Apple, though beloved by progressives, hipsters, and their favorite rockers (John Mayer in October’s Esquire said, “it’s got us by the balls.”), is nonetheless looking a little bit brown these days, like a Granny Smith or Delicio, sliced, and left on the kitchen table too long. The company’s dirty little secret, known to enviros and few consumers, is that it’s way behind the curve in the race to build a personal computer that doesn’t make people sick, especially when recycled, as is the tendency these days, by kids rummaging through e-waste dumps in Asia and Africa.
To highlight the gap between the San Francisco-area company’s squeaky clean image and dirty electrical components (which include substances being phased out by rivals such as Dell), the folks at Greenpeace bathed Apple’s Fifth Avenue store in New York in a green spotlight yesterday, sending the light refracting through store’s slick glass façade. A press release called the display, “a symbol of the ‘green’ Apple that is needed this holiday season.”
Compelling Apple to go green, whether it wants to or not, are new environmental rules passed by the European Union this week (see the post below). Still, Greenpeace deserves props for shining a spotlight on unsavory practices that Apple would just assume hide under its crisp white casings.
