Acer, Dell Delay Environmentally-Friendly Materials in PCs
Some PC makers are delaying their promises to reduce or eliminate the use of environmentally problematic materials such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in their computers.
According to Heise, Acer, Lenovo and Dell are not moving as quickly as previously announced by the companies.
Most recently, Dell originally said (and still says on its website) that none of its new systems by the end of 2011 will ship with PVC, which is used especially in cabling material, and BFRs, which are used for mainboards and certain plastic components. However, 20 computers still come with those materials. Spokesman Michael Rufer said that the company anticipates that XPS and Latitude systems will be PVC and BFR free in 2012. Heise noted that Inspiron notebooks may continue to include PVC and BFR.
Acer and Lenovo are compromising as well. Acer's business notebooks are already free of PVC and BFR, but the Aspire consumer series still integrates hazardous materials. Lenovo told Heise that only a few notebooks are shipping without PVC and BFRs at this time.
Apple has led the industry and claims to have banned PVC and BFRs from its computers in 2008. HP, Sony and Samsung confirmed that they are not using the materials in their systems anymore.
According to Greenpeace, some BFRs are known to have "toxic properties, are highly resistant to degradation in the environment and are able to bioaccumulate (build up in animals and humans)." PVC creates and releases dioxin during its production and is difficult to recycle. Chemicals that are used to make PVC soft and bendable are suspected to cause cancer and kidney damage.
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Douglas Perry was a freelance writer for Tom's Hardware covering semiconductors, storage technology, quantum computing, and processor power delivery. He has authored several books and is currently an editor for The Oregonian/OregonLive.
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altriss JebReynoldsApple wins again!not clear, when you know how many toxic product are needed to produce aluminium. It' s maybe one of the worst material environmentally speaking...Reply
Am I the only one who would like to know what they are going to use instead of PVC? Because if it's only aluminium or magnesium it would be worst than ever. I know that Sony is starting to use Carbon fiber in the VAIO high end models, but I don't know more.
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aqualipt altrissnot clear, when you know how many toxic product are needed to produce aluminium. It' s maybe one of the worst material environmentally speaking...Am I the only one who would like to know what they are going to use instead of PVC? Because if it's only aluminium or magnesium it would be worst than ever. I know that Sony is starting to use Carbon fiber in the VAIO high end models, but I don't know more.Reply
its not only toxic products that are needed to produce aluminium, the thing that really causes an impact to the earth when making aluminium is the HUGE amount of electricity requiered, i mean its impresive the lots of energy requiered to make it, google it ;)
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A Bad Day The mentality of some people: It's not toxic until proven otherwise. If it's toxic, it can't be that bad as long as its cheap and it doesn't kill you right away...Reply
That includes my parents. Yeah, they regularly microwave food in plastic containers that came with specific warning labels that advised users to not microwave the containers. -
deksman The only reason they don't want to move as quickly as possible to environmentally friendly materials is money.Reply
From a technological/resource point of view, there was no reason to not do this since computers came into commercial production.
Oh, I'm sorry... we live in a monetary system which is not sustainable and cares of nothing else but money/profits.
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southernshark A Bad DayThe mentality of some people: It's not toxic until proven otherwise. If it's toxic, it can't be that bad as long as its cheap and it doesn't kill you right away...That includes my parents. Yeah, they regularly microwave food in plastic containers that came with specific warning labels that advised users to not microwave the containers.Reply
Something is going to kill you kid. None of us are getting out of here alive. -
sundragon Wait, let me get this straight, when Apple does away with toxic stuff and gets a gook mark people on here state that everyone on the planet is brainwashed and the article is written by fanboys and OMG Steve Jobs was Satan...Reply
Why aren't people enraged with these guys when they obviously don't care enough about the environment?
Oh, wait, double standard...
Please boycott these companies and purchase your hardware elsewhere, then maybe they'll realize the environment does affect their bottom line.