Greenpeace's Report on Green Electronics

Greenpeace's Report on Green Electronics

Since 2005, Greenpeace has been surveying the field of consumer electronics and rating their environmental friendliness.  The news in the first report was dire.  Five years later, even though "companies have made increasingly stronger commitments to eliminate toxic chemicals, increase their products; energy efficiency and improve their recycling efforts by embracing financial responsibility for their electronic waste" the situation has improved only marginally over previous years. [PDF]

The good news: toxic chemicals like PVC are being reduced.  More post-consumer recycled plastic is being used in "larger products such as TVs and monitors."  Energy Star requirements are being met at a better rate.

This is a voluntary survey.  15 companies (including Dell, Motorola, Sony, and more) participated this year.  Six chose not to, including Apple, Microsoft and Nintendo.  Boo!

One item Greenpeace chose to highlight is the Lenovo L2440x Wide computer monitor.  This monitor performed "exceptionally well" in comparison to the competition.  It's free of PVC, BFR, phthalates, antimony, and beryllium.  A third of its plastic is post-consumer recycled waste, and its LED backlight display is energy efficient and mercury free.

The report lists the five greenest of each consumer electronics category: desktop computer, notebook computer, mobile phone, smart phones, computer monitors, and televisions.  

We still clearly have a long way to go when it comes to electronics.  The best way to have green consumer electronics is not to buy a new one!  I know this flies in the face of The American Way, which is "shopping," but it's true.  Even if your old cell phone is kind of boring and can't run apps, it's better for the planet than buying a new one.  New electronics don't just pop out of nowhere, and the process of mining the minerals, building the components, and shipping it all out to the stores is appalling.

However, in less curmudgeonly news, Dell's new bamboo packaging has been ASTM certified as compostable.  Furthermore, the packaging is made from bamboo, which is a crop with a remarkably low environmental impact.  Bamboo grows quickly in swampy areas which would otherwise be cleared and drained.  It requires no fertilizers to grow, and no pesticides to keep it bug-free.  

Dell began using the compostable packaging with its Mini 10 and Mini 10v netbooks.  Building on the success of the packaging with those items, it rolled out the composting packaging to some of its Inspiron laptops as well.

Anyone with an environmentally friendly heart can't help but cringe when they open the packaging for a consumer electronics item.  I understand that they can't just wrap your CPU in recycled brown paper and ship it to the stores.  But I was still dismayed the last time I bought a computer, when I had to figure out what to do with all those bags, baggies, twist ties, and oddly shaped blocks of Styrofoam.

Here's hoping Dell's compostable packaging gets pushed out to other items on their product line!  And if they could find a way to make a compostable clamshell for things that hang on the racks at stores (like batteries and flash cards) I would never buy a non-Dell product again.

Creative Commons-licensed image courtesy of Flickr user AxsDeny