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Apple Stepping Up Environmental Friendliness with New Halogen-Free Cables

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Apr 12, 2001
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The London Evening Standard reports (via GigaOM) that Apple is requiring cable supplier Volex to spend up to $6 million retooling its production lines to eliminate halogens from the power and USB cables used in the company's products. The move will make the cables less toxic to the environment upon disposal.
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.
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Apple has in the past received criticism from environmental advocacy groups such as Greenpeace, but the company has been performing better in recent surveys as it has continued to shift to more environmentally-friendly alternatives and has become more open about its efforts on the environmental front.

apple_environmental_measuring_performance.jpg



In 2009, the company launched an expanded environmental footprint section of its website to help provide information on its impact and progress in the area.

Article Link: Apple Stepping Up Environmental Friendliness with New Halogen-Free Cables
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/01/13/apple-stepping-up-environmental-friendliness-with-new-halogen-free-cables/
One of the biggest ways Apple could go green would be to have a mid range desktop where you don't have to throw away a perfectly good screen when you buy the next model.
 
I can already hear people championing Apple as if they're the first company to adopt such a practice...
 
"Apple has in the past received criticism "


I like how that link sends you to an article nearly 6 years old. :rolleyes:
 
That's great Apple, but how about making an iOS device charger with cable that doesn't fall apart where it attaches to the 30-pin connector‎? Less chargers being replaced = less manufacturing, saving materials and energy. 'Reduce' is always better than recycle. Oh, and less of this too…

453-Flogo.jpg
 
$6 million dollars? It's a travesty they even have to publish that number. It's so insignificant compared to the dollars we are talking about. $6 million is a joke.
 
whitingrj said:
I can already hear people championing Apple as if they're the first company to adopt such a practice...
Click to expand...

They probably aren't the first, but, if it were common practice, Apple wouldn't need to champion it - All cables would already be halogen-free.


.
 
kalsta said:
That's great Apple, but how about making an iOS device charger with cable that doesn't fall apart where it attaches to the 30-pin connector‎?
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I'm not dismissing any issues you may have had with Apple's cables, but I find it perplexing that some people have these problems all the time and others have never, ever had them (like myself or any of my friends).
 
G4er? said:
One of the biggest ways Apple could go green would be to have a mid range desktop where you don't have to throw away a perfectly good screen when you buy the next model.
Click to expand...

MacMini anyone?

The current mini has more horsepower than a 2010 mbp.
 
gmcalpin said:
I'm not dismissing any issues you may have had with Apple's cables, but I find it perplexing that some people have these problems all the time and others have never, ever had them (like myself or any of my friends).
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Have you actually checked with ALL your friends before suggesting that none of them have had this problem?

I always pull them out by the plug (never by the cable), but I think it's just the way the cable bends at that point, unless you are very careful to always lay your device down so the cable is straight, and never use your device while it's charging. (We sometimes do this.) IMO we shouldn't have to be quite so precious about these cables. Apple is known for clever design solutions, so I find it perplexing that they still haven't addressed this long-standing issue. They did it with their laptop charger cables—in response to a lawsuit if memory serves me correctly.
 
gmcalpin said:
I'm not dismissing any issues you may have had with Apple's cables, but I find it perplexing that some people have these problems all the time and others have never, ever had them (like myself or any of my friends).
Click to expand...

I dunno how you all get away with it. It's happened to the majority of the cables I own. Here's my desk at work, right now:

cable.jpg


That cable sits on my desk its entire life. It doesn't travel or go in and out of bags. I never pull it out of the phone by tugging the cable. It just sits there. And yet, that happens.
 
This is a new era for Apple, with Tim Cook in charge. I also like they're now giving money to charity too.
 
Small White Car said:
I dunno how you all get away with it. It's happened to the majority of the cables I own. Here's my desk at work, right now:

Image

That cable sits on my desk its entire life. It doesn't travel or go in and out of bags. I never pull it out of the phone by tugging the cable. It just sits there. And yet, that happens.
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It's the dark cable faeries... they come in the night...

a not too distant relation to the drunken monkey which comes into your room after a night of drinking, he enters your room, messes up your hair, poops in your mouth and steals the money from your wallett.

WW
 
kalsta said:
That's great Apple, but how about making an iOS device charger with cable that doesn't fall apart where it attaches to the 30-pin connector‎? Less chargers being replaced = less manufacturing, saving materials and energy. 'Reduce' is always better than recycle.
Click to expand...

Exactly. The newer cables (with a squarer USB connector) are of terrible quality, mainly because they are some apparently eco-friendly foamed plastic. Only problem is, the foamed plastic (can't remember the chemical name) is weak, so liable to break and tear very easily, which is why the cables always break at the ends. The strain relief on the cables is nowhere near long enough.

I still have many of the earlier cables with the rounded USB plug and dock connector that you squeeze to unplug working perfectly well. The new ones need replacing every few months (meaning I have to drive to the Apple store too), which is more eco-friendly than having one cable last for 5 years is it? Thanks Greenpeace.
 
kalsta said:
Have you actually checked with ALL your friends before suggesting that none of them have had this problem?
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Smartass. :) It was a perhaps-inappropriate use of hyperbole, I'll give you that.

But in the interest of SCIENCE™, I just asked my Apple geek friends via IM and all my Twitter followers (about 1500) and no one who responded has had any problems.
 
G4er? said:
One of the biggest ways Apple could go green would be to have a mid range desktop where you don't have to throw away a perfectly good screen when you buy the next model.
Click to expand...

You can always recycle electronics man.
 
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