Apple Abandons EPEAT Environmental Labels

Apple has withdrawn its products from the EPEAT register, which labels electronic equipment according to its environmental impact, in a move that could harm sales to large corporate and government organisations.

The announcement will be a setback to Apple’s green campaign and may have come about because of difficulties in dismantling and recycling new MacBook products. The  move was announced by EPEAT, a global eco-rating service sponsored by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Apple has yet to comment.

EPEAT performance

“Apple has notified EPEAT that it is withdrawing its products from the EPEAT registry and will no longer be submitting its products to EPEAT for environmental rating.” the ratings service announced.

“We regret that Apple will no longer be registering its products in EPEAT. We hope that they will decide to do so again at some point in future,” the short announcement concluded.

EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) measures the environmental impact of products, including their lifecycle, any toxic materials they contain, and the recyclability of the product and any packaging materials. It began as a rating service sponsored by US government body, the EPA, but has gone international, and covers electronic devices including servers.

Failure to comply could hit Apple hard, as US government bodies are required to buy EPEAT certified equipment, or at least to make sure that 95 percent of the equipment they buy is certified. American universities and large companies such as Ford are also reported to prefer EPEAT certified products.

Apple has been EPEAT Gold certified since 2007 and even made a point of emphasising the efficient design of products like the Mac Mini, while mounting a strong environmental campaign around the fact that its data centres run on renewable energy.

Apple’s exit from EPEAT comes as a big surprise then, but may be because its flagship products – in particular the MacBook Pro with its retina display – cannot meet the requirements for recycling because they are not designed to be taken apart.

EPEAT specifies that “external enclosures, chassis and electronic subassemblies shall be removable with commonly available tools or by hand”. This allows recyclers and refurbishers to remove batteries before other processes take place. Teardown specialist  iFixit found that the MacBook Pro’s battery is glued in place with industrial adhesive and could not remove it without puncturing the battery creating a pool of acid.

Apple has not responded to TechWeekEurope’s requests for explanation. 

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