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In the mid-1980s, the supposedly clean industries of Silicon Valley revealed a dirtier side. In 1985, the Environmental Protection Agency discovered toxic contamination at 89 manufacturing sites in the Valley and proposed adding 19 of them to its Superfund clean-up list. More recently, as an ever-growing number of old computers (300 million by 2004) pile up in waste dumps, a waste disposal problem has become apparent: The machines that give us our daily e-mail fix are packed with such environmental toxins as lead, cadmium and flame retardants.
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Click products below for the social context behind the social policies of six global corporations. |
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Hewlett Packard has won praise from environmentalists for acknowledging the industry's pollution problem early on. The world's number five software maker -- which merged with Compaq Computer in May 2002 -- has operations in 160 countries. In many of these places, HP's Planet Partners Program takes back products from all manufacturers, evaluating them for possible reuse and donation. Non-reusable equipment is then recycled in a process that emphasizes maximum material recovery and minimizes pollution. According to its Web site, HP plans to expand the program worldwide.
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