Apple has recently announced that it is pulling its entire product line of the US government backed product registration system which rates products on its environmental friendliness. Now, those of us who don't know what EPEAT is - it stands for Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool. This is a rating system/standard developed by environmental groups and electronics manufacturing industry leaders like HP, Dell and Apple itself. EPEAT has US Federal government backign and funding through its EPA (Environmental Protection Agency).
EPEAT provides ratings to electronic products based on how easily products can be dismantled for recycling. Especially hazardous sections like batteries and displays. Now, why would this standard be so important in US? This is becuase US government has mandated that all public service orders for electronic products must meet EPEAT standards. This would mean Apple will no longer be able to sell to US government. Considering this Apple has taken a bold step, but in their case it would make sense. This is catch 22 scenario. There is drive to make newer products faster, smarter and smaller. There is serious space constraint. That means you are forced to design products which are sort of one piece which is other way of saying un-modular. This would prevent products to be dismantled completely and not being easy to recycle at the end of the life of product. Apple seems to have made a technical design decision sacrificing thier environmental commitments.
More info can be found in this blog:
http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2012/07/06/apple-removes-green-electronics-certification-from-products/