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Greenpeace Protests at HP's Headquarters

December 6, 2005

Hewlett-Packard employees were greeted by a 30-foot-long blimp with the message “HP = Harmful Products” floating above the ground outside of the company’s California headquarters Tuesday morning. Hanging from the blimp was a banner featuring a photograph of a Chinese girl clutching a HP keyboard in a scrapyard filled with electronic waste, or e-waste. Greenpeace activists on the street and a repeating local radio broadcast encouraged workers and passers-by to contact HP CEO Mark Hurd and tell him that HP should be making cleaner products. Greenpeace is calling on the electronics industry worldwide to take responsibility for the lifecycle of their products and start producing products that are cleaner, safer, longer lasting and that do not end up in Chinese and Indian scrapyards.

“HP is a prime example of a dirty electronics company,” said Greenpeace International toxics campaigner Iza Kruszewska. “It has done little to eliminate hazardous materials in its products, and it is lagging behind some of its competitors.”

According to a CNET report, HP executives said in a conference call Monday that the company has made strides in removing unwanted materials, including PVC, from its products. The company began removing ozone-depleting chemicals from its products and factories in the 1980s.

"There are technical barriers to removing this from our entire product line," said David Lear, HP vice president of corporate, social and environmental responsibility. "You have to balance with science behind it and the costs."

According to a Greenpeace press release, much of North America’s e-waste is routinely -- and often illegally -- shipped to Asia, where it pollutes communities surrounding the scrapyards with a dangerous cocktail of acids, carcinogens, and neurotoxins. Workers at electronics manufacturing and disposal sites are at risk from exposure to poisons such as lead, mercury and dioxin. The products cannot be recycled safely once they are discarded and end up contaminating recycling center workers.

“After two years of disappointing dialogue, we have come to the international headquarters to let HP employees know that their products create toxic waste and pollute the environment. Armed with this information, workers can change the corporate culture from within and ask their employer to stop using toxic materials in its products,” said Kruszewska.

Some electronics companies, such as Samsung, Sony, Sony Ericsson, Nokia, LG and Motorola have taken a first step by committing to the elimination of all types of brominated flame retardants and PVC plastic from their products on set timelines. HP, Acer, Apple, Dell, Fujitsu-Siemens, IBM, Lenovo, Panasonic, and Toshiba have, to date, made no such commitment.

A Greenpeace report published this year documented the harmful effects e-wate disposal is having on the environment in India and China.