Greenpeace activists erect a giant robot made from electronic components at the entrance of the world's largest electronics fair, CeBit in Hannover, Germany. The protest is to remind the electronic industry leaders gathering that while the industry promotes ever-faster, smaller and smarter gadgets it cannot continue to ignore the mountain of toxic waste coming from their products nor the serious environmental impacts and human health consequences.
Which company will be following HP's lead and taking the first
step in tackling the growing problem of toxic electronic waste by
committing to remove hazardous chemicals from its products?
HP joins big industry names like Sony, Nokia, Samsung, LG and
Sony Ericsson who are leading the industry by
positive example on toxic chemicals. Companies like Acer,
Apple, Dell, Fujitsu-Siemens, IBM, Lenovo, Panasonic, Siemens and
Toshiba have so far failed to follow the industry leaders.
HP's change of policy didn't happen overnight. Back in 2003 we
found that one of their computers contained particularly high
amounts of a toxic chemical. Subsequently we
confronted HP with the reality of their lack of action at their
European headquarters, asked awkward questions when the HP boss
visited China and finally
turned up at their world headquarters in California with a
special message for their staff. Thousands of concerned people
wrote to HP about its chemicals policy and technology media covered
the
"Greenpeace versus HP" showdown in full.
Which company, currently ignoring the issue of toxic electronic
waste, wants to be the next focus of our campaign? In September last year, Greenpeace activists had
confronted WIPRO, an iconic Indian brand, at their corporate headquarters in
Bangalore, to ‘Apply Thought’ and ‘Promote Clean Production’. Ten weeks later,
senior officials from WIPRO responded to the challenge, promised initial steps
on ‘take back’ of their products and also assured Greenpeace that they would
present a road-map within six months to move to clean production.
The electronics industry will be hard at work promoting its ever
faster, smaller and smarter gadgets but it cannot continue to
ignore the
dangerous explosion in electronic scrap (e-waste) containing
toxic chemicals and heavy metals that cannot be disposed of or
recycled safely. These high-tech gadgets
often end up dumped in Asia and taken apart by hand in
primitive, highly polluting and very definitely low-tech
manner.
Clean it up and take it back!
By removing the toxic chemicals, companies make it cleaner and
easier to recycle their products. Companies that take
responsibility for the whole lifecycle of their products from
cradle to grave ensure that their products last longer and cause
less pollution.
Our vision for the industry is one that produces cleaner,
longer lasting, more sustainable products that don't contribute to
the growing tide of toxic, short lived products currently being
dumped in Asia.
Our toxics campaigner, Martin Hojsík will be asking the
electronics companies where they stand on these issues at CeBit and
he has a suggestion for next years event;
"The motto for this years CeBit is
'digital solutions for work and life', we want next years motto to be
'digital solutions without pollution'!"
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