environmental tool than all the luddite muckracking they do.

Hell, Al Gore- a man who wants to use violence to force the world back into the stone age, based ona religious theory that is patently absurd (The planet is getting cooler every year, not warmer over recent history, and mars has been getting warmer, but has no humans on it.) — this violent bastard just won a nobel “peace” prize.

Things are out of whack.

Greenpeace doesn’t care about the environment, its just a pseudo religious cult that rakes in cash by the millions from duped idiots without a basic understanding of economics.

Tech crunch sullies itself (if even possible anymore) by reporting this tripe.
greenpula

October 15th, 2007 at 1:40 am

Lol Greenshit is just another bunch of smart guys that live well on behalf of idiots that make donations.They are green fanatics…and never did anything really useful.Their dream world is an Amish one.
williamP

October 15th, 2007 at 3:11 am

Greenpeace is entirely discredited. This is a publicity stunt- worked the last time they targeted Apple, and it will probably work this time too.

Shame on Greenpeace.
Hammer

October 15th, 2007 at 5:26 am

Oh boy, here we go again
Somebody trace those funding checks to redmond
Steve Ballmer

October 15th, 2007 at 7:56 am

iPods Can Double as Personal Flame-Throwers!

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

After Danny Williams of Douglasville Ga. reported that his iPod shot a 2′ column of flames through his pocket, I became intrigued!
Could the iPod be another power source for weapons, industry, cooking or space travel? I therefore instructed the guys at our labs to reproduce the event reported by Mr. Williams, it took a while but indeed they did! It took a forensic examination of Danny’s iPod before they figured it out. The answer still raises the question of why but the results are undeniable!

How did we do it?

Mr. William’s iPod had 666 songs on it, the last three being “Jungle Love”, “radar Love” and “Unchain my Love”.
The order must be exact! It seems that while Mr. Williams was working he bumped the iPod which started to play Radar Love. For some reason this causes the iPod to shoot flames up to 48″ for anywhere from 8 to 20 seconds (on 22.5% of them it worked twice!).

Please do not try this at home, we have released this information as a public service for the protection of the public. The report is being forwarded to the EPD, OSHA, NSA, FBI, CDC and Homeland Security.
Our research continues.
Richard Miller

October 15th, 2007 at 8:00 am

“Lol Greenshit is just another bunch of smart guys that live well on behalf of idiots that make donations.They are green fanatics…and never did anything really useful.Their dream world is an Amish one. ”

Nothing new under the sun!
phenom

October 15th, 2007 at 9:42 am

Anyone planning to sue Apple for this.

http://vidsonly.blogspot.com
fred

October 15th, 2007 at 9:55 am

#5,#9, #10, #11, #12, #13, and #16:
Are you aware of RoHS? Probably not, huh?
Here you go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROHS

The Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment is a directive adopted by th EU

Seriously stupid commentary from you all. Notice how Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola are in compliance? Because they sell to the EU where this is not optional.

Apple will comply or simply be unable to sell in Europe.

btw, I guess if one preaches ANY environmental responsibility, they need to live in a cave and meditate?

“Either you are with us or against us”….black and white, huh? Really smart.

“It’s pronounced n-u-c-u-l-a-r Lisa, n-u-c-u-l-a-r” - Homer J Simpson
Der Wolfanwalt

October 15th, 2007 at 1:16 pm

Fred, I don’t think you understand. I don’t care what the EU adopts as a directive, and I don’t think Greenpeace does either.

I’m not for trashing the environment, but I don’t think that being combative and self-righteous is going to do anything either. What made CFCs leave our aerosol products? Enough people caring about the issue to make consumer choices. You approach someone in a convicting way as opposed to charitably and with conviction, and you will probably find that they will be less inclined to work with you than if you had approached them in the latter mindset. Hence my thinking that Greenpeace is an irrelevant institution that thrives on invective and extremism. The environmentalist movement would be better off without them.
fred

October 15th, 2007 at 1:38 pm

“What made CFCs leave our aerosol products? Enough people caring about the issue to make consumer choices.”

And you think Jon Q Public had an epiphany one day and realized CFCs were harmful to the atmosphere? How do you think people came to be informed of the hazards? People have to be informed by someone and since the FDA et al fail to do so, we are left with NGOs.

“You approach someone in a convicting way as opposed to charitably and with conviction…”

Um, they were guilty of including BFRs and PVCs, so why should there be “charity”. If you are even trying to say Greenpeace lacks conviction, then this discussion is over because you have come to a conclusion and are only looking to justify it.

good job, daddy taught you well.
Mr.X

October 15th, 2007 at 2:13 pm

So much for being “Greener”
jon

October 15th, 2007 at 3:12 pm

if this is Greenpeace vs Microsoft, everyone here would jump on Microsoft’s case.

Now it’s Greenpeace vs Apple, you see the Apple fanboys turn toxic in no time. Apple is a great company, but some fans are just full of it.
micfo.com

October 16th, 2007 at 2:08 am

I think apple has launched iphone in hurry that’s the reason these things gone unchecked.
greencapitalist

October 16th, 2007 at 10:15 am

I read the report fully at http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/.....-chemicals

Greenpeace specifically says as “Analysis revealed that the iPhone contains toxic brominated compounds (indicating the prescence of brominated flame retardants (BFRs)) and hazardous PVC.”

It is high time steve jobs comes clean and green. Apple is a great company and as an apple stock holder i am a proud man. But their products needs much better components that have zero toxicity. The BFR and PVC are very dangerous to immune system especially on growing kids who are fanatic iphone users and to those who recycle in poor countries.

Also our European competitor Nokia seems to have much better track record when it comes to clean and green components in their products.

Come on SteveMeister you can do better. Why the hell greenpeace has to kick your butt each and every time you release a new product to point out the dangerous toxic chemicals you put inside.

Note that by going green not only you can get a huge boost for your products but also you get a new base of customers who like to buy environmentally friendly products.

Some companies think they are much more than the customers. Increasingly with iphone lockup, poor customer service in apple stores, toxic-damn-care-about-customers-and-environment products, my beloved apple seems to be also think that customers are junk.
Salvatore Barbera

October 16th, 2007 at 10:23 am

Greenpeace responded back to Apple about RoHS.
“Reading the response from Apple, I am actually puzzled whether they missed the point here or are they running away from the challenge.

RoHS is irrelevant to this issue - everyone knows that all major electronics firms who sell in Europe should be completely RoHS compliant. Actually a number of the electronic companies are RoHS compliant globally.

The purpose of our analysis was to see how the iPhone compares to competitors on toxic chemicals being the newest electronics gadgets that is changing the electronics industry.”

You can read the complete article on Making Waves:
http://weblog.greenpeace.org/m......html#more
kirk gaulden

October 16th, 2007 at 12:44 pm

I agree with greene peace, and the serrias
kirk gaulden

October 16th, 2007 at 12:45 pm

recall
donna

October 18th, 2007 at 5:53 am

iphones are goood for the inviorment why have you said this?
Jim

October 27th, 2007 at 1:09 pm

Kind of a weird situation. I agree that with Apple being a leader in innovation that they should be obligated to go green now. But greenpeace likes their publicity and it is a bit annoying.