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Apple's Chinese Suppliers Accused of Causing Significant Environmental Damage
itwbennett writes "Environmental watchdog groups in China on Wednesday released a report detailing a 5-month investigation on electronic suppliers that they believe are used by Apple. According to the report, accessory manufacturer Kaedar Electronics and printed circuit board maker Unimicron have allegedly been discharging waste water and harmful gas from their plants in the Chinese city of Kunshan. The report claims that over a 10-year period, 'many people have fallen sick, with a sharp increase in the village's cancer rates.' Since 2007, more than nine people have suffered or died from cancer in the village, which has a population of fewer than 60. Apple declined to say if the companies named were in fact its suppliers, but company spokeswoman Carolyn Wu, responding to the report, said, 'Apple is committed to driving the highest standards of social responsibility throughout our supply base.'"
American consumers have made their choice a long time ago.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Apple doesn't care about the planet or slave labor so long as they can make a profit. That has been the goal of Apple since Steve took over, and that's part of the reason I don't buy Apple.
Apple declined to say if the companies named were in fact its suppliers"
Well, that seems like a fairly damning statement. I'm sure Apple (or any other company) would be falling over themselves to deny they were involved with the named supplies if they could.
From the article.
"Apple does this by regularly conducting audits and working with suppliers to correct violations, according to the company's 2011 supplier responsibility progress report. In 2010, the company audited 127 facilities and found that 89% of them had waste water management practices in compliance with Apple's requirements.
The same audits, however, found that only 69% of the facilities were in compliance with air emission management standards. Only 70% of the facilities were in compliance for environmental permits and reporting. When violations are found, Apple requires the supplier to complete plans to resolve the problem 90 days after the audit."
Do we have 100% compliance in the states? How does this compare to US rates?
1. Fabricate an Icon 2. Market Said Icon 3. Move all manufacturing of said Icon to the lowest (and therefore dirtiest place) on the planet. We don't manufacture anything in North America anymore because we have environmental regulations that cost billions of dollars to comply with; china has some regulations but it's always cheaper to bribe the party member than pay the bill. I wonder if the Chinese people know they are poising their own back yard? that's why we have said expensive regulations.
With a phrase like "Apple is committed to driving the highest standards of social responsibility throughout our supply base," that's basically a free ticket to PR/Plausible Deniability, whether their company is linked to the supplier or not. Of course, none of this really matters, because the parts have to come from somewhere, and China happens to have the largest concentration of rare earths.
How many computer or electronic device makers have Chinese plants producing their circuit boards for them? Last I checked, Apple was only one of MANY. Yet this article makes it sound like Apple, alone, is at fault here for not making good on their claim that they're committed to driving the highest standards of social responsibility throughout their supply base.
Let's face the facts. Only *China* can take care of pollution in China. If their government doesn't consider it important for businesses operating there not to dump hazardous waste into their ground-water, that's the decision they've made on behalf of their citizens.
When you do business with China, you accept many pros and cons. For example, as Apple is finding out, China also has little regard for intellectual property and copyright -- so plenty of jobs are being created by way of counterfeiting Apple's products and tarnishing their reputation/good name. Again, as much as Apple may be committed to ensuring their intellectual property is protected, they can only do what the Chinese government is WILLING to do for them in those regards, in their nation.
almost a century ago the europeans dumped their cheap manufacturing to the USA and by the 1960's parts of the USA were environmental nightmares. we fixed it with the EPA and a few laws, but a few morons actually want to bring this back to the USA.
I live in NYC and parts of the city are still uninhabitable due to pollution years ago, the original polluters are long gone and anyone who builds will have to pay for the clean up. Jetblue paid tens of millions to clean up parts of JFK airport to build a new terminal.
at some point the chinese will wise up and stop allowing us to pollute their country
They should be ashamed of rejecting Apple's gifts. iCancer is a truly aspirational lifestyle disease. The revolutionary unibody tumor construction, with the most advanced custom-vascularization in the industry(PC detractors might argue that these are just made of your own commodity cells these days; but it's the unique integration and superb resistance to apoptosis that really makes them special), and Apple's trademark 'It Just Hurts' UX design truly make this the disease to have.
