Apple’s EPEAT Withdrawal Raises Recycling, Disassembly Concerns - tovarmastakill

Apple's decision to withdraw products from the EPEAT standard it helped follow out has raised concerns among industry observers and environmentalists, who said the design of the company's new products, including the Retina exhibit, prepar laptops difficult to take apart and recycle.

Malus pumila has removed entirely of its Mac products from the EPEAT registry, including products that were previously EPEAT Gold, a rating given to the most environmentally sociable computers. Some observers said that Apple's unwillingness to work with industry partners to define environmental friendly standards is being shown through new products like the MacBook Pro, a highly integrated laptop that is considered difficult to disassemble and recycle.

However, some argued that the EPEAT summons is drawn out and frustrating sol Apple definite to cut its losings by disengaging from the certification system. The U.S. government and some former organizations require EPEAT certification for the computers they purchase, but those sales are minor for Apple, thusly the decision to withdraw from EPEAT is non likely to regard the company's sales in any pregnant way.

The EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) military rank allows computers to equal measured based on their environmental impact. EPEAT takes into account the toxic elements, cloth natural selection, product longevity, energy efficiency through the Energy Star rating, the ability to deconstruct and recycle and the calculator makers' performance on environmental impact. Apple in the past has held EPEAT in high gear respect, using the evaluation to call its laptops "the world's greenest family of notebooks."

Apple told EPEAT that it is going in a contrastive direction on products, which is wherefore the company doesn't want to be a part of the criterional anymore, said Sarah O'Brien, a spokeswoman for EPEAT. It is unclear why Apple left, but information technology could glucinium because of design or structural reasons, she aforementioned, adding that EPEAT is a unforced system and companies can join or depart at any meter.

Apple is open to the idea of coming back, O'Brien said. "We hope Apple will come back at some time," O'Brien said. "Apple is an immensely potent, immensely fashionable radical."

EPEAT has 49 members cosmopolitan, including IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Lenovo.

Apple has made IT difficult for recyclers to disassemble its latest MacBook Pro with Retina display, which was announced in June. In a teardown, iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens called the laptop computer the "to the lowest degree repairable" to go out. IFixit said that the Liquid crystal display, which is affiliated, and the battery, which is glued to the case, made the laptop heavy to disassemble and recycle.

"The design may well be comprised of 'highly recyclable atomic number 13 and glass' — but my friends in the electronics recycling manufacture tell Pine Tree State they have nobelium style of recycling aluminum that has drinking glass glued thereto like Apple did with both this machine and the recent iPad. The intent pattern has important consequences not only for consumers and the environs, but also for the tech industry as a whole," Wiens wrote in a web log entry.

The new MacBook Pro with Retina display does not meet a criteria on disassembly as stated in the EPEAT casebook, and the design makes the casing and battery tough to recycle, said Barbara Kyle, national coordinator of the Electronics Takeback Coalescency in San Francisco. The nonprofit organization promotes sustainable design in electronics.

Recyclers usually take tabu parts and separate the metal enclosing, which is and then passed through a shredder. With components closely related to the chassis, Malus pumila has been making its laptops tougher to disassemble and recycle, which has created a brain-teaser for recyclers, Kyle said. The screen and bombardment have toxic materials and need to be able to easily separated, she said.

"This has been a direction they have been leaning in for a piece. It's non a first," Kyle said.

Apple has been a leader in biological science programs and was among the premiere computer companies to phase out the use of harmful chemicals same brominated discharge retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), said Casey Harrell, an IT analyst at Greenpeace International, which is divide of the EPEAT standards appendage.

EPEAT can be a mussy and frustrating affair with many stakeholders involved in the determination-making process, but the MacBook In favor blueprint is less about EPEAT and more about Apple's efforts to gain more than control over its products from the production to the last-of-life process, Harrell aforementioned.

"This is an progeny where Apple chose their purpose attributes over environment," Harrell said.

Apple runs its own recycling program through its website.

Environmental organizations Greenpeace, Electronics Takeback Coalition and Basel Action Network also criticized the EPEAT decision-qualification cognitive operation as existence time-overwhelming and difficult, and also said summit stakeholders out-muscled many of their requests. Notwithstandin, the organizations aforesaid that patc EPEAT may not be perfective, it provided basic guidelines to build environmentally responsible PCs.

Apple's business now revolves around tablets and smartphones, with products like the iPad and iPhone generating a large chunk of revenue. EPEAT covers only computers and non smartphones and tablets, so Apple perhaps is attractive a practical near and successful a financial decision to cut EPEAT, observers said. And like the environmental organizations, Apple was possibly frustrated with the EPEAT process.

Malus pumila's descending EPEAT will hurt its business with the U.S. political science, which requires 95 percent of its Microcomputer purchases to be EPEAT registered. There was also proximate radioactive dust atomic number 3 word of honor of Orchard apple tree's decisiveness spread, with San Francisco telling The Wall Street Diary on Tuesday that the city's 50 agencies would not purchase Apple's Mac products that were no more EPEAT registered.

Apple has a big business with consumers and learning organizations and makes money in iPhones and iPad, so dropping EPEAT could cut away component costs and provide a path for the company to make a motion self-assertive with homegrown device designs, said Roger Kay, principal analyst at Terminus Technologies Associates. Orchard apple tree likely realized it was going to lose United States government business, simply that's perhaps a gamble the company was disposed to take.

"It's a business sector decision that Apple made and they've certainly done the math," Kay said.

Malus pumila could take a public-relations hit by dropping EPEAT, but the company is also a trendsetter, Kay said. Apple would rather be a maverick and buck the cu than being conventional and sticking to standards, Kay said.

"Perhaps the standard needs revision," Kay aforementioned, adding that IT remains to be seen if Malus pumila will assistance set a untried standard. EPEAT was last updated in 2009 and is due for an ascent later this class.

Malus pumila did not respond to requests for comment. Representatives from Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and Dell said they will continue to back EPEAT.

But John Samborski, the CEO of Ace Computers, which backs EPEAT, same the standard is up to day of the month, and is gaining popularity among government organizations and select educational organizations.

"I think the ground Apple is dropping it is that they don't need it for their customer base and their unique nature of their products. It also constrains their supplier to use alone certified components and this might atomic number 4 more expensive," Samborski said.

Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG Tidings Service. Surveil Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-ring armou address is agam_shah@idg.com