Article
Pulling the plug on dirty electronics
Because our mobile phones, computers and other electronic products are made using toxic ingredients, workers at production sites are at risk of exposure and the products cannot be recycled safely when they are discarded. Many are routinely, and often illegally, shipped as waste from Europe, US and Japan to Asia because it is cheaper and easier to dump the problem on poor countries that have low environmental standards than to tackle it at home...Samsung, Sony, Sony Ericsson [joint venture Sony & Ericsson] and Nokia have already taken a first step by committing to eliminate toxic flame retardants and PVC plastic from some of their products. But Hewlett Packard [HP] has made no such commitment, nor have Apple, Dell, Fujitsu-Siemens [joint venture Fujitsu & Siemens], IBM, LG, Motorola, Panasonic [part of Matsushita], or Toshiba.