In an effort to maintain their lowest-bid status with one of the world's most profitable technology companies, multiple Chinese manufacturers decide to reduce costs by cutting corners on safety. News at 11.
Another example of "apple name dropping" for hits and sensationalism. Unimicron's clients include HTC, Motorola, Sony, Gigabyte, etc.
Everything is made in China, and everyone of us -- Apple customer or otherwise -- is a party to whatever hells happen over there.
In the US its more than just apple doing the audit. I don't know how Apple's standards compare to the EPA standards, but much of this would be illegal in this country and it wouldn't really be up to Apple to police it.
It's good to hear about an active environmental group in China though. With time, hopefully there will be change. It will mean more expensive hardware, but that is inevitable.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
' Since 2007, more than nine people have suffered or died from cancer in the village...'
'More than nine'? So 10? 11? It seems like it wouldn't be difficult to include the precise number.
As long as we can continue buying cheap electronic devices, we won't give two shits what happens to the countries or people who actually produce the goods. That's the beauty of globalization. We're so far removed from the actual costs of our insatiable appetite for cheap consumer goods, it never dawns on us that our comfort comes at the cost of another's cancer or starvation.
From the summary: "suppliers that they believe are used by Apple"
Trolling by using Apple's name is a time-honored tradition in environmental groups. Yeah, they may be used by Apple...but they may not be. Maybe they're used by Dell? HP? Lenovo? GM? Ford? Chrysler? Qualcomm? Panda Express?
Seriously? 9 people have died of cancer...in China, population 1.3 billion. 9 out of 1,300,000,000?
Whether or not American companies do their manufacturing in China, Chinese companies will continue their environmentally harmful practices. It's convenient to blame Americans and the West for everything but the Chinese were doing this sort of thing long before we set up factories there. They simply don't care, economic growth is more important than anything else.
That said, it frustrates me to no end that American companies are not held accountable for what their manufacturers in China do. Every time some defective product pops up inevitably the American corporation foists all the blame on the Chinese manufacturer. Yes, the Chinese manufacturer screwed up, but why isn't the American company doing a better job of oversight?
The thing is that if Americans were forced to face the consequences of outsourcing more directly some of them might be more inclined to keep that manufacturing here. I'm even inclined to believe that all products manufactured in China that could have made in the US should have tariffs applied to them. Equalize the cost so that outsourcing doesn't look quite so attractive to the dolts in management looking to cut costs because it will secure them a promotion.
Americans prefer low cost over retaining jobs, a clean environment and a clean conscience.
I'm not surprised... I was in China in the summer of 2001, and one of the things I vividly remember was riding the train from Beijing to Shanghai, and looking out the window at a factory with smokestacks belching bubblegum-pink smoke into the sky. That cannot be healthy, or likely legal, but in general in China rules and regulations are one thing on paper, and another thing in practice.
Over here you may observe the iphone enabled twit-verse moan about Cantor proposing rollbacks of environmental regulation.
Environmental regulation without trade balance is international NIMBYism, folks.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
Apple bought products from these companies, they don't run the companies. That would be like me blaming you for buying a shirt made by slave children. It is Apple's job to monitor its suppliers business practices. I'm not an Apple fan at all and I have written posts where I think Apple is off base suing Samsung and HTC because they both make tablets, but I can be realistic. Apple deserves no blame in here and probably doesn't need to be in the article, but obviously it will sell more and grab more attention if it is in the article. Now that being said if they are Apple's suppliers it would probably be best for Apple to drop them and distance themselves from the story. If they continue to use these suppliers, now that they know of their shady bushiness actions, then maybe you can blame them.
Just because you are wrong and I called you out on it doesn't mean I am a Troll.
No regulations on worker rights, human rights, or environmental rights. And, if you complain about it that makes you an anti-business, tree hugging, libtard. Now, get back in that Walmart line with your $3 t-shirt and STFU.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Does that make any sense to you at all?
There are cars made in the US which cost less than $14,000. Do you believe everything you read on the internet?
who "puts environmental and social rsponsibilities" first.
No? Then shut up.
