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Apple Exits "Green Hardware" Certification Program

Posted by timothy on from the shiny-star-sticker dept.

westlake writes "CNET reports that Apple is turning its back on the EPA supported EPEAT hardware certification program. One of the problems EPEAT sees are barriers to recycling. Batteries and screens glued into place — that sort of thing. There is a price for Apple in this: CIO Journal notes that the U.S. government requires that 95 percent of its electronics bear the EPEAT seal of approval; large companies such as Ford and Kaiser Permanente require their CIOs to buy from EPEAT-certified firms; and many of the largest universities in the U.S. prefer to buy EPEAT-friendly gear."

13 of 405 comments (clear)

  1. No Surprise There by getto+man+d · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Profit > The Environment

    1. Re:No Surprise There by busyqth · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Profit > The Environment

      Apple's move is driven by a design / certification dichotomy, not a profit / environment dichotomy.

      Whether a given device is EPEAT certified says absolutely nothing about whether it is actually more or less likely to be recycled or whether it is more or less a burden on the environment. All is says is that the device can be relatively easily disassembled for recycling by unskilled labor without special equipment.

      If Apple is willing to take all old devices for free environmentally responsible disposal / recycling (and I believe they are), then the EPEAT certification is of no great value to the environment in the case of Apple's devices.

    2. Re:No Surprise There by cheesybagel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If the pieces are glued in a way they can't be easily separated you need to trash everything that is glued because of one malfunctioning piece. "Repairs" may end up trashing a large chunk of the appliance.

    3. Re:No Surprise There by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ...spoilt brats who don't give a crap about anything unless it is fashionable

      You worked yourself into a lather about someone else's choice of product, to the point of creating a caricature to beat up. Be happy with your own choices and don't obsess over people who make a different choice.

    4. Re:No Surprise There by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Funny

      You have a group of people advocating for the government to step in and force everyone else to make the choices that they prefer, choices which they believe (wrongly) will bring about some bullshit eco-utopia. At the same time, ironically, they whine and complain when that police power, the same power that they want to use against others (read their crazy list of demands) to force choices that wouldn't happen otherwise, descends upon them in the form of pepper spray, baton strikes and plastic handcuffs. I don't have any problem with people making their own choices and living their own lives, live your own life how you want. However, when you say that the government ought to force everyone else to make those same choices because you're "right" and everyone else is either wrong, misguided or stupid; well, that's when I take issue with filthy hippies who would appoint themselves as philosopher kings to manage other people's lives and choices through government decree.

      Man, that's some quality blather, right there.

      You have got to lay off the talk radio, friend. I didn't know it was possible to fit so much nonsense in one paragraph. If it had gone on another few sentences, you might have created a nonsense singularity that you'd never be able to escape.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    5. Re:No Surprise There by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Informative

      You mean the Occupy protesters that wanted everybody to stick it to the banks by joining Credit Unions, even though Credit Unions have the benefit of being tax-exempt (unlike banks) and therefore contribute NOTHING to the local economy, while at the same time hating the rich for using tax breaks? Those people?

      Credit unions are exempt from federal income tax (though they pay lots of employment, property and sales tax) because they are not-for-profit and thus exempt from federal corporate income tax. A corporation that does not make a profit has no income on which to pay federal corporate income tax.

      This is the reason that the boards of directors of credit unions are all volunteers and are member owned.

      The members of a credit union pay taxes on their income from the credit union, just like anyone else.

      Banks on the other hand, are entirely for profit, and thus pay taxes on their income because they are not required to re-invest all of their income in ways that benefit the members directly. A credit union does not have customers, it has members.

      I hope that cleared things up a bit. I'd hate for you to make those assertions where people know who you are and can therefore peg you as a dope. A little bit of information inoculates you from that embarrassment.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    6. Re:No Surprise There by dave420 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Not narrow-minded? If the battery is glued in, you can't remove it for correct recycling without rupturing it, spilling its contents. How is realising that is a bad idea "narrow minded"?

  2. Apple doesn't give a crap about business anyway by mwfischer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No xserves, Lion Server is a piece of shit, ARD is a $90 add-on, took 3 years for a corporate iOS configuration tool, 5 for a competent one, Final Cut X rivals Windows Movie Composer, Mac Pros are $4,000 for almost 3 year old hardware, and with 10.8 tethering every machine to the App Store there are no "unregistered" machines...

    They're pro-sumer devices anymore.

    1. Re:Apple doesn't give a crap about business anyway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      my company still won't approve any iPhones or iPads for corporate use because of the weak security features (so the IT guys say), Apple really doesn't 't give a crap about businesses and hence Blackberry stays in business....

      This sounds like bullshit since Apple has full-disk encryption + per app data encryption (with various flexibility options) + s/mime for email. Even iMessage and APNs uses TLS. So what else does an IT Department need?

    2. Re:Apple doesn't give a crap about business anyway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The windows logo.

  3. Re:EPEAT = Ugly? by Osgeld · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Glue is not a replacement for proper engineering

  4. Re:EPEAT = Ugly? by rabtech · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You are over thinking it and/or biased. Apple uses glue because it is faster to manufacture and it frees you from certain structural constraints. I don't like that from a repair standpoint but I understand why they do it.

    The MacBook Retina has soldered memory because that allows the case to be smaller and the structure doesn't need accomadation for an access panel. It also simplifies the trace routing since you don't need to deal with a memory slot. I would also bet that 90% of their users never upgrade the memory in their laptops, so why compromise just for the 10%? I don't like this choice but it isn't some arbitrary scheme to scam people.

    --
    Natural != (nontoxic || beneficial)
  5. Progression of technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Posting as AC because I'm an Apple service tech in my day job.

    There's been internal jokes about the majority of the Retina MacBook Pro being a disposable computer. It's a very nice system and the display is gorgeous, but the way Apple constructed these machines is a bit perturbing. We can't even remove the battery pack- what iFixit reported is 100% true. The batteries are literally fused to the top of the unibody chassis, there's no magical Apple tool for prying the cells off the aluminum.

    When you pay $199 for a replacement battery, the service procedure for actually swapping out the cells is stupendously involved. Everything must be stripped from the chassis- the logic board, port boards, and display all have to be removed. What you're getting for $199 actually includes a new keyboard, trackpad, battery, and upper chassis- because it's all one unserviceable part (much in the same way that the display and iSight is considered a single P/N).

    A lot of people are wondering why they've done this- when a few screws and half a millimetre on the thickness would have allowed us to remove and swap the batteries in under 5 minutes. Heck, they could have built the batteries onto the bottom panel instead, that way battery swaps don't require removing the logic board. But they didn't.

    The only logical reason that anyone can come to is that this is simply a progression of technology. We are rapidly moving towards integrated devices that are completely unserviceable, essentially disposable, and as cram packed with technology as physically possible. Nobody has any doubt that if Apple could build everything onto a flexible circuit board adhered to the back of an LCD panel, then essentially immerse the entire thing in varying forms of resin to create a completely solid and totally sealed device- they would. Because that's where we're headed.

    The iPad 2 and iPad 3 have already taken the first steps towards this. They are sealed, we have no service procedures for doing anything to the devices. If it breaks or is defective, the customer gets a new one.

    Apple would just love to have all their hardware like this, because then us Apple techs become irrelevant and redundant. Any old monkey can plug a device into an automated suite of software testing tools and wait for the big green "PASSED" or red "FAIL" text, then take the appropriate direction to replace that hardware. All you need then is a system to handle defective hardware and make it go away- who cares about repairing it, the device is busted and it can't even be repaired anyways.

    -AC