You may recall, some months ago Apple had temporarily withdrawn its participation in the EPEAT eco-label certification program. The point of contention at the time had been that Apple’s “design direction” was not consistent with EPEAT standards; that is, part of the standard requires that all components be easily disassembled by recyclers in order to remove batteries and other toxic materials, but Apple’s new MacBooks are not easily disassembled, meaning that the battery and the case can’t be recycled. In a new development, EPEAT looked at the new MacBooks—as well as other ultrathin computers from the likes of Lenovo, Samsung, and Toshiba, and announced that they are in fact EPEAT-certifiable. Almost immediately, Greenpeace criticized the group, accusing them of “caving in” to pressure from the manufacturers. Via Business Green:

Greenpeace IT analyst Casey Harrell responded angrily to the news, accusing EPEAT of approving difficult to recycle products that will lead to "less recycling and more e-waste". "Apple wanted to change the EPEAT standards when it knew its MacBook Pro with Retina Display would likely not qualify for the registry in July of this year – now EPEAT has reinterpreted its rules to include the MacBook Pro and ultrabooks. Is it a coincidence?" he asked. "It's unclear why EPEAT caved in, but the impact is that EPEAT has confused consumers and businesses who want to buy green electronics that can be repaired and will last a long time, and sets a dangerous trend for the burgeoning market of ultrabooks."

In their evaluation of the new computers, EPEAT had obtained disassembly instructions from the manufacturers and sent them to an independent testing lab, where the lab personnel were not experienced recyclers, the belief being that they more closely represented the average consumer, who also would be unlikely to have experience ripping apart laptops. “Time for total disassembly of each of the products was under 20 minutes in all cases; for the removal of batteries the time required was between 30 seconds and two minutes.” That’s as may be, but as Greenpeace points out, the average consumer is probably not going to make this effort, especially if they have to request disassembly instructions. (Also, too: product warranty violations.) So: shorter product lifespans and yet more e-waste. Folks here in the Going Greenosphere are skeptical of eco-labels, and sometimes I think they are right to be so.