Very interesting movie on this subject and the "recycling" of western technology Manufactured Landscapes (2006)
So I can then conclude that all you Apple-haters have personally investigated the source of your motherboards, memory, GPUs, cases, and power supplies of the environmentally-perfect PCs you are using to bash Apple upon? Got a component made by Asus? Foxconn? Any other Chinese company? Yeah, they only engage in environmentally-destructive practices when they're building for Apple.
By your logic, YOU are just as responsible for any pollution and exploitation from YOUR computer components as Apple. You don't get a free ride just because you don't have a black turtleneck.
Everybody gets what the majority deserves.
I don't know how Apple's standards compare to the EPA standards, but much of this would be illegal in this country and it wouldn't really be up to Apple to police it.
It's illegal in China too!
The cause of this problem is nothing to do with Apple, Western consumers, or anything else outside of China.
In China, pretty much everything is illegal. They have laws against everything you can think of, including adulterating milk with melamine to produce false test results. The problem is that you can't do anything in China without getting permission from the government. Businesses that actually comply with all the Chinese regulations go out of business very quickly because their competition is willing to gain an advantage by cheating - i.e. bribing officials, whatever.
The culture that has developed under this situation is such that nobody complies with regulations in China. It is simpler, faster and cheaper to pay bribes and to lie about compliance.
Once in a while, they'll do something that results in people getting hurt or killed, like the melamine in the milk. The government will round up the head of the milk company and execute him, but nothing really changes that will make their food supply more trustworthy or safe.
I have seen photographs of raw materials processing plants in China spewing huge clouds of colorful smoke into the air. It looked like a movie special effect. The same type of plant in a modern country like Brazil, for example, is three times the size of the Chinese plant - 2/3 of the Brazilian plant's volume is dedicated to equipment that captures the harmful byproducts given off by the process and prevents them from getting out into the environment. This is why the Chinese shut down a fair portion of their raw materials and manufacturing industry just prior to the Beijing Olympics - to allow the pollutants to dissipate and raise the air quality for the games.
I know of at least one manufacturing plant in California that can demonstrate that they are actually discharging air that is cleaner than the intake air. They are required to meet environmental standards, and they do it. In China a similar plant would just pay off the inspector.
Short of customers such as Apple stationing full-time inspection crews all the way down the supply chain (pretty much impossible), there's not much they can do. I have also seen pictures of expensive Italian quality control equipment in Chinese plants - everything in the plant looked dirty and worn, but the quality control equipment looked brand new. It was in place so they could pass their quality certification audit but it wasn't in normal day-to-day use, and nobody at the plant actually knew how to use any of it!
Frankly we're lucky Chinese products aren't falling apart or killing people all the time. Go on Youtube and look for Chinese car crash tests if you want a real eye-opener.
Almost any product made in China carries the risk of poor quality, false components, or pollution at some point in the supply chain. It's not an Apple problem. It's a China problem.
Putting moderation advice in your
Amen!
`In a report titled "The other side of Apple", published 20th, 2011, a coalition of environmental organizations brought to light problems of pollution and poisoning in Apple's supply chain in China. Yet to this day, Apple has systematically failed to respond to all queries regarding their suply chain environmental violations'.
.. showed off two other tablet computers - one made by Archos and the other by Pegatron Corp". link
It would be interesting knowing who is behind this `coalition of environmental organizations'. And why isn't Microsoft similarly accused seeing as they do business with Pegatron Corp., the parent company of Kaedar Electronics.
"During his keynote address at CES, Mr Ballmer
Why do you think it's so cheap to manufacture over there? hint: Less regulation. You get either environmentally safe expensive manufacturing or cheap earth destroying manufacturing.
I know, I'm responding to the Anonymous Troll, but nonetheless this seems to be a common delusion on Slashdot. The company I work for makes a class of electronic equipment. We do not make our own PCBs, but neither do we get them made in China. Our PCBs are fabricated in a few plants scattered about the US. (Our PCBs are more complex than those found in PCs.) Once the PCBs are fabricated we assemble them in-house. Design, fabrication, assembly, test and QA are all done in the US. Not only do we do our own assembly, but as we have capacity we do contract assembly. US manufacturing is not dead, but a lot of it has moved to the Mid West.
Sig is on vacation
American consumers have made their choice a long time ago.
