Public Servant Lifestyle

According to the findings of international environmental pressure group Greenpeace companies should be held responsible for dealing with hazardous waste generated from the personal computers (PCs) they produce, say consumers.

At the same time as the latest Greenpeace findings on toxic electronics were issued computer giant Dell pledged to make their PCs 'greener'. Dell's announcement - that it will remove key toxic chemicals from its PCs, laptops and other products has been welcomed by Greenpeace, which is waging a campaign to pressure electronics manufacturers into making their products more environmentally friendly, and to tackle the mounting crisis of toxic e-waste.

Ipsos-MORI

The announcement was made as a survey conducted by Ipsos-MORI for Greenpeace International reveals that most people across nine countries say they would pay extra for a more environmentally friendly PC and that companies should be held responsible for dealing with hazardous waste from PCs, rather than expecting users, retail shops or their government to pay.

The nine country survey, carried out earlier this year, found that from half to three-quarters of computer users say that they would be willing to pay extra for an environmentally friendly computer. This ranges from 54% in Germany, 62% in the Philippines, 65% in Poland, 68% in Britain, 78% in Mexico, 81% in China, and 84% in Thailand.

The amount computer users say they would be willing to pay extra runs from a low of $59 in Germany, $70 in Poland and $86 in the Philippines to $118 in Britain, $138 in Thailand, $199 in China and a whopping $229 in Mexico.

The survey also found that in nearly every country, saving only the Philippines (where more wanted the consumer to pay), a majority of people felt that the manufacturers of PCs should be mainly responsible for dealing with any hazardous waste that old PCs produce. In Mexico (66%) and Thailand (64%), nearly two out of three people said that responsibility for dealing with hazardous waste rested with the manufacturer. Majorities took that view in Germany (57%) and China (53%). Half of Brazilians living in urban areas in Brazil (50%) felt manufacturers should be mainly responsible for the cost of cleaning up.

More than four people in ten (43%), agreed that PCs and other electronic products contain hazardous materials, with the lowest level of agreement in Poland (13%) and the highest Brazil (61%).

Brominated Flame Retardants

Dell made the announcement on its website, where the company posted its corporate pledge committing to phase out the use of two key groups of chemicals known to be hazardous to the environment: all types of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and the plastic polyvinyl chlorine (PVC), by 2009.

"Dell's decision to remove these harmful chemicals reflects a move within the electronics industry in the right direction to become cleaner and it is clearly the direction that consumers want. Consumers not only want greener PCs they are willing to pay extra for them," said Zeina al-Hajj from Greenpeace International. "Consumers also want the computer industry to live up to its responsibilities, and ensure that when products reach the end of their life, they do not become hazardous waste that contaminates the environment", she continued.

Dell's commitment follows a campaign by Greenpeace calling on the electronic industry to eliminate the most hazardous toxic chemicals from its products and to move to 'clean production'. Hewlett Packard, LGE, Nokia, Samsung, Sony and Sony Ericsson have already made commitments to eliminate the use of some hazardous chemicals in the near future. However, a number of other companies including Acer, Apple, Fujitsu-Siemens, IBM, Lenovo, Panasonic, Siemens and Toshiba have so far failed to commit.

Also being named and shamed by Greenpeace is Motorola, the only one of the top five mobile manufacturers which has failed to commit to removing toxic components, and has recently been downgraded in Greenpeace's industry ranking, after backtracking on earlier commitments.



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