Guide to Green Electronics is a ranking of 14 top mobile and PC companies that was released by Greenpeace. It is focused at drawing attention towards rising e-waste in the developing world. In spite of a sense of motivation that the Greenpeace campaign on Green Electronic Rankings has generated; there is another point of view that has been presented by many critics.

Many feel that these rankings are not supported by detailed research and statistics and are based just on the information that the company provides. Some critics like Daniel Eran says that the rankings focus more on what the companies say than on what they are actually doing. He also states that Greenpeace has been specifically targeting Apple and does not have data to support its claims. Different kinds of accusations and personal comments have been thrown by Daniel Eran at Greenpeace and vice versa. On one hand where Daniel feels that the whole campaign was mainly an attention seeking campaign by Greenpeace. On the other hand, Greenpeace reminds readers of Roughly Drafted Magazine being referred to as “the lunatic fringe of Mac fandom”. Both the parties have been twisting words and throwing sarcasm at each other over the past months.

As mentioned on Greenpeace site, Stephen Russell claims that the photographs taken by Greenpeace were false but does not present any evidence supporting the same. But, the reliability of Greenpeace rankings is seemingly questionable to many as it depends on information disseminated by the companies themselves or on the information mentioned on products. Also the sample that they took to test laptops of some companies is very less to generalize the facts about the entire company and all the products. People demand a more scientific basis of ranking than something based on perceptions and information available online. There has been a lot of focus on what the companies plan to do than their practical initiatives or actions on environmental issues. Also, the various factors like volume or mix of products from each vendor have not been accounted for.

Greenpeace no doubt has acted as a driving force in raising awareness amongst people about the end of life aspects of e-waste; they need to support their reports with more concrete and reliable data.

What is important to point out here is considering the current situation of e-waste is indeed alarming and it requires for manufacturers to take more responsibility of their products, make them easily recyclable, reduce the usage of hazardous substances as well as increase their product life. Also, these efforts might not get fruitful results unless countries like India and China lay down stringent regulations on handling and disposal of e-waste so that the situation can be handled more effectively.