http://humanifesto.org/yehoshanah/2005/e_waste.htm


Subject: Urge Steve Jobs to Recycle His iWaste

Date: 2005-10-17 12:03

Dear Friend,

Last Friday, Steve Jobs, Ceo of Apple computers, took a positive step by deciding to offer free recycling for iPods at Apple stores.

Recycling iPods is a great thing - but Jobs should go further. Apple's obsolete computers like Mac Classics contain lead and other highly toxic materials that will be dumped into our air, land and water.

I personally benefit from hazardous toxic materials in advanced electrical equipment, such as my Super Drive 15 inch Apple Powerbook and my PDA Video Camera MP3 Player Smart Phone. I'm also considering hazardous toxic materials in infrastructure and other consumer communication and entertainment equipment. My consumer enjoyment is progressively diminished as I become better informed of the environmental hazards lurking in the shaddow, from a lag in producer sustainable development and responsible social reaction.

I encourage and would cheer on my favourite producers of fruity consumer electrical equipment, like Apple and Blackberry, in transforming themselves into principled business organizations with triple bottom line accountability. I would cheer on any company to take on a pioneering leadership role in corporate reformation, towards higher standards in sustainable development and social responsibility.

As a consumer, I could do more to reward the leaders in sustainability, by choosing eco friendly life cycle products over more hazardous equipment, despite internalized higher purchase prices and if needed, lower development focus on desirable user features. As a consumer, I am providing feedback: I desire higher a sustainability standard by the profitable and feature rich, pioneering market leader, Apple computers.

http://www.computertakeback.com/bad_apple/action_landing.cfm

The Computer TakeBack Campaign has targeted Apple for poor design and ineffective take back programs, pointing to the iPod, which does not allow consumers to replace the batteries once they can no longer hold a charge. Consumers must send them back to Apple and pay over US$100 to get a new battery installed, which lead some consumers to purchase new products instead. Earlier this week, a California Court issued a proposed settlement of a class-action suit against Apple that would offer US$50 vouchers towards Apple products to owners of older iPods who have experienced battery failure problems.

Electronic waste (or e-waste) refers to obsolete computers, monitors, and other consumer electronic products at the end of their useful lives and are entering the waste stream. The Computer TakeBack Campaign advocates a program of extended producer responsibility, where electronics producers take responsibility for their obsolete products, and manage and finance programs to reuse components then recycle any remaining materials responsibly. By diverting electronics into strictly controlled recycling programs, toxic substances in computers, like lead, mercury, and cadmium, are kept out of municipal landfills, and incinerators and do not get dumped in prisons or poor communities in China and India. Both Dell and Hewlett Packard have endorsed the extended producer responsibility model, but Apple has not.

Please join me in urging Jobs to accept all its products for free recycling at its retail stores. Click here to send a message to Steve Jobs urging him to recycle his iWaste:

http://action.computertakeback.com/action/index.asp?step=2&item=10205

Sincerely,

jason lasky (yehoshanah)


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