San Francisco banning officials from buying Macs
According to a report from the BBC, San Francisco city officials are planning to block local government agencies from buying new Macs, following Apple’s decision to pull out of EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool), “a green certification scheme designed to identify which electronic devices pose the least risk to the environment.”
According to the BBC report:
US government rules dictate that 95% of all electronics bought by official agencies must fall under EPEAT’s scheme. iPads and iPhones do not fall under the system’s remit.
Apple has not explained why it abandoned the standard which it helped create in 2006.
However, an article by Infoworld — highlighted on EPEAT’s site — links the move to manufacturing techniques used to make the latest version of the firm’s MacBook Pro, which features a 5.1 million pixel high-definition display.
In order to include the new screen while minimising the laptop’s thickness Apple made it harder to disassemble the computer causing it to be difficult for even experts to upgrade or recycle the device.
The move would have made it unlikely that the machine would have qualified for EPEAT’s highest rating.
Maybe the new Apple Macs aren’t as healthy for the world as they once were?
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