Archive for the ‘Eco News’ Category
L.A. rethinks apartment recycling in march to zero-waste goal
August 18th, 2011 | 
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Keeping trash from landfills that are quickly filling up is a top priority for the L.A. Bureau of Sanitation. And these days its officials are working on changes to the way apartment dwellers and businesses dispose of their trash. The Home section’s latest look at the complexities of apartment recycling delves into the possibilities and obstacles ahead before the L.A. City Council considers a new plan.
Home also has looked at why it’s hard to know what can be recycled, and at whether all sorts of things can go in the recycling bin.
– Mary MacVean
Photo: Los Angeles Recycling Center. Credit: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times
ALSO:
Recycling: More questions than answers
Throw recycling in the trash? Some cities do
Can I recycle bubble wrap, wine corks, Ziploc bags and …
Article Link: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/home_blog/recyclist/
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E-waste law begins in S.C., TV’s, computers must be recycled
By David Slade
Televisions, computers, monitors and printers may no longer be put out with the trash in South Carolina.
A statewide electronics recycling law approved in 2010 went into effect today. For households in the tri-county area, a trip to a county recycling center will be necessary to legally dispose of certain electronics.
The recycling requirement is aimed at keeping electronics, which can contain lead and hazardous materials, out of landfills and incinerators. Electronic waste can also include valuable metals and other materials that can be recycled.
Article Link: http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2011/jul/01/e-waste-law-begins-sc-tvs-computers-must-be-recycl/
Fujitsu’s Plastic-Free Mouse Designed for Composting
LONDON, United Kingdom — Fujitsu is expanding its use of non-petroleum-based materials with a new mouse featuring a compostable shell.
The company’s M440 ECO computer mouse is made with two wood-based materials that can be disposed of in industrial compost settings, and the remains can be recycled as well, Fujitsu says.
The mouse’s shell is entirely made from Arboform and Biograde. Arboform, produced by TECNARO, is based on lignin, a pulp industry byproduct. The lignin is mixed with natural fibers and natural additives to create a composite that can be processed and molded. Biograde is a wood cellulose-based material made by FKuR, which combines the cellulose with acetates to make synthetic fiber and bio-based plastic. In addition, the mouse’s cable doesn’t contain PVC.
Full Article: http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2011/01/25/fujitsu-plastic-free-mouse-designed-composting?utm_source=Green+Biz&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenerComputing+%28GreenBiz.com+|+Computing%29&utm_content=Twitter
How to Set Up Recycling at Your Workplace
- Form a “green team” – Approaching recycling as a team can help ensure the success of your recycling program. A “green team” is a group of employees interested in recycling and helping to set up a program.
- Determine materials you will recycle – Performing a waste audit can help. A waste audit is an inventory of the amount and type of solid waste (trash) produced at a location.
Commonly recycled business items:
- Office paper
- Magazines and catalogs
- Newspaper
- Cardboard
- Aluminum cans
- Plastic bottles
- Toner and ink jet cartridges
- Contact your property manager – Find out if there are any recycling programs in place. Ask them to provide office paper, cardboard, aluminum can and plastic bottle recycling as a service to building tenants. Remind them that recycling can reduce waste disposal costs.
On your own – If your property manager cannot provide recycling, or you are a small business, meet with your green team and decide what materials you want to recycle.
- Contact a recycling company – Interview multiple companies and get price estimates for providing a dumpster and pickup services. Most recycling companies provide rebates on materials collected.
These companies provide recycling pick up services in the Kansas City region. They will provide a dumpster and establish a regular pick up schedule to meet your needs.
- Drop-off Recycling – If pickup services are not an option, another option is to take your recyclables to a drop-off recycling center.
- Coordinate collection – with the recycling service provider, janitorial crew and/or staff. Think about:
- Small bins – You can provide durable recycling containers to each staff person or ask them to use copy paper boxes or something similar at their work stations. Decide what type and size of bin to locate next to printers, fax machines and other machines that generate paper.
- Central bins – Locate large recycling bins in copy rooms or break rooms.
- Collection – Create a regular schedule and determine who will pick up recycling from the small and central bins. It may be staff, janitorial crew or a combination.
- Drop-off recycling – If your staff is using a drop-off collection center, set up a team and schedule for taking recyclables to the center. You may also need to determine a place to store recyclables.
- Communicate all this information to your entire staff and janitorial crew.
- Educate staff
- Distribute fact sheets describing the new recycling program for employees and janitorial staff and post updates on your company’s intranet site.
- Provide bins and collection containers as mentioned above.
- Mark containers with signs labeled by item. It is helpful to use the “chasing arrows” recycling symbol.
Full Article: http://ewastedisposal.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-to-set-up-recycling-at-your.html
Green Grid Unveils New Metrics for Data Center Carbon, Water Use Read more
PORTLAND, OR — Companies undertaking a sustainability initiative of any kind follow a well trodden path, steadily expanding how broad and deep their measurements and improvements go.
It’s a pattern that we’ve seen in the greenhouse gas reporting that the Carbon Disclosure Project regularly highlights, but the same holds true for green projects from supply chain greening to packaging redesign.
Now, the Green Grid, a consortium of technology companies dedicated to boosting data center energy efficiency around the world, has followed the same path: Last week, the group published a paper that expands its efficiency metrics to include the carbon output of a data center, as well as the water use of a data center.
“We see sustainability as a much broader issue than power,” explained Christian Belady, Microsoft‘s Director of Hardware Architecture and a board member at the Green Grid, who edited the white paper. “How can we come up with some similar metric that will allow us to benchmark carbon intensity or efficiency in the data center, and then similarly with water?”
The results follow on the Green Grid’s widely accepted Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) formula for IT equipment energy efficiency: Take the total power entering a data center, and divide it by the amount of power used by IT equipment.
PUE has become the gold standard of data center energy efficiency since it was launched in early 2007. It is now something of a “miles per gallon” rating for data center energy efficiency. And while Belady describes PUE as “a fantastic metric,” having more comprehensive ways of measuring the full impacts of a data center is getting more important as facilities get greener.
Read more: http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2010/12/06/green-grid-unveils-new-metrics-data-center-carbon-water-use?utm_source=Green+Biz&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenerComputing+%28GreenBiz.com+|+Computing%29
