Officials with the San Francisco Department of Environment told CIO Journal on Monday they would send out letters over the next two weeks,informing all 50 of the city’s agencies that Apple laptops and desktops “will no longer qualify” for purchase with city funds. The move comes after CIO Journal reported that Apple had removed its laptops and notebooks from a voluntary registry of green electronics, called EPEAT. The standard, created jointly by manufacturers, including Apple, government agencies, and activist groups, requires that electronics products be designed for ease in recycling and higher energy efficiency.

Apple’s new MacBook Pro, with retina display, sits on display at Apple’s developer conference in San Francisco, June 11, 2012.

Apple requested that all 39 of its certified MacBooks and desktops be removed from the registry late last month, according to EPEAT staffers. A spokeswoman for Apple declined to comment, referring inquiries to the environment section of the company’s website.

“We are disappointed that Apple chose to withdraw from EPEAT,” said Melanie Nutter, director of San Francisco’s Department of Environment, “and we hope that the city saying it will not buy Apple products will make Apple reconsider its participation.”

» Read the full story by Joel Schectman in the Wall Street Journal

Photo by Brevityness

]]> http://www.storyofstuff.org/2012/07/11/from-wsj-sf-environment-officials-and-cio-plan-to-block-apple-over-epeat-standard/feed/ 0 http://www.storyofstuff.org/2011/07/28/take-action-this-week%e2%80%94tell-president-obama-no-more-toxic-e-waste-exports/ http://www.storyofstuff.org/2011/07/28/take-action-this-week%e2%80%94tell-president-obama-no-more-toxic-e-waste-exports/#comments Thu, 28 Jul 2011 23:00:01 +0000 Annie Leonard http://www.storyofstuff.com/blog/?p=878 Earlier this year, thousands of you joined the call for a strong Federal e-waste policy in the United States that clearly prohibits the U.S. government’s e-waste from being exported to developing nations.

We demanded this because we know that the electronic gadgets in today’s e-waste contain hazardous materials like lead, mercury and cadmium which poison communities, workers and the environment in the developing world. We want to solve this problem at home rather than export it out of site and out of mind.

But last week, when the Obama Administration’s Electronics Task Force finally issued its Electronics Stewardship report, they failed to include this essential ban on exports of e-waste.

This is unacceptable. We can do better than export our toxic-containing e-waste to developing countries.

There are lots of ways to solve the growing e-waste problem. At the production stage,  companies can make electronics more durable, less toxic and more easily recyclable. And we – individuals, students, community members -  can do our part by making our electronics last as long as possible, resisting the style-driven upgrade, and recycling unwanted e-waste at certified E-Stewards recyclers who don’t export this  junk to developing countries.

We can also help solve the e-waste problem by joining with friends at the Center for Environmental Healthto Urge President Obama to amend the policy developed by his task force and to clearly state that NO U.S. government e-waste will be exported to developing countries.

Obama’s Electronics Task Force plan requires the use of certified recyclers, but one of the two certification programs still allows exports of our trash to developing nations. This is not the way to stem the flow of e-waste overseas, not a way to create jobs for Americans, and not a way to encourage better design by electronics manufacturers. As the country’s biggest purchaser of electronics, our federal government must take responsibility for its e-waste and adopt a zero-export policy for its untested and non-working electronic equipment.

Act now. Tell President Obama: No More Toxic E-Waste Exports!

If you live outside the U.S., your voice counts too! If you live in a waste importing country, please tell Obama to solve, rather than export its e-waste problem. And if you too live in an e-waste exporting country, work to stop dumping waste overseas and promote solutions at home.

We’re never going to solve our environmental or international challenges if some countries keep dumping waste on other countries. It’s not necessary, it’s not helpful and it is definitely not nice.

Unfortunately, most e-waste still goes into the trash, which means our laptops, cell phones and game devices end up in landfills and incinerators; usually in Asia or Africa.

We churn through electronic gadgets at an ever accelerating rate, so the overseas export of e-waste is a huge problem. We need to solve our waste problems, not export them.

