Apple Suppliers in China Are Accused of Systematic Pollution

According to the Financial Times, five Chinese environmental groups accused Apple’s local suppliers of systematic pollution and taking "advantage of the loopholes in developing countries' environmental management systems".

Unlike previous times, Apple apparently has soften towards Mia Jun, the director of Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (a co-author of the report) just hours before the report was published and invited her to a dialogue on the problem.

The environmental groups involved are said to have persuaded 26 other electronic manufacturers to collaborate with them on pollution issues connected with the companies’ overseas suppliers. So far Apple has remained the only one being unresponsive.

It has been reported that Apple decided to go ahead with the talks with the Institute as some of the manufacturers in the list were not Apple products suppliers. However, the Institute has not received any information on that from Apple so far.

Apple does not manufacture any products itself and does not disclose who its suppliers are. However, the Chinese environmental groups report that they gathered a list of more than 25 Apple suppliers who endanger the environment. The suppliers names were gotten from open public sources and court documents.

In January same groups of environmentalists accused Apple of failing to monitor its suppliers and ignoring health concerns. Over 30 Chinese environmental groups published a report called “The Other Side of Apple” in which they claim that the company is the least responsive out of more than 25 companies monitored for their working conditions.

This is not the first time Apple suppliers have been criticized for health and environment issues. 3 people were killed and 15 injured after explosion at the Foxconn iPad 2 plant. Foxconn has been in the center of most scandals regarding Apple’s supply network after a number of its employee’s suicides at Shenzhen plant.

Workers at another Apple supplier plant — Wintek — filed a lawsuit for health damages done by the chemical n-hexane used while cleaning iPhone screens.

Apple itself claims that the company conducts yearly monitoring of all its overseas suppliers, e.g. this year audit showed that at one of the Far East factories 42 underage workers were employed, which made Apple to terminate collaboration with the factory.