How Green is the Ipod?

The controversy over whether the Ipod is on good terms with Mother Earth or not still rages on so we thought we could look at just how earth friendly is the Ipod.

One aspect of Ipod greenery is that with over 70 million Ipods playing downloaded digital tunes, you remove a significant number of CD’s out of production. Digital 1’s and 0’s seem better than polycarbonate plastic and other CD chemicals eventually winding up in a landfill but what about the Ipod itself.  With cooler Ipods coming out every few months – eventually the Ipod will wind up becoming eWaste when the owner gives in to Ipod envy?  Another consideration is that the Ipod batteries seem difficult and expensive to replace, yet defenders of the Ipod at roughlydrafted.com say the iPod’s battery lasts for years; when it is replaced, the work is either done by professionals who know to recycle it, or by tech savvy consumers. A replacement iPod battery costs from $8.50 to $23.99, and full replacement service by Apple can cost as much as $65.00, including postage.

Some critics of the Ipod have implied the Ipods that are returned to Apple for recycling wind up in deadly overseas sweatshop recyclers or are recycled by prison labor. Steve Jobs has publicly denied this.
See this comprehensive article from RoughlyDrafted.com that makes a strong case in defending apple.

However, one of the more convincing articles I have seen on this issue was by Leo Hickman of the Guardian in his Ethical living article “Is it OK … to use an MP3 player?”

He discusses a research project looking at the sustainability of our new “networked world” and environmental impact of digital music.

He talks about “ the concept called the “ecological backpack”. Similar in thinking to a person’s ecological footprint, it is a measure used to calculate the amount of resources – fuel, minerals, water etc – that must “be moved” throughout the full lifespan of a product. With 70 million Ipods – that involves a significant amont of resources in creating the Ipod, mining for the raw materials, etc Interesting read… check it out.

Apple has expanded its computer recycling program, Apple announced last April that the fifth-generation iPod, iPod nano and iPod shuffle are 100% compliant with the restrictions of hazardous substances (RoHS) in California and Europe. “iPod’s RoHS compliance comes months ahead of the July 1 deadline set by the European Union, and most of the materials covered by the RoHS directive, including mercury, cadmium, chromium VI and brominated flame retardants, were voluntarily eliminated from all Apple products years ago,” the company said. “In addition, iPod power adapters now exceed Energy Star efficiency requirements and already meet California’s stricter appliance efficiency regulations, which are scheduled to take effect July 1, 2008.”

So, hard call to make but I plan on keeping my aging ipod (I still have a first generation model) out of the landfill by plugged it into a Altec Lansing inMotion iM7 Portable Audio System that works great, awesome sound quality and is very affordable compared to the much more expensive Apple and Bose models that has just as good sound quality (confirmed by many reviewers at Amazon)
Altec Lansing inMotion iM7 Portable Audio System $154.99 at amazon.com

If you aren’t turned off forever from buying an Ipod, but still want add more green, you might consider looking at these cool recycled Truck Tire rubber Ipod Cases from Passchal.com.
54.95

from
passchal.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Apple, Computers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.