Thursday, March 26, 2009

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/

Saturday, March 21, 2009

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.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

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!

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Recycling Bag

A couple of months ago, I posted a drawing that my son made ~ Recycle Some More. Here's what my son is doing now regarding recycling. He has his own Recycling bag where he would put pieces of paper in it and will let me know that those are for recycling. As you can see below, he marked one side of the plastic bag "Re[c]ycle".
He also uses the 3R's of Recycling: Reuse, Reduce, Recycle (although he spelled it wrong, I think it sounds the same when you read it). This is what the other side of the Recycling bag looks like.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Recycling Tires into Asphalt - CNN Video

Here is a cool way to recycle tires. It can be used as an eco-friendly replacement to asphalt or concrete. The best part is that water can sip right through it unlike in asphalt or concrete. Watch and enjoy!


Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Ink and Toner Cartridge Recycling - Cartridge World

I found an Ink and Toner cartridge recycling bin at my local library. I have visited a couple libraries within my area and I also found bins like this. 

Here are some facts that I found about Ink and Toner cartridge recycling from the Cartridge World website:
  • About 8 cartridges are thrown away in the United States every second.
  • Every cartridge reused is one less cartridge thrown into our landfills
  • It takes a gallon of oil to make a new laser cartridge
  • In North America, over 350 million cartridges per year are discarded in our landfills, and that number increases by 12 percent annually
  • Every remanufactured cartridge saves nearly 3 and 1/2 pounds of solid waste from being deposited in landfills
  • Remanufacturing cartridges reduces pollution. Almost 90% of empty cartridges are incinerated or dumped in landfills
  • 70 percent of used printer cartridges throughout the world are currently being thrown out
  • It can take as long as 450 years for a cartridge to decompose in a landfill
  • In one year, if the world's discarded cartridges are stacked end-to-end, they would circle around the Earth over three times.
The bins are part of a recycling program that is run by Cartridge World. They provide the bins to schools or non-profit organizations to help them raise money. 

Cartridge World has over 1600 stores worldwide. They can refill inkjet cartridges or remanufacture toner cartridges in their stores. Reusing printer cartridges helps saving the environment and with the tough economy, it can save you some money, too. You can visit their website to find a store near you.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Recycling Plastic Bottles - CNN Video

I just found this video about recycling plastic bottles to make new bottles. Very interesting...


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