An investigation of ultrathin laptops , admit Apple ’s late MacBook Air , has found they do adapt to the EPEAT ( Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool ) environmental standard . The investigating , which covered five laptop computer made by four companies , was get down after Apple said in July it was withdrawing from the voluntary certification thenreversed its positionafter an vociferation from its customers .
The Cupertino - based computer maker never explained its initial reason for want to send packing out of EPEAT , but the move came shortly after it refreshed its MacBook Air laptops . At the time there was considerable conjecture Apple ’s determination was because the new laptops did n’t conform to aspects of the EPEAT monetary standard related to disassembly , advance and replacement of components .
As a consequence of the verification appendage , detail of which were denote on Friday , no products have been removed from the EPEAT register , said Sarah O’Brien , director of outreach and communications for EPEAT .
One of the issues in question was EPEAT section 4.4.2.1 , which in part want that “ the production is upgradeable with unremarkably usable putz . ”The organization ’s verification process began with an attempt to clear up ambiguous wording in a couple of part of its requirements , which are based on the IEEE 1680.1 environmental assessment standard for personal computers .
In determining what that meant , EPEAT decided that an rise does n’t necessarily call for access to the inside of the computer .
“ Products containing externally accessible port such as a high operation successive bus or a USB are open of being upgraded by adding a knockout phonograph record , DVD , floppy drive , memory and cards , and therefore conform to this touchstone , ” EPEAT ’s product verification commission enjoin in a clearing to the linguistic rule .
A “ commonly uncommitted tool ” was determined to be one that can be “ purchased by any individual or business sector without limitation and is readily useable for leverage on the open grocery store . ”
A second issue requiring illumination was the definition of the “ ease and safety ” disassembly demand in two other function of the EPEAT regulation . The committee decided that was something that had to be demonstrate rather than explain in the text of the document .
The verification process started widely but soon nail down .
“ In review , we found a large number of products with clear disassembly instructions , then we count at the uni - body group , ” said O’Brien . “ There was a eminent risk of non - compliance . ”
Unibody refer to a newfangled form of laptop computer industry in which the body of the computer is work from a individual musical composition of metal or charge plate . The method acting make up the computing machine more compact , but has the possibleness of make them more difficult to take apart and recycle .
So EPEAT decided to pore its tending on unibody laptops and take five computing machine from Apple , Lenovo , Samsung and Toshiba .
Disassembly operating instructions were solicited from the manufacturing business , the laptops were bought on the assailable food market , and they were send to an electronics test research lab that would do the tests .
“ They institute they could disassemble all the laptop computer in at most 20 minute and remove batteries in at most 3 minutes , ” said O’Brien . “ The passport was that all five [ laptops ] be ground in compliance . ”
Batteries had been a centering of the initial speculation on Apple . Early effort to break up Macbook Air laptop revealed the battery were paste into blank rather that mounted — something that would activate the ship’s company to salvage a lilliputian internal space — and that was thought to strike afoul of EPEAT standards .
