The Computer TakeBack Campaign has issued its fourth annual Computer Report Card rating computer manufacturers on the environmental safety of their products and corporate policies. The Report Card recognizes those manufacturers who are taking the first step on the road to manufacturers' responsibility by implementing phaseouts of hazardous chemicals and by developing effective and safe collection, reuse and recycling systems.
Hewlett Packard and Dell earned the highest scores by refining a "Statement of Principles for Producer Responsibility of Electronic Waste" drafted by the Computer TakeBack Campaign (CTBC). The Principles assert that "manufacturers and producers accept responsibility for continually improving the environmental aspects of the design of their products and for the end-of-life management of their products."
Hewlett Packard earned the highest score in part for publicly supporting landmark takeback legislation in Minnesota and Maine. In April 2004, Maine became the first state in the union to require manufacturers of video display devices to take responsibility for their own waste products.
Dell, Inc., which received a failing score on last year's Computer Report Card and was targeted by the CTBC for being a market share leader and environmental laggard, made a dramatic turnaround this year by eliminating the use of prison labor, making improvements in their recycling programs for U.S. consumers, and engaging CTBC leaders in personal dialog about the Campaign's goals and the companies progress and plans.
But the CTBC said that although Hewlett Packard and Dell earned the highest score for their leadership, "these two companies barely managed to achieve a passing grade."
Most manufacturers could not provide recycling data for their U.S. programs or their recycling rates were below two percent. "There are clearly measurable differences between the companies that responded to the CTBC survey, however, all of the responses demonstrate that the industry has a long way to go," the organization said in its report.
Rated with Hewlett Packard and Dell in the "Beginners" group is NEC. In the next lower classification, "Those Trailing the Beginners" are listed, in descending order of environmental responsibility – IBM, Sony, Toshiba, Apple, Philips, and Lexmark.
All other manufacturers were rated as "Still at the Starting Gate" or "The Benchwarmers." Computers contain toxic materials that pose health threats to production workers, people living near factories where computer components are produced or sites where old computers are dumped, as well as for people who recycle them without adequate protection, warns the CTBC and other organizations concerned with computer waste such as the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. Studies estimate that 315 to 600 million desktop and laptop computers in the United States will soon be obsolete. Discarded computers and other consumer electronics, called e-waste, is the fastest growing portion of the U.S. waste stream, growing almost three times faster than the country's overall municipal waste stream.
CTBC estimates that the 315 million or more computers that have or will become obsolete contain a total of more than 1.2 billion pounds of lead. About 40 percent of the heavy metals in landfills, including lead, mercury and cadmium, come from electronic equipment discards. The health effects of lead on children are well known and just 1/70th of a teaspoon of mercury can contaminate 20 acres of a lake, making the fish unfit to eat.
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