The environmental campaigning group, Greenpeace, has taken it upon itself to make sure that game console makers like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo reduce the ‘toxic burden of their products’. According to Zenia Al Hajj, Greenpeace International’s toxics campaigner, these big names in the gaming field are lagging behind mobile phone (Nokia, Motorola, LG, Sony Ericsson and Philips) and PC manufacturers in the endeavor towards a greener environment by not reducing the toxic load (including hazardous chemicals) of their products. Nintendo, however, asserts that all its products are designed according to European standards.
As part of its campaign, Greenpeace has launched a 90-second video featuring some of the iconic games console characters – Microsoft’s Master Chief, Nintendo’s Mario and Sony’s Kratos – competing for the prize of a greener games console. Gamers can compare how each console measures up on toxic materials, recycling and energy efficiency, as well as logging their support for the campaign. It is signed up to the European WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) directive – which makes manufacturers responsible for recycling their goods.
Greenpeace is particularly against the use of brominated fire retardants and PVC, the use of which, it claims, can lead to dangerous chemicals building up in the environment and in human and animal tissue. Chinese and Indian workers in production facilities and scrap yards where goods are dismantled are at the greatest risk. The RoHS Directive bans six substances (lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, PBB and PDBE) from products that are either made or sold in the EU.
In an online survey conducted by Greenpeace in collaboration with networking site Habboo, among 50,000 teenagers, 74% rated global warming over drugs, violence and war as the issue they were most concerned about.
Via: BBC News
