Eco-Friendliness of iPhone Illustrated in Infographic

A great infographic has been cooked up compiling data from a variety of sources detailing just how green the iPhone is. Traditionally, Greenpeace has given Apple mid to low rankings when it comes to ecologically-friendly manufacturing processes (although interestingly enough, they lose most of their points simply for not communicating all of their manufacturing information). This infographic is an equally mixed bag. Based on the breakdown of emissions above, all of the iPhones sold in 2010 would have contributed 2350 million KG of CO₂ being released into the atmosphere. Of course, not all of the fault lies with Apple; they offer a free recycling program, but less than 10% of discarded iPhones ever find their way there. Apple also gets extra points for using post-consumer recycled materials in their packaging, and making a power adapter that exceeds global energy efficiency standards.

As far as the competition goes, Nokia and Sony Ericsson both have well-established ecological initiatives, but most cell phone manufacturers have been doing at least a little bit to reduce the use of harmful PVCs, CFRs, and BFRs in their products.

In any case, the whole infographic is a pretty interesting examination of just how green the iPhone and Apple really are. Hit the jump for the whole thing followed by a list of sources used.