Apple Pushing Environmental Friendliness With New Halogen-Free Cables

Story behind Apple enviornmental footprint

Apple’s cables and wires for its iOS devices and Macs are all supplied by one company that manufactures them and ships them in large volumes. On Friday, in a report from The London Evening Standard, it was revealed that Apple is now requiring cable supplier Volex to spend an extra $6 million dollars in order to change its manufacturing process in order to eliminate halogens from the power and USB cables.

This change will positively affect the dangerous chemicals found in wires and cables in many computers and electronic products, and also allows Apple to reduce its carbon footprint.

Apple is the biggest customer of Volex, 23%-owned by billionaire financier Nat Rothschild, which makes the power cables and USB leads used in everything from laptops to iPhones and iPads.

But the US firm is on a drive to move its products towards halogen-free power cables, which are less harmful to the environment when disposed of.

The start-up costs in designing and making the new cables will cost it up to $6 million in the current financial year, Volex said today, although, stripping out these one-off costs, profits will be in line with market expectation.

Apple has been criticized in the past by many environmental groups such as Greenpeace, who claim that many companies are not doing their part to reduce the use of harmful chemicals in electronics.

However, Apple has been doing very well in recent years, opting for greener practices and safer options for materials used in their products. Apple launched an environmental footprint section on their main web site, showing customers their involvement in the clean up of chemicals in Apple devices.

With this new push for more environmental friendly cables and wires, Apple is slowly spreading eco-friendliness through all of their devices, including the iPhone an iPad, which currently use BFR free glass and a number of other eco-friendly materials.

{via MacRumors}

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