Toshiba

Toshiba and E-waste


Overview of Toshiba | Toshiba and the Environment | Other Opinions on Toshiba | Glossary | Resources

= Overview of Toshiba =
 * =====//What is Toshiba?//=====
 * //What Products does Toshiba Produce?//


 * What is Toshiba?**

Toshiba is a world leading technology company that produces various electronic and electrical products including everything from the more well known products such as laptops to the lesser known semiconductors (for example).

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 * What Products does Toshiba Produce?**

Toshiba classifies their products into three categories: Consumer, Business, and Industrial Products.

Consumer products include: Laptops, netbooks, laptop accessories, televisions, blu-ray players, dvd players, HD camcorders, LED lighting, air conditioning, and heating.



Business products include: Copiers, printers, faxes, scanners, electric components, semiconductors, hard disk drives, laptop computers, surveillance, IP video products, liquid crystal displays, medical imaging, and telecommunications.

Industrial products include: Drives, industrial video products, LED display systems, motors, power systems, transportation automation systems, UPS, and SCiB products.

These are just a few of the products Toshiba produces.

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= Toshiba and the Environment =

Toshiba is aiming to mitigate the effects of global climate change. They plan to do this by using an optimum combination of energy sources. The table belows shows what exactly the combination of sources are that they plan to use. []
 * Energy Use**

How affective this plan is in mitigating the effects of global climate change is undetermined.

Toshiba produces various products they call "eco" products. These products are said to have minimal environmental impact as compared to past products.
 * "Eco" Products**

TVs - Toshiba has two lines of TVs (an LCD HDTV/DVD Combo line and an HD LCD/LED line) that meet the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Energy Star requirements. This means that these TVs use about 30% less energy than standard TV units. []

Telephones - Toshiba's business telephones are RoHS compatible. []

Copiers - Toshiba's copiers have various aspects that have helped them to achieve an Energy Star Two Tier Rating. Some of these aspects include: RoHS compliancy, WEEE compliancy, printed circuit boards that are 100% lead and halogen free, service modules that are rebuildable, developer units that are self-refreshing, as well as cartridges that are recycled with zero-waste-to-landfill. []

Light bulbs -

This graphic compares CO2 output from a lamp with an incandescent bulb to Toshiba's LED light bulb. []

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Toshiba has partnered with companies such Panasonic and Sharp to create The Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Company (MRM). The company's goal is to provide recycling opportunities to consumers nationwide. []
 * Recycling Programs**

Since the formation of the MRM, over 60 million pounds of e-waste has been recycled through the company. []

Toshiba also promotes a take-back program for their laptops. The program focuses on selling-back, donating (through the [|National Cristina Foundation]), or dropping off (to a Toshiba-sponsered recycling center) the used laptop. In addition, Toshiba accepts laptops not only from the company itself, but computers from any of its competitor's companies. []

= Other Opinions on Toshiba =

While Toshiba is listed as obtaining the tenth spot on [|Newsweek's green rankings for global companies], others suggest the company has fallen short. Greenpeace's [|Guide to Greener Electronics]drops Toshiba from it's 14th spot to 16th due largely to two factors:


 * 1) Toshiba commited to an April 1st, 2010 deadline for bringing to the market new models of all of its products that would be free from PVC vinyl plastic as well as brominated flame retardents (BFRs). While this is a fantastic commitment, Toshiba failed to meet the deadline they themselves had created.
 * 2) Concerning the aforementioned timeline, Toshiba mislead consumers as well as companies by not admitting to their failure to reach the deadline until the deadline had already passed. In addition, Toshiba has no new timeline in place; meaning they no longer have any commitment to remove these harmful substances from their products.



The full Toshiba report goes on to explain that Toshiba scored poorly specfically on E-waste due to two factors:
 * 1) Lack of support concerning Individual Producer Responsibility.
 * 2) Recycled plastic use in the company is low.

While Toshiba should look to increase its global take back to include all products rather than just PCs, it does report an 13.4% global recyclying rate for a group of products that include TVs, PCs, and three types of home appliances. []

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=﻿Glossary =

BFRs - Brominated Flame Retardents are chemicals that are put into products that inhibit the spread of fire. It has been found that BFRs are dangerous chemicals known to cause adverse health affects such as cancer, reproductive, and developmental disorders.

Energy Star - Energy Star is a program jointly run by the EPA as well as the U.S. Department of Energy. It supports those products that are energy efficient.

Environmental Vision 2050 - Is a vision in which companies look at Earth's carrying capacity and how to change thier mangagment in order to reduce environmental impacts that adversly affect the world and push us closer to reaching that capacity.

EPA - The Environmental Protection Agency is an agency created by the United States government that serves to protect human health as well as the environment.

Individual Producer Responsibility - IPR is a policy in which companies are held responsible for the management of their products at the end of their life.

MRM - The Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Managment Company aims to provide consumers with environmentally friendly recycling opportunities.

National Cristina Foundation - A non-profit company that takes donated computer equipment and matches them to needy schools or other non-profit organizations around the world.

PVC - Polyvinyl Chloride is a type of plastic that is well known for the dangerous chemicals it releases including lead, vinyl chloride, and more. There is no way safely dispose of PVC plastics and these chemicals.

RoHS - Is a UK Department of Business, Innovation, and Skills (BIS) run program that regulates the use of hazardous chemicals such as lead, flame retardents, and mercury in electronic products.

WEEE - Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment groups electrical products into categories and promotes the proper disposal of these products.

= ﻿Resources = (2010). //Corporate information.// Retrieved from: [] (2010). //Corporate social responsibility//. Retrieved from: [] (2010). //Eco products//. Retrieved from: [] (2010). //Eco product design.// Retrieved from: [] (2010). //Energy.// Retrieved from: [] (2010). //Environment: North america.// Retrieved from: [] (2010). //Green rankings: Global companies.// Retrieved from: [] (2010). //Guide to greener electronics//. Retrieved from: [] (2010). //Guide to greener electronics: Toshiba ranking.// Retrieved from: [] (2010). //Lighting systems: Ecology.// Retrieved from: [] (2010). //Recycling and environmental efforts.// Retrieved from: [] (2010). //Recycling programs//. Retrieved from: [] (2010). //Reuse and recycling.// Retrieved from: [] (2010). //Toshiba's commitment to the environment.// Retrieved from: [] (2010). //Toshiba: United states index page.// Retrieved from: []

(2008). //How producer responsibility for product take-back can promote eco-design//. Retrieved from: **[] ** (2009). //Home: Our mission.// Retrieved from: **[] ** (2009). //PVC, the poison plastic: Unhealthy for our nation's children and schools.// Retrieved from: **[] ** (2010). //Environmental vision 2050.// Retrieved from: **__ http://global.epson.com/community/environment/vision2050.htm __** (2010). //Home: What is RoHS?// Retrieved from: **[] ** (2010). //Our mission and what we do.// Retrieved from: **[] ** (2010). //Welcome to the cristina foundation.// Retrieved from: **[] ** (2010). //What is WEEE?// Retrieved from: **[] ** //About energy star.// Retrieved from: **[] ** //Toxics dictionary.// Retrieved from: **[] **
 * Glossary resources**

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Questions for Review