Greenpeace dissected the current generation of home video game consoles in search of toxic chemicals, Nintendo was unimpressed.
Greenpeace recently announced a new study showing toxic chemicals inside each of this generation's home consoles. Techradar called it a "Playing Dirty" report and was first to provide Nintendo's response which outlined their position on Greenpeace as a whole.
The Greenpeace "Guide to Greener Electronics" first included video game consoles in November of 2007 and awarded Nintendo the distinction of being the first company to receive a score of 0 out of 10. The next quarterly Greenpeace guide gave the Nintendo Wii system some credit for energy efficiency and awarded Nintendo 0.3 out of 10.
Between the two "Greener Electronics" reports, Greenpeace launched their "Clash of the Consoles" website which caricatured Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft's mascots and used creative prose to trash claimed toxic policies. Here is an example of Greenpeace rhetoric from the site: "Mario might be super but he's no hero when it comes to avoiding toxic chemicals. He gets zero recycling credits."
This May, the Greenpeace study used scientists at their research facility and two independent labs to literally dissect the current generation of systems: Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Their examination found traces of bromine and phthalates in all systems, as well as beryllium in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Interestingly, bromine is used for safety as a fire retardant and phthalates are present in plastics to make them more easily recyclable. None of the consoles contained toxins that exceeded legal limits for toys by EU guidelines. Nintendo has pledged to remove phthalates from their products in place of more efficient plastic softeners.
Greenpeace was quick to add the consoles are not dangerous to have in the home, but their afterlife as e-waste will have devastating effects on the environment. Zeina Al-Hajj, Greenpeace International Toxic Campaign coordinator stated: "Nintendo doesn't have any environmental policies."
Nintendo was quick to respond to the allegations of toxic culpability:
"Nintendo has not been badly rated by Greenpeace. Greenpeace chose to conduct a survey and produce a report, which graded companies upon the voluntary submission of information.
"Nintendo decided not to take part in the survey and were therefore 'ungraded' in the resulting report. Nintendo provides detailed information regarding our compliance to EU Directives via the Consumer Section of our website and therefore we felt it unnecessary to take part in the Greenpeace survey.
"Furthermore, we fully comply with all the necessary EU Directives on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances aimed at environmental protection and consumer health and safety. Furthermore, in order to ensure our products are safe for use by young children we also take into consideration the standards applicable to toys."
