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Environmental watchdog Greenpeace recently ranked a number of leading electronic companies by their eco-friendliness. Fourteen industry giants were judged on a scale of 1 to 10 by how good a job they do at removing toxic chemicals from their products and electronic waste recycling. These two issues go hand in hand, as harmful chemicals prevents the safe recycling of electronics when they're discarded.

Two producers of mobile devices, Nokia and Dell, received the highest marks, 7 each (considered barely respectable to Greenpeace). The Finnish phone maker lead the way on eliminating toxic chemicals.

Since the end of 2005 all new Nokia models have been free of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) - a plastic used for insulation on wires and cables - and all its components will be free of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from the start of 2007.

Greenpeace says Dell has also set ambitious targets for eliminating these harmful substances.

Both companies also do a good job at taking back and reusing or recycling their own-brand discarded products.

Hewlett-Packard received a reduced mark of 5.7 because its timelines only provide a plan for toxic chemicals phase out. It earned points for the amount recycling it does, however.

Next up was Sony Ericsson with a 5.3 because some of its phone models no longer have the worst chemicals, but it lost points for failing to report on the number of discarded phones it takes back and recycles.

Sony Ericsson was followed by Samsung (5), Sony (4.7), LG Electronics (4.3), Panasonic (3.3), Toshiba (3) and Fujitsu Siemens (3).

The worst offenders in the report were Apple, Acer (2.3), Motorola and Lenovo (1.3).

While Motorola (1.7) scored points for chemical management, the world's number two phone maker recently backtracked on a commitment to eliminate hazardous chemicals from its products. It also did poorly on recycling.

The organization had some particular pointed criticism for Apple (2.7), which scored low on almost all criteria. To Greenpeace Apple appears to be more interested in its image than the environment. "It is disappointing to see Apple ranking so low in the overall guide. They are meant to be world leaders in design and marketing, they should also be world leaders in environmental innovation." said Iza Kruszewska, Greenpeace International toxics campaigner.

Greenpeace hopes its 'Guide to Greener Electronics' will encourage mobile and PC companies to become greener, as it will be updated quarterly. "The scorecard will provide a dynamic tool to green the electronics sector by setting off a race to the top," stated Kruszewska

Scoring was weighted more heavily on the use of toxic substances in production rather than criteria on recycling, because until the use of harmful substances is eliminated in products, it is impossible to secure 'safe', toxic-free recycling, according to Greenpeace. Notheless, "By taking back their discarded products, companies will have incentives to eliminate harmful substances used in their products, since this is the only way they can ensure safe reuse and recycling of electronic waste," noted Kruszewska.

The European Union recently implemented toxic material legislation with some teeth, that could go a long way towards helping many of these company's green-up. The Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) pollution law sets limits on the amount of toxic substances (lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, PBB and PBDE flame retardants) contained within electronic equipment.

RoHS went into effect on July 1st. And although there was plenty of warning, Palm, Inc. had to stop shipping its only smartphone available in Europe, the Treo 650, because of it, for example.

Palm believed operators and suppliers on the continent had enough Treos in stock to hold them over until it could release its next-generation smartphones. The first of these, a Windows Mobile model, will be officially introduced on September 12th as the Treo 750v for Vodafone. It isn't clear exactly when it will ship though.