Greenpeace praises Apple, new line of products “virtually” free of PVC and BFRs – Mac – Macworld UK.

This little hissyfit on Dell’s side comes as no surprise, given founder Michael Dell’s ironic comment on Apple a decade ago (“I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.”).

That being said, Dell is still a long way from robbing longtime incumbent Microsoft of the title of Biggest Sore Loser.

But the nonprofit said that Dell should not have engaged in a public spat over Apple’s advertising claims to having “the world’s greenest family of notebooks.”

“It’s ridiculous that some companies, such as Dell, are busy challenging Apple’s advertising claims when Apple is clearly leading its competitors on toxics phase out,” Greenpeace wrote. PC companies should instead be concentrating on matching or beating Apple’s lead on this issue.

Dell earlier filed a complaint with advertising watchdog the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, saying Apple’s use of the phrase “the world’s greenest family of notebooks” was misleading buyers and also a “broad superiority claim” against all manufacturers’ laptops.

The NAD investigation last month concluded that consumers could be misled by Apple’s claims, and suggested Apple change the green tagline in advertisements to “avoid overstatement.” However, the NAD opinion also stated that Apple’s products met higher environmental standards across all product lines compared to competitors.