No environmentalist on earth is perfect, despite the occasional smug jerk who would have you believe otherwise (I find purple nurples an effective way of dealing with those types. Try and be smug with a twisted nipple, I dare you).

I, for example, am an Internet writer. While that offers all sorts of eco-benefits like the ability to work from home and therefore lower carbon emissions from transport, it also means that I am completely reliant on energy sucking electronics for my work.

Electronics, and in particular the computer, can do some major damage to the environment. I’d never suggest getting rid of the things, I love the Internet for everything from its pitched comment battles to its constant supply of celebrity gossip, but perhaps by washing away some of the greenwash associated with these wondrous machines I can make up for my addiction by helping green consumers make better choices. 

Apple seems like it should be an eco-friendly company to me. With their laid-back, hippieish CEO Steve Jobs and their attempts to portray themselves as the “alternative” tech company I always just assumed they were planting trees on the weekend and recycling and what-have-you. Turns out I was being an idiot again.

Apple certainly makes all the appropriate noise about the environment, touting how “innovative” they are and suggesting that all their designs are meant to be eco-friendly and expounding upon their plans for responsible manufacturing. 

However, it turns out that they’re almost certainly NOT engaging in manufacturing that could be considered ecologically responsible. It seems that Apple is doing the bare minimum required when it comes to making their manufacturing “green”.

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While their website goes on about their commitment to ecological improvement, Greenpeace ranked Apple at the bottom of its list of major technology companies. Many major computer manufacturers are implementing electronics recycling programs and attempting to eliminate the extremely toxic chemicals that make computer manufacturing and disposal so environmentally unfriendly.

Apple has decided that employing that face-punchingly annoying Justin Long fellow as a spokesman is a better strategy than cleaning up its manufacturing.  Most of its products that get thrown away end up not recycled but in the massive e-waste dumps in Asia, where desperately poor workers attempt to recycle the metals and components at huge risk to their own health. 

Thankfully it appears that the Greenpeace ranking, and subsequent GreenMyApple shame campaign, has made at least a small difference. When the issue became more widely known Steve Jobs was forced to make a statement and has laid out some changes to improve chemical use and e-recycling. The new MacBook Air made some serious green strides forward, made with a recyclable alumninum case and heavy-metal-free display and components. Unfortunately, it’s still a small step, and those giant toxic computer dumps abroad are still getting bigger as Apple sends its own waste off to be processed by destitute people in developing nations.

Apple needs to embrace more complete change in its environmental policy. How about a cradle-to-cradle plan that minimizes impact from creation to recyling of all their devices? Surely the company behind some of the most groundbreaking and popular gadgets of the last decade or so can apply a small amount of its genius and come up with a way of improving its environmental profile. If not, well, I’m a PC myself.