Game Consoles: No Consolation

Our analysis, published in our new report,“Playing Dirty,” detected the use of hazardous chemicals and materials such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), phthalates, beryllium and bromine indicative of brominated flame retardants (BFRs).

But the tests also showed that each manufacturer had avoided or reduced uses of individual hazardous substances in certain materials within their consoles. For example, the Nintendo Wii managed quite well without using beryllium in its electrical contacts, and use of PVC and phthalates was limited. The PlayStation 3, meanwhile, included “bromine-free” circuit boards and the Xbox 360 used fewer brominated materials in its housing materials.

As we’ve seen previously – with laptops and with mobile phones – if manufacturers only looked at each other’s products, they’d quickly see ways of replacing their own dirty components with toxic-free materials. A greener, cleaner game console is possible. There’s no excuse for playing dirty.

The game consoles market is one of the fastest growing in consumer electronics – over 60 million game consoles have been sold, and the sector saw a 14 percent growth over the last year. Ironically,despite being used for playing games, game consoles are not classified as toys. If they were, existing EU legislation concerning the use of hazardous chemicals in toys and childcare articles would mean that these game consoles simply couldn’t be sold at all in the EU market!

The toxic menace doesn’t stop there. Game consoles also contribute towards the fastest growing type of waste – ewaste. Once they’ve reached the end of useful life, game consoles are often dumped and end up in unsafe and dirty recycling yards in developing countries, where toxic contents harm both the environment and the health of workers.

The technology is already available for manufacturers to design out harmful toxics and produce cleaner game consoles now. It’s time that not only Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft but all electronics manufacturers start to play fair.

Help your favorite games console manufacturer get ahead of the game! You can write to Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft (or even all three!) and let them know what you expect of them in making their products cleaner and greener.