How green is Apple?

He also pledged to remove PVC and Brominated Flame Retardants (BFRs) from the entire Apple product line by the end of this year. Most importantly, Jobs said: "Apple is already a leader in innovation and engineering, and we are applying these same talents to become an environmental leader."

Since then, Jobs has stuck to his word. Unnecessary packaging has been eliminated, Macs are more environmentally friendly than before and the new MacBooks are the greenest laptops Apple has ever made.

In his 2008 environmental update, Jobs notes that Apple's recycling has increased 57%, that the firm offers "takeback" recycling schemes in 95% of the countries where Apple products are sold, that the firm is making efforts to reduce not just the carbon footprint of its manufacturing processes but the energy consumption of its products too.

What you can do

Apple could make the greenest electronics on the planet, but if its customers don't go green too then it's all pretty pointless. As you'd expect, being a green Apple owner isn't particularly difficult: keep stuff that works, pass it on if you don't need it, and recycle it when it dies.

Apple has two kinds of recycling programmes in the UK. If you buy online – or if you haven't bought anything and just want to recycle old kit – then the UK distributor takeback scheme means you should take your hardware to a council recycling point. You can find the nearest one at www.recycle-more.co.uk.

Alternatively, when you buy something from an Apple Store you can recycle your old kit by taking it to the Store within 30 days of purchase. In some cases you'll even get a discount, so for example if you recycle an old iPod (except the shuffle) you'll get 10% off a new one.

Apple Stores won't just recycle Apple hardware: if you're buying a Mac to replace an old Windows box, you can recycle that. However, the Apple website is a little bit confusing, because it says that you can recycle "one equivalent piece of electronic equipment" by taking it to the Apple store. But what does "one" mean? Is it one item, such as the CPU, or is it one system, which would include cables, keyboard and monitor? We have no idea and the Apple website doesn't say – so we decided to ask our friendly neighbourhood Apple Store.

Nicola was happy to help. We told her that we'd like to buy a shiny new iMac and dump a decrepit Dell desktop, but we were not sure what we could actually recycle. Is it the whole kit and caboodle, cables and all, or can we only recycle the actual PC bit? Nicola wasn't sure, so she double-checked. Bring in the whole thing, cables and all, she told us. Can we bring the monitor? Yep, that too. Bring everything!

Inevitably, there are limits to what your local Apple Store will take. Cracked monitors, extra batteries, uninterruptible power supplies and nuclear waste are no-nos, and Apple's definition of "equivalent" doesn't include "microwave ovens or washing machines".

Everything's gone green

Apple has delivered exactly what Greenpeace asked for: a greener Apple. So the protesters have stopped protesting, the emailers have stopped emailing, and every time you buy a Mac a polar bear bursts into tears of joy.

Well, not quite. Apple has made huge steps, but going green is a long process – and like all PC manufacturers, Apple can do even more to lessen the environmental impact of its products. One of the problems is that the electronics industry thrives on making us buy new stuff, and Apple is particularly good at it – which is why people with perfectly good first-generation iPhones were queuing outside Apple stores to get the iPhone 3G on the day of release.

As Dowdall points out, "The marketing approach… to always ditch the old and buy the latest new version of a gadget you already have is not sustainable. A greener approach would be to offer hardware upgrades to existing gadgets instead of a whole new model, or to change to a leasestyle arrangement where customers buy a service instead of a product."

Cutting down on packaging and removing hazardous chemicals is a big step in the right direction, but campaigners would like to see even bigger changes. "Apple is leading the way among PC makers in eliminating toxic chemicals," says Dowdall.

"However, they still have much to do on improving recycling, their climate change policy and energy use. Clear leadership on recycling would be offering a free global takeback scheme. Clear leadership on climate issues would be Apple committing to cuts in its greenhouse gas emissions – like HP has – and increasing the total amount of renewable energy it uses globally – like Nokia has."

We can play our part, too. "Don't be afraid to ask for continuous improvement on environmental policies," Dowdall says. "That's a powerful way to push for better corporate practice." Steve Jobs has already pledged to make Apple an "environmental leader". We can make sure he sticks to it.

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First published in MacFormat, Issue 204

Now read 15 great uses for your old PC

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