In an open letter posted on the Apple.com website, company CEO Steve Jobs defended his company’s environmental initiatives to reduce waste and remove toxic contaminants used in the manufacture of Apple’s computer and electronic products.

Apple has recently come under fire by several environmental organizations that claim the company isn’t doing its part in practicing green initiatives and lowering its carbon footprint. Jobs countered the claims with an overview of Apple’s efforts in eliminating the manufacture of CRTs (thus removing lead from the landfill); discontinuing the use of arsenic and mercury from its LCD screens; and pointing out that it had been sans polyvinyl chloride and brominated flame retardants in its packaging for several years.

Apple also has plans to raise by 30% the amount of e-waste it recycles in four years (2006 records show that Apple recycled 13 million pounds of this material.) And as for all those broken iPods, Jobs tells the greeners that in addition to being able to return any broken iPod to any one of the 150 Apple stores and receive 10% off your replacement, Apple will expand its return policy to all retail stores worldwide come this summer and offer free shipping back to the HQ if you’re within the United States.

Mother Nature thanks you Steve.