Dell, Lenovo and HP disappoint Greenpeace

Dell, HP and Lenovo have come under fire from Greenpeace.

The environmental organisation deducted points from the three PC manufacturers in its quarterly Guide to Greener Electronics, claiming they went back on their promise to phase out the use of toxic chemicals during production by 2009.

Greenpeace said: “HP, Lenovo and Dell had promised to eliminate vinyl plastic (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from their products by the end of 2009. Now they've told us that they won't make it this year.”

It said Lenovo had pushed the deadline back to 2010 but HP and Dell had yet to decide on a new deadline.

However, not all manufacturers fell foul of the organisation's 11th update, which looks at how individual electronics companies are investing to meet their commitments to remove toxic substances from their products.

Apple was praised for being the only one of the world's five biggest computer makers to start reducing its use of toxic chemicals.

Greenpeace also said Philips had considerably reduced its e-waste, putting the company fourth in the list of the greenest tech companies, compared to its position of 15th last year.

Samsung was also praised for publicly supporting a reduction in greenhouses gases, so were Dell and HP for cutting in emissions in their own operations.