Materials

Our materials choices for HP products affect our environmental performance. HP has a long history (see the timeline) of improving the use of materials in our products, and we continue to focus on several aspects:

• Being transparent about product material content
• Eliminating materials shown or likely to pose an environmental, health or safety risk
• Innovating design to use new materials with improved environmental performance
• Using recycled materials and materials that will be easier to recycle

These actions reduce costs, avoid substances of high concern and decrease energy use during manufacturing and distribution.

Material content

Our products comply with regulations regarding materials use, but customers increasingly want to know more about substances in products, even those unrestricted by regulation. We have shifted the emphasis from the substances that are excluded from our products to reporting specific materials that are included.

We comply with the REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical substances) legislation in the European Union (EU). REACH introduced a required process for capturing and tracking specific “substances of very high concern” (SVHCs) that exceed established European Chemical Agency (ECHA) thresholds. HP will meet all applicable REACH requirements and is committed to providing customers with information about the chemicals in our products as needed to comply with this legislation. HP is also working with industry and government to achieve a workable system that fulfils the goals of REACH. Part of this process requires HP suppliers to report listed substances in any materials they supply.

Substances of concern

HP has taken a proactive approach to evaluating materials and eliminating those that pose an environmental, health or safety risk. We may restrict or eliminate substances because of customer or legal requirements or because we believe it is appropriate based on a precautionary approach. We strive to replace legally permitted materials when scientific data has established a potential health or environmental risk and when less risky, commercially viable alternatives are available. We are working with others in the IT industry to ensure that the sourcing of metals used in HP products is not contributing to human rights violations associated with trade in minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo. (See Human rights in minerals mining in Central Africa.)

We communicate materials restrictions to our design teams and to our manufacturing suppliers through our General Specification for the Environment (GSE), which prohibits or restricts the use of certain substances in HP brand products and in manufacturing. The GSE is integrated into our product development process and into supplier contracts.

We use active verification to ensure our specifications translate into our products. This includes risk-based data sampling and chemical analysis as required. We use supplier corrective action processes as needed to resolve any issues that arise.

Regulations

HP believes that legislation such as the EU Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive plays an important role in promoting industrywide elimination of potentially hazardous substances. We support global harmonization of material restrictions because this enables faster adoption and achievement of the environmental benefits.

At times, HP goes beyond legal requirements by eliminating substances (such as lead and hexavalent chromium) on a worldwide basis. For example, HP was one of the first companies to apply the initial EU RoHS materials restrictions to our products worldwide. (See our compliance statement.) We support and are committed to compliance with the revised requirements, known as RoHS 2, as well as China’s legislation, known as China RoHS Phase II, and the Korean legislation “The Act for Resource Recycling of Electrical/Electronic Products and Automobiles," otherwise known as Korean RoHS. HP contributed to the EU Stakeholder meetings to develop RoHS 2, providing technical information. We also provided a technical adviser—the only non-Chinese national involved—to help the Ministry of Information Technology draft the guidance document supporting the China legislation.

In addition to the company's commitment to adherence with RoHS legislation, HP is complying with similar requirements in other jurisdictions, including California. As of December 31, 2007, all of HP-branded motherboards, circuit boards and other boards sold in California either: (1) will contain solder meeting the California standard of 0.1% or less lead; or (2) will be exempt from this California lead standard requirement. As part of its commitment to product stewardship, HP wishes to ensure that users of its products in California have the information they need about lead in solder in HP electronics products sold before the effective date of the California lead in solder requirement, see footnote for details⁴.

Materials substitution

HP has committed to replace restricted substances only with materials that are better for the environment and human health, and when there is sufficient assurance of required volumes and we have enough time to design and qualify the new material into the product. To assess alternative replacement materials we now use the Green Screen, a hazard-based assessment framework developed by the nongovernmental organization Clean Production Action.

