Toxic chemicals used in the creation of consumer electronics, such as bromine and chlorine, are issues for consumers and the environment alike. While general usage day to day is not usually an issue, when a product reaches the end of its lifecycle in the home the end destination is often the landfill, where problems can occur overtime as items breakdown and release their toxics into the local ecosystem. Some consumer electronics companies, however, are making moves to change this, with some of them being highlighted in a recent report.

Environmental organizations ChemSec and Clean Production Action make mention in their report “Greening Consumer Electronics: Moving Away from Bromine and Chlorine” the case studies of several consumer electronics firms, such as Apple and Seagate. Apple is highlighted for a program which “restricts the use of nearly all bromine and chlorine compounds across all their product lines,” while Seagate gets a mention for now creating “disk drives that no longer use chlorine- and bromine-based chemistries.” It is hoped this report will provide some “critical guidance” for companies which have yet to move towards more toxic-free consumer electronics.

image via Clean Production Action

Greening Consumer Electronics [via Environmental Leader]