MacBook Air makes Apple greener

As you'll probably recall, Apple has a bit of a history with Greenpeace, with the two organizations having done a bit of the old back-and-forth over the course of the last year. If you were paying attention during this past week's MacWorld Stevenote, however, you may have noticed a slight change during the introduction of the new MacBook Air. For the first time in Apple history, Steve Jobs gave a brief rundown of the new product's environmental specs. Among them, a fully recyclable aluminum case, a mercury and arsenic-free LED-backlit display and a number of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic-free circuit boards.

"This time Steve is on the right path for a green Apple," Greenpeace wrote in a news item on their site. "The MacBook Air is a strong entry in the race to build a green PC. As a mercury and arsenic free laptop it exceeds European Standards (RoHS directive exemptions) and raises the bar for the rest of the industry." While the MacBook Air might represent an environmental step forward for Apple, it wasn't enough to completely appease Greenpeace: in an interview with Wired, Greenpeace legislative director Rick Hind criticized the company for not making the Air completely green-friendly. "Apple is getting greener, but not green enough," Hind said. "The Macbook Air has less toxic PVC plastic and less toxic BFRs, but it could have zero and that would make Apple an eco-leader."

For more on the ongoing discussion:
- see this Greenpeace news item
- and this Wired article