Apple's iPhone contains hazardous chemicals and materials that are difficult to recycle, the environmental group Greenpeace has claimed.
Some iPhone components tested positive for chlorinated plastic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and bromine flame retardants (BFRs) that can be a toxin after being thrown away, Greenpeace said in a report entitled Missing Call: iPhone's Hazardous Material.
The combination handheld media player's battery could also cause environmental problems, according to the report. The battery is typically glued and soldered to the handset, making it more difficult to remove for recycling, Greenpeace said.
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said in May that the computer maker would improve its environmental practices by recycling more in an effort to become a "greener" company.
By the end of the year, Apple plans to enlarge its recycling programme to cover 93 per cent of the countries where it sells Macintosh computers and iPod music players. "Steve Jobs has missed the call on making the iPhone his first step towards greening Apple's products," Zeina Alhajj, a toxics campaigner for Greenpeace International, said in the statement.
Greenpeace last year ranked Apple last of 14 computer manufacturers in its annual Guide to Green Electronics. Nokia, the world's biggest mobile-phone maker, was ranked first in the survey.
Greenpeace said Nokia does not use PVC in any of its components.
Motorola, the largest US maker of mobile phones, and Sony Ericsson Mobile, the world's fourth-largest maker of mobile phones, have products available without bromine fire retardants.
In a statement Motorola said it had "removed from its mobile phone handsets certain BFRs" as required by EU directives and was "actively pursuing removal of other BFRs". The company also said it operated a number of recycling programmes around the world for end-of-life handsets.
A Sony Ericsson spokesman said the company had phased out BFRs in "almost all models already" while "all handsets have been PVC free for sometime".
Greenpeace tested an iPhone purchased at a Washington, DC store. The environmental group said all the components tested met EU standards preventing the use of lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium and certain brominated flame retardants in electrical and electronic goods.
Calls to Apple seeking comment were not returned last night.
- (Bloomberg)
