Greenpeace Report Claims Consoles Are Not Green Enough
Greenpeace has issued a report entitled “Playing dirty” in which it claims Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are not making their consoles green enough.
The use of hazardous chemicals or materials in electronics is a widespread and common occurrence. Some of these materials are necessary for the product to work however some can be omitted or substituted for other less harmful materials. Greenpeace recently carried out similar studies into the use of hazardous materials in laptops and mobile phones.
The report states the environmental organization purchased and dismantled a Nintendo Wii, a 40 GB Sony PS3 and an Xbox 360 Elite, in November of 2007. They then analysed several of the internal and external components for harmful or hazardous chemicals, focusing on regulated substances that fall under the European Union’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances. These substances include lead, cadmium, mercury and hexovalant chromium (chromium 6) and certain brominated flame retardants (BFRs). Additional tests were carried out for materials such as PVC the toxic phthalate plasticizers that it commonly contains and beryllium-containing alloys.
The study found that while all of the consoles were within the restrictions within the RoHS, Pthalates (believed to interfere in sexual development in male mammals) were found in both the Xbox 360 and PS3 and Bromine was found in over half of the analysed components (23 out of 42). All three consoles contained PVC-based materials and electrical contact materials from both the PS3 and the 360 contained Berylium however neither of these materials fall under the RoHS.
All three companies have made commitments to eliminate the use of PVC and BFRs in their hardware with Microsoft promising to do so by 2010. Sony have also set the date at 2010 although this is only for its mobile products and doesn’t include any console other than the PSP. Nintendo has yet to announce a timeline for its elimination of PVC ad BFRs.
Related Links
Centre for Environmental Health Sues Apple based on Greenpeace Report.
Click here for the full report on Greenpeace.com
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Whatever... Greenpeace has lost all credibility since the founder jumped the boat in protest of what the organization has become.
*stupid comment* Since when playing on a console kills you omfg they dont have tiny nuclear reactor on them and go chernobyl on you so who gives a fk about what greenpeace thinks...hippies
Who cares what that quasi-terrorist group has to say ?
I have to agree that Greenpeace is a little too extreme for my liking. It seems that EVERYTHING THAT IS MADE IN OUR SOCIETY TODAY... they say is unsafe or has 'chemicals or materials that are dangerous'...... usually however, those 'chemicals or materials' are only dangerous if you BURN the console or are trying to retrieve things from said console without proper protection, like the Chinese do.
Stupid tree huggers!!
"why haven't you done your homework?"
"sir, it wasn't my fault - it was forcibly recycled by eco-terrorists!"
Greenpeace is outdated since the 90s.
Screw Greenpeace. When Lead is banned from electronic components (I.E. Solder), the crap depicted at the site below happens. This stuff killed at least one multi-million dollar satellite. It is not known why these whiskers develop, but it is know that Lead SIGNIFICANTLY reduces their occurrence, though they still occur.
http://nepp.nasa.gov/WHISKER/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisker_(metallurgy)
Well I understand trying to get rid of lead as it is poisonous to humans but correct me if I am wrong, aren't they all about the enviroment and against human waste? Why would something that effects humans mainly really be thier priority?
I dont care for greenpeace
in other news...green peace members still fly on airplanes, still drive cars that run on gasoline, still purchase and play these video games, and still smoke cigarettes...
stories like these only encourage these monkeys...
-c
"believed to interfere in sexual development in male mammals"?.....LOL
i thought every one knew that gaming did that to male mammal....
....(homo sapiences)?
Well, they missed something HUGE. If everyone just had a PC and worked, played games, watched movies on that we would save a lot of resources and electricity.