Samsung Fails To Remove BFRs From Products

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South Korean electronics giant Samsung has been placed on warning by environmental group Greenpeace after they failed to meet self-imposed deadlines and pledges regarding their use of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in their electronics. Their deadline of January 1st, 2010 has passed and, according to Greenpeace, the electronics giant has made no attempt to remove BFRs from their offerings.

Ending the use of BFRs has been a major cause for Greenpeace in the electronics industry, and Samsung was one of the first to join their cause. In 2004, Greenpeace and Samsung (then, on much friendly terms) issued a joint statement saying that Samsung would rid all BFRs from their offerings.

In 2006, Samsung was getting favorable reviews in Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics – and Samsung had vowed to end BFR use by January 1st, 2010. Samsung missed their deadlines, as did Dell, LG and Lenovo. However, Greenpeace is angry at Samsung because of their late notification at missing the deadline – and they feel Samsung has made no progress towards this goal.

Samsung was almost docked a point from the Guide To Greener Electronics, and Greenpeace is threatening to take another point away from the Korean giant. “Samsung is lagging far behind in the mobile phone and PCs product range, not offering a single model that is even partially free of PVC and BFRs,” Greenpeace said in a statement.

Samsung said on its website that their MP3 players and digital cameras will be BFR-free by June 1st, 2010. Their notebook computers will be BFR-free by January 1st, 2011.