Acer has announced a number of steps the company is taking to step up its sustainable business practices. That includes a goal of using 100-percent renewable energy by 2035 and reducing its overall carbon footprint across products.
As one small step, the company is introducing its first laptop made with post-consumer recycled plastic. The Acer Aspire Vero uses recycled plastic “throughout the device’s chassis and keyboard caps” and ships in a box made from at least 80-percent recycled paper pulp. It also comes in a paper sleeve rather than plastic, there’s also no paint on the computer’s body, and graphics on the shipping package are printed with soy ink.
As for specs, it’s pretty much a standard laptop.
While Acer hasn’t provided detailed information about the hardware, the company notes that it has an 11th-gen Intel Core processor with Iris Xe graphics, support for up to 1TB of solid state storage, a USB Type-C port, HDMI 2.0 port, and two USB 3.2 Type-A ports.
I appreciate the idea of making a laptop that’s a little more eco-friendly than usual, but the impact will likely be small if it’s limited to a single product from a company that produces dozens of different notebook models, most of which don’t use recycled materials for their bodies or packaging.
Some of Acer’s design decisions also feel a little silly. For example, the text on the R and E keys on the keyboard have been inverted, “calling out the 3 Re’s: reduce, reuse and recycle.”