Since the pilot program began in 2007, HP has assessed more than 50 replacement materials for brominated and chlorinated flame retardants, phthalates, PVC and other substances of concern. We are the world's leading practitioner of the Green Screen tool, and the results of assessments have begun to inform decision making on key replacement materials. Based on the success and usefulness of this approach, the Green Screen has been adopted as the primary tool for alternatives assessment to enable informed substitution for substances eliminated from HP products.

HP is also championing wider acceptance of the Green Screen within industry, the environmental NGO community and regulatory bodies. And to share information on common chemistries and help the entire electronics supply chain be able to select better replacement materials, we are working with Clean Production Action, the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, and other partners to create an external repository for assessments.

We continued to make progress in 2009 in removing substances of concern from our products. For example, 64 percent of HP notebooks have moved to mercury-free LED backlighting. Our goal is to remove all mercury—a material commonly used in notebook screens—from our entire notebook line by the end of 2010. Newly introduced display products also have arsenic-free display glass.

HP offers commercial photo printing solutions such as the HP Photosmart ml1000 Minilab printer that reduce environmental impact compared with silver halide systems. (See case study.)

BFR and PVC phase-out

In 2009 we introduced the HP Compaq 8000f Elite business desktop PC, which is free of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC)¹ in all internal and external components, including the keyboard, mouse and power supply. The HP Envy 13 Laptop and a configuration of the HP ProBook 5310m Notebook PC are also BFR/PVC-free² except for power supply and power cords.

We have already incorporated PVC- and BFR-free materials for printed circuit boards and plastics applications in several products, but high-performance applications continue to be a challenge. We are working with suppliers to develop and qualify acceptable materials and increase their availability.

We will complete the phase-out of BFR/PVC in newly introduced personal computing products in 2011, as technologically feasible alternatives become readily available that will not compromise product performance or quality and will not adversely impact health or the environment, per the Green Screen mentioned above.

The timeline shows when substances were restricted by HP and identifies substances that HP is considering for restriction.

Dematerialization

HP helps customers improve resource use through enhancements in technology and product design and by delivering software and services that enable more efficient customer processes.

For example, the HP TouchSmart for business has an EPEAT® Silver registered design that uses 55 percent less metal and 37 percent less plastic than standard PCs and monitors. Due to their significantly smaller size, an HP Thin Client and its packaging is less than one-third the weight of a traditional desktop PC. (See case study.)

Our printing services and software help to reduce material consumption by saving paper. In addition, print-on-demand allows publishers to print smaller batches as needed, responding to demand rather than printing larger batches based on anticipated sales. (See case study and Enabling a low-carbon economy.) HP Smart Web Printing reduces paper usage by up to 45 percent³ because it allows users to select, store and organize text and graphics from multiple web pages, then edit and print exactly what they see on the screen. Digitizing workflow and information management also saves paper by replacing paper-based documents.

Innovative materials

Materials innovation helps us to meet customer demand for safe, cost-effective products that have less impact on the environment and are easier to recycle.

For example, our HP Latex Printing Technology uses water-based HP Latex inks to print signs and graphics for both indoor and outdoor use. Unlike the inks for many competitors’ products, HP Latex Inks require no hazard labeling and no special ventilation and are non-flammable and non-combustible, creating a better working environment for operators. This technology can print on to a range of HP recyclable materials for certain applications instead of the usual vinyl media, which are generally considered not to be economically recyclable. For many of these media, HP also offers a free take-back and recycling scheme in the United States and 13 countries in Europe. For more detail, see videos about HP Latex Inks and HP signage products with reduced environmental impact.

We work with the electronics industry and our suppliers to identify new materials for potential use. For example, HP chairs the following projects of the International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI):

• Pb-Free Alloy Characterization, evaluating second-generation lead-free solder alloys
• iNEMI Test TIG, which leads various efforts, including the Board Flexure Standardization project, intended to drive standard test methodologies for qualifying the mechanical reliability of lead-free printed circuit assemblies

We are also jointly funding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s study on the relative environmental, health and safety impacts of current and alternative flame retardants in printed-circuit boards.

