Are you voting for Earth with your Light Switch on March 28?

On Saturday, March 28, 2009, it will be another Earth Hour. It is as simple as switching off your lights at 8:30pm to 9:30pm (local time). My family learned about this last year and we participated. The kids enjoyed the time when we switched all our lights at 8:30pm. We even turned off a couple of our appliances (T.V. and computer).

Earth Hour started in Sydney in 2007 and expanded to different cities in 2008. This year's goal is to get 1 billion people to switch their lights off.

To find out more about Earth Hour, visit the site http://www.earthhour.org/about/

A Few More Reusable Bags

I found a cool reusable bag at Kohl's one day. It's a foldable reusable bag shown below.

I started opening the bag.

Here is the fully unfolded bag.

This next bag is a Philadelphia Eagles reusable bag sold at ACME. I believe the bag costs about $1.50.

While this Philadelphia Eagles bag is available at K-Mart. Also about $1.50

This is a different design available at Kmart for one dollar.

Another bag at K-Mart for 1 dollar.

I found this nice looking reusable bag at Rite-Aid.

This next one is available at Walgreens.
I liked the drawing of the Hulk and Shrek on the background.

UPS Recycling

I attended a virtual conference hosted by Information Week magazine a couple of weeks ago. The theme of the conference is "Green IT." I visited a virtual booth by American Power Corporation (APC), a worldwide company that makes UPS and found out that they also recycle.

So, what's a UPS? Some readers may ask. UPS stands for Uninterruptible Power Supply. This is a device that provides battery backup for computers in case there's a power failure. The UPS will give you some time (typically around 5 to 15 minutes) to be able to save anything that you are doing or until an auxiliary power (generator) is turned on.

APC placed this recycling link on their virtual booth and I had to check it out. I remember early in my career that we used APC branded UPS on one of our client sites.

On the website, they give people 4 options to trade, recharge, or recycle old UPS devices instead of throwing it away.

Option 1: Trade UPS - you can trade any brand of old UPS for a new one.

Option 2:Replacement Battery Cartridges - you can trade or replace your old APC UPS battery and they will dispose the old battery in an eco-friendly manner.

Option 3: Certified Pre-Owned - provides eco-friendly disposal of your old APC UPS device and you can buy an APC certified Pre-Owned UPS at a lower cost.

Option 4: Staples Eco-Easy Recycling Program - APC teamed up with Staples for recycling battery backups. You can bring your battery to any US Staples store for recycling. There's a $10 recycling fee (per piece) to cover the handling, transport, product disassembly and recyling.

Batteries, if improperly disposed, can harm the environment. Should you have any old UPS devices that are not being used, here's the recycling option for you.

Enjoy and happy recycling!