And guess what? The normally glacial-paced U.S. Congress has taken a step in the right direction! Let’s cheer them on!

Earlier this week – on June 22nd, a bill was introduced in the US House of Representatives called the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act of 2011. This bill will stop sham U.S. “recyclers” from dumping electronic waste on developing countries and will promote much needed recycling jobs in the U.S. where unemployment rates are soaring.

Barbara Kyle, National Coordinator of the Electronics TakeBack Coalition, an excellent coalition which has been working on this issue for years, said “This is the most important step our federal government can take to solve the e-waste problem – to close the door on e-waste dumping on developing countries.”

Help make this bill into law!

If you live in the U.S., call your representative and ask him or her to co-sponsor or support the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act (H.R. 2284). You can look up your Representative’s phone number, or call the Congressional switchboard: 1-202-224-3121. (Recommendation: Enter your Congressperson’s phone number in your phone so you can call easily and often – remember, these people work for us so they need to hear from us – not just from professional lobbyists!)

If you live outside the U.S., please write or call the U.S. Embassy in your country asking the Obama Administration to support the bill for the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act as an important step in stopping waste exports from the U.S. Imagine their surprise to know that people all over the world know about – and support – this new bill!

If you live outside the U.S. and want to stop other waste exports and imports, ask your own government to uphold the Basel Convention including the Basel Ban, an international treaty which bans the export of hazardous wastes from OECD countries to non-OECD ones. You can learn more about the Basel Convention and check if your country has ratified the Convention and the Ban.

Wherever you live, make your electronics last as long as possible. Take care of them. Repair them. Share them. Resist the upgrade. Use an old one proudly! And when you simply must discard some electronic gadget, make sure it is being safely recycled. In the U.S., Canada and the UK, look for recyclers with an e-Steward certification which means they promise not to export e-waste to developing countries. In other countries, urge electronics recyclers to join e-stewards and recycle responsibly. Because it just isn’t right to dump our toxic contaminated stuff on other countries.

©2011 Basel Action Network (BAN)

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7. THANK YOU!

“[...] my reasons for not having lots of gadgets isn’t always—or even usually—altruistic. Yes, I’m all for conservation and being green, which gets on the nerves of many of my Midwestern neighbors who don’t understand why I would choose to ride my bike when I have a perfectly good minivan. Let’s face it—environmental concerns aren’t really the reason I don’t own an X360 yet.  But maybe they should be…”

We’re excited that Lenovo wants to do better, but with their weak track record on responsible recycling and failure to follow through on a commitment to get PVC and brominated flame retardants out of their products, we’re not ready to take them at their word just yet.

Lenovo—the world’s fourth largest personal computer maker—got a D minus on the Electronics TakeBack Coalition’s Recycling Report Card. They have a takeback program on paper, but in reality they’re not making the effort to take back their products unless state laws force them to. In most states, Lenovo simply offers a dysfunctional mailback program, and, let’s face it, almost nobody’s mailing back their electronics for recycling. In Texas, for example, they collected a paltry 458 lbs of e-waste in 2009. (By comparison, Dell collected 13 million lbs in Texas). We know Lenovo can do better!

In his letter, the Lenovo CEO said that his company is getting ready to release a new sustainability report that demonstrates their commitment to making clean, green, long-lasting products. If Read really agrees with us, this report should include Lenovo’s commitment to:

• Work only with recyclers who are certified to the rigorous e-Stewards recycling standard;

• Make a real effort to get back their products in the U.S., by offering convenient, well publicized collection sites in all    states;

• Provide full transparency on their recycling vendors, detailed vendor requirements, and volumes collected by state;

• Support federal legislation to stop global e-waste dumping from the U.S.; and

• Design out the toxics and design in closed loop recycling, so products collected can be recycled into new Lenovo products

So, go ahead and show us what you’re made of, Lenovo! Prove that you’re truly committed to going green.

–The Story of Stuff Project and The Electronics TakeBack Coalition