A worker in Shanghai, China, closely inspects a MacBook Pro screen.
Better for the environment.
Good manufacturing processes and responsible recycling minimize toxins in our supply chain, which helps keep our land, air, and water free from pollutants. We set our own standard to stop using many harmful toxins that are damaging our environment and hope that others follow our lead.
Better for the people who use them.
No one spends more time with an Apple product than an Apple customer. By minimizing or outright eliminating many harmful toxins, we ensure that each product is safe to use, year after year. Our power cords are PVC- and phthalate‑free. Our touchscreens are arsenic-free. And our cases and enclosures are BFR-free. No other company does more to keep its products free of so many toxins.
Better for the people who make them.
Apple is committed to providing safe working conditions for the people who make our products. Many toxins are restricted not only in the products themselves but also in the manufacturing processes. And our suppliers know how seriously we take this. Our Restricted Substances Specification requires them to demonstrate compliance and subjects them to third‑party testing.
View our Supplier Responsibility Report
After finding a safe replacement material for PVC, we certified its use in our cords in more than 40 regions around the world.
We are committed to keeping our workers safe from harmful toxins.
Mercury
Eliminated from our displays since 2009.
Lead
Formerly used in display glass and solder. Phase-out completed in 2006.
Arsenic
Traditionally used for clarity in glass. Our display glass has been arsenic‑free since 2008.
PVC
Still widely used by other companies in computers, cables, and power cords. We began phasing out polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in 1995.*
BFRs
Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are toxic compounds added to plastic enclosures, circuit boards, and connectors. Eliminated from our products in 2008.
Phthalates
A group of chemicals known as endocrine disruptors used to soften plastics in cables and power cords. Finished eliminating from cables and power cords in 2013.*
Designing greener products means considering the environmental impact of the materials used to make them. From the glass, plastic, and metal in our products to the paper and ink in our packaging, we’re conscious of how those materials affect our products as well as our environment. We continue to lead the industry in reducing or eliminating environmentally harmful substances, and we’re continually striving to make our products the cleanest and safest they can be.
We replaced PVC with nonchlorinated and nonbrominated thermoplastic elastomers in our power cords and headphone cables.
We replaced fluorescent lamps containing mercury to backlight our notebook and iMac displays with more energy‑efficient, mercury‑free LEDs.
Instead of brominated flame retardants, we use certain metal hydroxides and phosphorus compounds in our circuit boards, cases, and enclosures.
We work closely with our suppliers to make sure our products are free from the harmful substances we specify. And we go to great lengths to confirm that. In fact, it’s the mission of the Environmental Testing Lab we built at our headquarters in Cupertino. There we submit our products’ components to rigorous analysis — including X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and ion chromatography — to literally see what they’re made of.
Ion chromatography is just one of several methods our Environmental Testing Lab uses to ensure the safety of our products.
