How lazy does a columnist have to be to just regurgitate whatever press release happens to cross his/her desk and offer no analysis, commentary or insight?

Did Greenpeace take apart a recent Nokia or Ericsson phone a la iPhone? No, they just trust the vendors to do whatever their green claims happen to be and unquestioningly give them credit for "being" green. Of course, for Greenpeace to generate press and donations for themselves, it's always better to go after the media darlings a la Apple (with 0.01% of the global phone market) rather than a dreary old Nokia or Ericsson.

Apple doesn't offer iPhone recycling? Must be news to them.

http://www.apple.com/environment/recycling/ipodrecycling/

http://www.apple.com/environment/recycling/ipodrecycling/ipodrecyclingpage.html

Noone has yet been denied from recycling their iPhones through the site.

The Machinist (or is it "Alchemist") is still batting a zero in real reporting. Good job in shilling, though, and for being the obvious heir to John Dvorak in the clueless columnist category.

I'm sure the phthalate risk will DEFINITELY change the minds of parents for whom choking risk, risk of electric shock, and risk of damage to expensive audio equipment weren't sufficient.

http://www.apple.com/environment/recycling/ipodrecycling/ipodrecyclingpage.html

The link above allows you to enter your name and address, and how many iPods or phones (of any brand) you want to recycle. Apple will then send you a postage-paid package so you can send in your recyclables.

It seems obvious from Greenpeace's last few 'reports' that they target Apple because it creates more publicity than targeting any other competitors (whether it be Sony, HP, Nokia, etc). As if Greenpeace could lose any more credibility.

when the apple ghouls and bashers stop being idiots.

As for Greenpeace, you should have been in the Maritimes when their campaign against sealing -- because the seals are threatened? No. Because it's cruel? No more than a slaughterhouse. No, the reason why is baby seals are cute, and you can raise a lot of money with those cute faces.

Anyway, the seal hunt ended, because of the Europeans refusing to take the pelts, in about 1983. In 1989, there I was in Venice, CA, and on the beach, what were they raising money from? A picture of a baby seal, which hadn't been hunted in six years. They built a $20 million headquarters in Boston on those baby seal pictures.

So now, they go after whatever will get them publicity. They're parasites, and they stopped being serious scientist-activists a long time ago.

Re: JustShilling,

I couldn't agree more. I haven't read anything on this blog that has risen above entry-level PR-hack filler. I still remember Manjoo's disastrous turn as a political "reporter" for salon, dashing off fluff opinion pieces with no substantive evidence under the guise of book reviews and reporting on what other reporters had said. It was bold "work" that produced such gems as: mash notes to Niall Ferguson, that prophet of new empires, and Martha Stewart, prophet of new consumerism; a recycling of neo-con lies that the Iraq war might be good for the economy; spreading the Howard Dean=unelectable meme; complete mystification on the subject of polling; a celebration of Jeffrey Sachs, the man who bankrupted Russia; and downplaying the Ohio vote scandal (hmm... seems like that story hasn't quite died the way you might have hoped, eh Farhad?).

If I remember correctly, this hit its ultra low with his alpha-male love song to John McCain (ah, technofuturism and proto-fascist father-worship, how closely ye intertwine; never believe a geek who claims to be a libertarian--they just mean no laws for _them_, and the boot on the neck for anyone who harshes their buzz). Fed up, the salon masses rose up, and back Farhad went to the Silicon Valley trade convention beat.

Except he can't do real reporting in that field either, so all we get are rehashes of other people's work, and, mostly, press releases from his friends.

I hope that salon at least collects advertising money for Manjoo's "work." Help keep my membership fees low and support the real work done by others around here.

Anyone want to help start a "fire Farhad Manjoo" campaign?

Totally being the picky nerd here, but x-ray fluorescence spectrometry couldn't have been the only technique used in this study. X-ray fluorescence is sensitive to the different elements in a sample, and then for the heavier elements much more so than lighter ones. That technique would pick out the presence of the heavy metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, and chromium) present in the material, but wouldn't detect, as this article implies, if the sample in question contained phthalates. Phthalates are a class of organic molecules, made up of only carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen (all light elements); contrary to the metals, it's how those elements are put together, not their mere presence, that gives rise to their possibly harmful properties.

There are plenty of other techniques that could detect phthalates, but x-ray fluorescence spectrometry isn't one of them.

I thought they were saving the earth...in which case, a chemical that inhibits human reproduction would be a GOOD thing.

What a joke they have become.

What about computers and televisions? Are they not chock full of toxic materials? Let's toss them out too.

What about all those drugs that people take and are flushed down the toilet into our rivers? Frogs, fish and foul are now on SSRIs. Where is the outrage?

The iPhone is a hole that you put in your pocket that transfers monies from your pocket to AT&T while providing you with the same addictive dose of pulsed microwave cookery. How many people at Greenpseace use brain cookers?

OMYGOSH! How many of you use brain cookers?

The sky is falling, the oceans are rising, the IQs are plummeting, frogs fish and people are experiencing gender crisis from all the other pollution, but you know what?

The iPhone is COOL and it has a COOL advertsing campaign, so let's just jump on that and see if we can get some of that COOL.

All products seem to be designed with the purpose of being tossed away after a very short lifespan solely for the purpose of getting us to keep buying more crap that we do not need and will not last in order to keep the money flowing to people who already have more than enough. How many cell phones have you gone through in the past three years?

Remember when the only people who had beepers were doctors and drug dealers? Yeah, you could get rousted and busted if you didn't look like a doctor and you had one of those things.

Before that there was only the wired phone and now we have been conned nto thinking we cannot live without a cell phone.

Stupidity is a bigger threat to the environment than pollution at this stage of the game.