We believe nanotechnology holds promise for electronics applications in the long term and have researched this area since 1995. We also understand that everything has a footprint, and therefore we work to ensure the environmental benefit of these applications outweighs the potential environmental impact of creating, using, and eventually disposing (or reusing) the materials associated with this new technology. HP recognizes that since the properties of matter depend on size and shape at the nanoscale, consideration of potential health and safety issues of nanostructured materials must be an integral part of any research program that seeks to bring such materials to market. Our Information and Quantum Science Research group at HP Labs in Palo Alto, California, has been a leader in research in this area. (See Research and development and HP’s U.S. federal issue brief on this topic.)

Recycled materials

HP continues to expand the use of recycled materials in our products. ( See how HP uses "recycled materials" and related terms.) In 2009 HP reached cumulative shipments of 555 million inkjet cartridges that used the “closed loop” recycling process. HP is the only company that recycles old cartridge plastic to make new Original HP inkjet print cartridges. We used 5,000 tonnes (11 million pounds) of recycled content resin (which is 75 percent recycled content, minimum 95 percent post-consumer) in our new Original HP inkjet print cartridges in 2009, slightly more than the amount we used in 2008, as well as an additional 180 tonnes (400,000 pounds) of 50 percent recycled content resin. (See case study.)

In 2009, we introduced the HP Deskjet D2600 Printer. It is made from 50 percent recycled plastic material and uses HP 60 ink cartridges, made from at least 50 percent recycled plastic including resin from returned HP cartridges. Additionally, the overall packaging for this printer is recyclable. (See case study.)

In 2009 we exceeded our goal to triple the amount of recycled materials used in our inkjet printers relative to 2007, originally targeted for 2010. In 2009 we set a new goal to use a cumulative 100 million pounds (45,000 tonnes) of recycled plastic in our printing products by 2011 (with a 2007 baseline).

1. ¹ HP Compaq 8000f Elite USDT Business PC is brominated flame retardant and polyvinyl chloride-free (BFR/PVC-free); meeting the evolving definition of 'BFR/PVC-free' as set forth in the "iNEMI Position Statement on the 'Definition of Low-Halogen' Electronics (BFR/CFR/PVC-Free)’". Plastic parts contain < 1000 ppm (0.1%) of bromine [if the Br source is from BFRs] and < 1000 ppm (0.1%) of chlorine [if the Cl source is from CFRs or PVC or PVC copolymers]. All printed circuit board (PCB) and substrate laminates contain bromine/chlorine total < 1500 ppm (.15%) with a maximum chlorine of 900 ppm (.09%) and maximum bromine being 900 ppm (.09%).
2. ² HP ProBook 5310m is brominated flame retardant and polyvinyl chloride-free (BFR/PVC-free) on notebooks including Broadcom WLAN that are non-WWAN; meeting the evolving definition of 'BFR/PVC-free' as set forth in the "iNEMI Position Statement on the 'Definition of Low-Halogen' Electronics (BFR/CFR/PVC-Free)’". Plastic parts contain < 1000 ppm (0.1%) of bromine [if the Br source is from BFRs] and < 1000 ppm (0.1%) of chlorine [if the Cl source is from CFRs or PVC or PVC copolymers]. Power supply and power cords are not BFR/PVC-free. Service parts after purchase may not be BFR/PVC-free.
3. ³ In HP-commissioned independent testing, HP Smart Web Printing used an average of 45 percent fewer pages than the web browser’s print command alone.
4. ⁴Certain motherboards, mainboards, circuit boards and accessories sold in California contain lead solder. Lead is a chemical known to the State of California to cause birth defects and other reproductive harm. Please wash hands after handling such internal components and avoid inhalation of fumes if heating solder.