By Sustainability team
25th November 2010.
14:13
Monthly Archives: November 2010
Yesterday the European Parliament voted for a compromise with the European Commission and the Council of Ministers regarding the review of the RoHS directive. The RoHS review include a new methodology for identification of substances for future restrictions. However, EU was not ready to take the step to include BFR (Brominated Flame Retardants) and PVC.
The new method for inclusion of substances is a step forward because from now it is stated that considerations also shall include the waste and end-of-life phase.
According to a recent statement from 150 scientists BFR and PVC produce hazardous dioxins and furans when they are incinerated at insufficiently high temperatures e.g. in sub standard recycling conditions. This was also one of the reasons for us to start the now concluded phase out of BFR and PVC from our products.
As far as I can understand this will inevitably will lead to inclusion of BFR and PVC into restrictions under RoHS the question is only when…..
Last week, GreenPeace released the 16th version of their Guide to Greener Electronics, where they rank the 18 top manufacturers of personal computers, mobile phones, TVs and games consoles according to their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change. GreenPeace’s three goals with the ranking is to get companies to:
- Clean up their products by eliminating hazardous substances.
- Take back and recycle their products responsibly once they become obsolete.
- Reduce the climate impacts of their operations and products.
We are proud that Sony Ericsson stays in second place in the rank, with praise from GreenPeace regarding our work on the phase out of unwanted substances and our investments in green energy. But we also take the weaknesses pointed out by GreenPeace seriously and promise to focus extra hard to improve those scores for the next update of the ranking in three months time. Off course we aim for nothing short of that top position, and to be the first company to score 10 points!
If you want to read the full GreenPeace rank, please follow this link:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/toxics/electronics/how-the-companies-line-up/