You left out the part about a loss of jobs in the US, American consumers are OK with that too.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Not really, but you go on believing that.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Nothing that Apple is doing that nobody else is doing.
Actually, that is not true. After the FoxConn issues, Apple helped give employees a huge raise.
Foxconn makes stuff for many other companies besides Apple, but Apple is the only company that did this.
From another angle, few other computers companies that I know of go to such great lengths to reduce use of toxic materials in manufacturing... that's party why they went to aluminum cases, to which are water cut.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The funny thing is that it takes a lot of energy to produce glass and especially alu. Making computers out of recycled plastic is a lot more environmentally friendly.
Nuclear plants are very environmentally friendly. Plastic manufacture has many toxic byproducts you just can't work around (for case quality plastics). In the end you are far better off using a process that requires a lot of power, because power can be cleaned up much easier than dealing with a constant stream of toxic byproducts which is 100000 times as great as what comes from a modern nuclear reactor.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
1) It is in fact possible to source parts for your PC. You can find out where things are made, and made some choices. There are devices that you have no real choice, powersupplies would be one, final assembly for all brands I know of is in China, processors would be another, all 32nm Intel processors are made in the US, but you can look in to things and choose what you buy.
2) The problem with Apple is the charge a premium price but use bargain construction. I expect, and for most goods I get, better construction including having it done in countries with environmental regulations. For example I own a high end Denon receiver. Unlike the cheaper ones, it is made in Japan, not China. Part of the the premium is better manufacturing. Or take the Bosch dishwasher I am looking at purchasing. Heck of a lot more expensive than a Haier, but in addition to having better features and being more eco friendly, it is manufactured in the US.
Apple wants to charge these extremely high premiums for their toys, but then use the cheapest manufacturing they can get. They also want to try and deflect from it. Every device I own has a "made in" or "assembled in" thing stamped on it. It is required. It is the place of final assembly (even though often it contains parts form many other places). They all have it because the law requires it and that is that. Not Apple, they say "Designed by Apple in California. Computer Assembled in China." They don't like having to admit they make their shit in China, so they try and deflect with the "But we designed it California!" shit that is not at all required to be on there.
If Apple starts going for cheap like most consumer electronics makers, then ok I'd expect them to be built as cheap as possible which often (but not always) means China. However if they want to play the "We are premium," game then they need to step up.
China is starting to dream big. That is a good thing. Hopefully, the dreamers will take over their gov. and stop their cold war.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
There was a time when we did this, too.
It took a few events to get the EPA enacted, one of them was a river that caught fire.
When the Chinese set fire to a river, they'll be close to being motivated to set up their own EPA.
--
BMO
duh. wrong story.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Apple started out selling computers based on Motorola chips.
Motorola used to dump chemicals behind its semiconductor plants, and the cleanup is still continuing today, but on the American public's dime.
The environmental-negligence portion of Apple's profit margin didn't go away, it just moved overseas along with Apple's job-creation capability.
Yeah, I'm really shocked that a Chinese company is doing environmental damage. Then I read the real joke, 'Apple is committed to driving the highest standards of social responsibility throughout our supply base.' I guess that's what call the purpose of suicide nets.
Having worked with China environmental industries for over a decade, I skimmed TFA and one thing jumps out immediately... These "violations" the report is built on are actual FINES and ENFORCEMENT of Chinese Environmetal Law. China EPA was NOT enforcing these laws ten years ago. This is actually what progress looks like. If you look up environmental fines and enforcements in the USA, you could write the same report. In the past, you could not have written this report about China.
Gently reply
It's like many things -- Us consumers end up having a skewed idea of the total environmental footprint of the products and services we buy because the majority of the pollution is occurring out of sight. I think it's called point pollution as opposed to total pollution, and applies to a surprising number of things.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
The price on that movie's DVD is $398 plus shipping. It must have not been made using slave labor I guess. Seriously, do they want people to buy the movie or is that a joke?
Of course, companies are not allowed to do this in America. No fracking companies discharging radioactive water upstream from drinking water intakes. No coal-fired power plants dumping tons of mercury into the air every year.
Even new plants come with their list of nasty things they will discharge and the politicians say, "Jobs, jobs, jobs. Of course you can pollute as long as you add jobs."
If I used a sig over again, would anyone notice?