Apple Drops Green Certification from Products. So, San Francisco Drops Apple

Image courtesy of National Legal and Policy Center

Recently, Apple reported that they are dropping all green certifications from their products, and will no longer have their products reviewed for environmental impact. For most Apple customers, this news doesn’t matter at all. My guess is that the general population will continue using their existing products without complaint.

This point of view does not hold true for the city of San Francisco, however. Despite Apple’s long standing environmentally friendly record, the city of San Francisco will stop buying Apple’s computers for their offices. They will continue to use iPhones and iPads, however.

This news was reported to EPEAT – nonprofit Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool. Time Techland explains that “EPEAT is an industry standard that seeks to make it easier for customers to buy environmentally friendly electronics.” Mashable explains the standards for green products:

“The standards, which were set by manufacturers, advocacy groups and government agencies, state that recyclers need to be able to disassemble products considered green. This means the average person should be able to take apart the green products with common tools in order to separate toxic components, such as batteries. Apple’s new designs do not comply with these standards.”(via Mashable)

In the past, Apple has shown their positive environmental impact by “[replacing] many of the hazardous materials in its gadgets with less harmful and more recyclable ones, and has designed longer life batteries for its computers, media players, and phones.” They also offer a recycling incentive program, which offers Apple gift cards as rewards, unbeknownst to me and probably many other consumers.

Since Apple could not be reached for comment, the public doesn’t quite know their implications for removing their green certification. One could infer that the new retina displays on the iPads and computers could be using non-environmentally friendly materials, or perhaps it is getting too expensive to have their products certified as environmentally safe. Whatever the reason, I’m sure Apple won’t lose too much of a following from the general public, with the exception of San Francisco, of course.