The international environmental group Greenpeace grabbed the attention of Hewlett-Packard executives and the public Tuesday in Palo Alto, Calif., with the message “Hazardous Materials” drawn with children’s finger paint over 11,500 square feet.
Employees Tuesday were greeted with the oversized message on HP’s rooftop as Greenpeace charged that HP broke a promise to remove polyvinyl chloride plastic (PVCs) and brominated fire retardants (BFRs) from its manufacturing process and products. Along with the painted message, employees received automated-message calls from actor William Shatner asking the company to phase out the hazardous materials.
“You, HP, promised me a toxic-free computer by 2009. Now my friends at Greenpeace tell me I have to wait until 2011. What is up with that?” Shatner’s message said. “Please ask your leader, Mark Hurd, to make computers free of toxic PVC plastic and brominated flame retardants just as Apple has done.”
BFRs are flame retardants used in products to inhibit ignition and slow their combustion rate. BFRs and PVCs have toxic properties.
“This was to communicate to them that we will not sit around while they backtrack on their public promise to eliminate the chemicals,” said Daniel Kessler, a Greenpeace spokesperson. He referred to an HP promise in 2007 that it would eliminate use of the chemicals by 2009.
HP had said previously it hasn’t been able to deliver on its promise because of the lack of suitable alternatives.
In the last decade, HP has eliminated most uses of PVCs and BFRs from products, but still uses specific BFRs in printed circuit boards because other alternatives are not available, according to the company.
“They say it is too hard and, unlike Apple, they make more products and have a variety of excuses,” Kessler said. “As the largest player in the industry, they need to lead by example.”
Greenpeace…