Apple, Acer, Motorola, and Lenovo are among the worst polluters, according to Greenpeace, while Nokia and Dell just barely passed. Greenpeace ranked major electronics companies according to what they were doing to remove the harmful chemicals in their gadgets, phones, and computers. Also, Greenpeace ranked the companies according to their policies about taking responsibility for their products when these are thrown away by their customers (for example, companies should recycle old components as much as possible and they should process and dispose of the chemical waste properly). Like all other piles of garbage, the amount of toxic waste caused by electronics ("e-waste") is growing, and it often gets dumped in poor developing countries.

Greenpeace's rankings (points are out of 10; 10 is the highest possible score):

7: Nokia - Needs to improve recycling program.
7: Dell - Some models still have the worst chemicals, but has a good program of taking back their toxic trash.
5.7: Hewlett Packard
5.3: Sony Ericsson
5: Samsung
4.7: Sony
4.3: LGE
3.3: Panasonic
3: Toshiba
3: Fujitsu-Siemens
2.7: Apple
2.3: Acer
1.7: Motorola
1.3: Lenovo

Greenpeace will update the rankings four times a year. And as for Apple scoring so low, the Greenpeace article had this to say: "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."

We earlier featured an article about Maine's Laptop Program with Apple, wherein an iBook could be bought for as low as $48 bucks. The state of Maine sure do love their Apple laptops because the state  has signed a $41 million contract with Apple Computer Inc. to provide new laptop computers to more than 30,000 seventh- and eighth-graders and their teachers, extending the laptop program for another four years.

Maine was a pioneer in equipping their students with laptops and they intend to sustain this kind of program for a long, long time. The deal is pretty similar with the first Laptop Program that was launched in 2002. It works out to an annual cost of $289 per laptop.

Aside from providing the laptops to approximately 32,000 students and 4,000 teachers, the four-year contract also includes warranties and perks like professional development for each of Maine's 241 public middle schools. The program is aimed at eliminating the so-called "digital divide" between rich and poor student and it has been deemed a success by administrators.

The new laptops are of course improved with greater memory, faster processors and built-in DVD combo drives. On one hand, the older laptops are being kept instead of discarded. Those computers are being upgraded with fundraising support from former Gov. Angus King, who initiated the laptop program, and school districts are redeploying them in other grades or for other purposes.

Maine's Department of Education announced in March that Apple had been chosen over CDW Corp.'s unit that provides technological services to government, education and health care. CDW's proposal called for Lenovo ThinkPads in partnership with other vendors.