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Apple Addresses Factory Pollution In China
redletterdave writes "Apple reportedly sent five employees to meet with five different Chinese environmental groups on Nov. 15, only to learn about several troubling environmental issues at as many as 22 different product parts suppliers. In the three-hour meeting, the Chinese environmentalist coalition claimed the factories were releasing toxic gasses, heavy metal sludge and other pollutants. Apple acknowledged that a number of its supply firms have failed to properly keep track of their wastewater emissions and vowed to improve its environmental standards for suppliers; this is the first time Apple has admitted any wrongdoing in relation to environmental pollution from any of its Chinese supply chains. The meeting comes one month after one of Apple's Chinese suppliers of MacBook parts was shut down by China's government in response to resident complaints of 'unbearable odors,' which were described as a mix of chemical fertilizer and burning plastic."
I'm not an apple fan, I like Linux. However all hardware manufacturers are guilty here not just apple.
To offset political mods, replace Flamebait with Insightful.
this is the first time Apple has admitted any wrongdoing in relation to environmental pollution from any of its Chinese supply chains
Blaming the user of the components (Apple) is virtually the same as blaming the end-user (consumers). It is NOT Apple's fault China has lax compliance.
this is the first time Apple has admitted any wrongdoing in relation to environmental pollution from any of its Chinese supply chains.
Thus is also the first time they've admitted that they will stop beating their wife. Even if Apple has some "wrongdoing" to admit at.least they are doing something unlike Dell, Logitech, HP, Microsoft, IBM, Intel, AMD, Acer, Toshiba, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Cisco, Nintendo, Sony, Nokia, MSI, Vizio, Samsung, HTC, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc.(the list can go on) who have yet to admit their wrongdoings since they use the same suppliers.
If Apple are guilty of anything here, then so are the consumers of Apple products. And seeing as a large percentage of other products we buy from countless other manufacturers probably have parts manufactured in similar factories and in similar conditions, that makes pretty much all of us guilty.
Passively they do.
Libertarian ideology is such that a company could produce something that nearly ablates the world of mammals (including humans), and those who live through it are supposed to not buy the product and thus the market kills the company.
Libertarian ideology does not apply in a world where the damage a company an do may take years or decades to accrue (like BPA, hormone interference, long term environmental abuse) and the market response required to make sense would be 'immediate'.
Regulations are necessary because we don't want serious damage to happen BEFORE the market responds. We want to prevent the serious damage with the best scientific understandings of safety we have, and let the market respond to the products that come from our best knowledge of safe practices.
Actually, Apple and other manufacturers are NOT responsible for their SUPPLIERS' mishaps.
Sure they are. Apple has almost certainly been sued for problems that are/were caused by their suppliers. Apple chooses who they want to do business with and as a result bears at least some responsibility for the actions of their suppliers. While it is unrealistic to expect Apple to be responsible for every action of their suppliers, they most definitely are responsible for some of them. The supplier and Apple share responsibility for the products they jointly create AND any by-products or problems they create as well.