| Environmentalists Hit Apple Over Recycling
By Bob Keefe
Cox News Service
01/11/05 8:27 AM PT
Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) , which has long been viewed favorably by environmentalists, is under attack for its environmental practices.
Members of the Texas Campaign for the Environment and other environmental groups protested outside Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California, yesterday, carrying signs that read: "From iPod to iWaste, toxic trash in your pocket."
Today, they plan to take their protest to the company's Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco to complain about the computer maker's recycling practices.
Image Vs Reality
"I think their image is very much at odds with reality," said Robin Schneider, executive director of the Austin-based Texas Campaign for the Environment.
Apple officials did not return a reporter's phone calls seeking comment.
Schneider said the company didn't respond to yesterday's protest or to a letter she delivered to the company asking it to improve its environmental programs.
Apple's Macworld conference is one of the company's most visible and important gatherings.
Company founder and Chairman Steve Jobs is widely expected to kick off the conference this morning by introducing a new computer priced at about US$500 or less and a new iPod portable music player that will cost less than $200.
Formidable Challenge
Also planning to join the Texas group in the protest outside San Francisco's Moscone Center today is the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and other environmental organizations. The groups also announced a new Web site BadApple.biz, that highlights their complaints with the company.
Together, the groups have proven they can be formidable.
Last year, through protests and other actions, they forced the world's biggest computer maker, Round Rock, Texas-based Dell (Nasdaq: DELL), to institute a sweeping recycling program.
Dell and other companies will take back outdated computers for free whenever a customer buys new machines. But to avoid a fee from Apple, customers must deliver their used computers to the company's headquarters in Cupertino, Schneider said.
Worse still, Apple's other electronics, including its highly successful iPod portable music player, are poised to fill up landfills in the future at a scary rate, Schneider and others said.
Bad Report Card
"With every hip new iPod comes toxic iWaste, which Apple denies as its problem," Ted Smith of Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition said in a news release.
In a "report card" of computer companies' environmental practices issued last year by Smith's group and the Computer Take Back Campaign, Apple had one of the worst rankings of any U.S.-based manufacturer.
Apple also has fought against recycling rules in several states, according to the environmental groups.
Schneider said members of the environmental groups have met with Apple officials -- including Jobs -- on several occasions. But the company has not responded to the groups' requests for information on the number of computers it recycles, nor has it made efforts to improve its track record, she said.
Earlier, at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, though, Apple joined virtually ever other major U.S. computer maker -- with the exception of Dell -- in a broad coalition designed to boost computer recycling.
Schneider characterized that action as little more than lip service, however, noting that unlike other companies, Apple didn't even send a representative to the announcement of the new recycling push.
© 2004 Cox News Service. All rights reserved.
© 2004 ECT News Network. All rights reserved.
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