Apple Wants To Increase Its Environmental Friendliness With New Cables Without Halogens

According to The London Evening Standard’s report, Apple is requiring that cable manufacturer Volex will invest up to $6 million in retooling its production lines in order to eliminate halogens from the USB and power cables used in Apple’s products.The retooling will allow producing cables that will be less harmful to the environment on disposal.

“Apple is the biggest customer of Volex, 23%-owned by billionaire financier Nat Rothschild, which makes the power cables and USB leads used in everything from laptops to iPhones and iPads”.

“The start-up costs in designing and making the new cables will cost it up to $6 million in the current financial year, Volex said today, although, stripping out these one-off costs, profits will be in line with market expectation. The shares slipped 3p to 221.9p.”

In the past Apple has received criticism from Greenpeace and other environmental advocacy groups, but according to recent surveys the company has performed better on the environmental front as it has continued to shift to more eco-friendly alternatives and become more open about its initiatives.

In 2009 Apple launched an expanded section on its website related to the company’s environmental footprint in order to provide information about its impact on the environment and progress in this sphere.