Anyone who pays their own electric bill knows that the modern generation of consoles aren't exactly the greenest of appliances. The 360, PS3 and even the Wii sure can eat the kilowatt hours, and you just know that every time you turn one on, Al Gore is crying somewhere. But according to international enviornmental watchdog Greenpeace, their manufacturing is about as environmentally unfriendly as you can get.

In a newly issued report, Greenpeace's Europeans wing slams Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo for the environmental policies each company employs at their respective plants and for the materials used to build in the hardware. Nintendo fared the worst in Greenpeace's evaluation, with the group stating that Nintendo's environmental policies were "non-existant".

The report states that although all three consoles comply with the letter of existing European laws, they still contain harmful materials that "needed to be replaced". The PS3 and 360 were found to contain "very high" levels of phthalates, a chemical used in wires and cable coatings, which have been banned by the European Union in the manufacture of toys. But under existing law, consoles don't qualify as "toys". Beryllium was also found in both the PS3 and Xbox 360. Although the element is not banned under EU law, it has been linked to lung cancer when dust and fumes are created through some recycling processes. All three consoles were also found to contain varying levels of the toxic element bromine, which is used as a flame retardant. 

The BBC got responses from all three companies, best summed up by  Nintendo's statement of, "We fully comply with all the necessary EU Directives on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances aimed at environmental protection and consumer health and safety. Furthermore, in order to ensure our products are safe for use by young children we also take into consideration the standards applicable to toys."  In a positive signal, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft have all agreed to remove both phthalates and bromine from the manufacturing process by 2010.

As sad as it is that the big three game makers have such shoddy environmental records, it's nice to know that once these things are called to their attention, they will at least make the effort to improve. If you listen closely enough, you may just make out the sounds of Al Gore cracking a smile.

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