Archive for January, 2009

Costco’s Trade-In Recycling Program

Friday, January 9th, 2009

Costco has decided to partner with Gazelle, a “reCommerce” company, in their effort to keep used electronic devices out of landfills. Through Costco’s Trade-In Recycling Program, Costco shoppers can receive Costco cash cards for each used used electronic devices they choose to trade in.  Items that can be traded in include: cell phones, digital cameras, MP3 players, PDAs, laptops, GPS devices, gaming devices, camcorders, satellite radios, and many other devices!

Recycle Your Cell Phone!

If you would rather recycle your electronics for charity instead of personal profit or if your item is not worth any money but you want it to be disposed of in a proper manner, be sure to utilize our services at Recycling For Charities and donate today!

Reducing Our Usage of Plastic Bags

Friday, January 9th, 2009

“Paper or Plastic?” is soon going to be a phrase of the past and the acronym B.Y.O.B. is soon going to have another meaning: Bring Your Own Bag.  Many states have begun encouraging their citizens to use re-usable bags and to support the proposal of a “bag law.”  A “bag law” would require citizens to pay a 5 cent or more fee if they did not bring a re-usable bag to the store.  The 5 cent or more per bag fee would be implemented for shoppers at grocery, drug, and liquor stores.  The “bag law” would also penalize offenders: if any store chose to exclude their customers from the law, they would face fines.

    Only some cities and states have recognized this issue and drafted plans.  They include: New York City, Connecticut, Maryland, Seattle, and Portland.  Outside of the United States, China has already reduced their usage of plastic bags by forbidding the usage of them in shops.  Retailers in China who continue to use them face heavy fines.  Thus, plastic bag usage has become passé and the “white pollution” has been virtually eradicated in the nation.  Other countries that are considering following in China foot-steps include:   Australia, Argentina, and Ireland.

    In other words…Choose to Re-Use!

      Coca-Cola Uses Recycled Plastic Bottles To Create Uniforms

      Thursday, January 8th, 2009

      Coca-Cola will have about 550 employees working at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC and all of them will be wearing uniforms made from recycled plastic bottles and a blend of cotton.  But this is not the only thing Coca-Cola is doing during the 2010 Winter Olympics to curb their impact on the environment.

      Coca-Cola also plans to:

      1) Use state-of-the-art coolers and vending machines that will cut their green-house emissions substantially due to eliminating their usage of hydroflurocarbons.  The new units will use carbon dioxide as a refrigerant.

      2) Use 600+ recycling bins throughout the venues in order to encourage people to recycle their plastic bottles.

      3) Use hybrid or high-efficiency vehicles during the Games.

      4) Divert 95% of the waste produced during the Games away from landfills.

      5) Buy “gold-standard” carbon off-sets to compensate for the emissions produced from its Games related-vehicles, air transportation devices, and temporary coolers used.

      Coca-Cola has done its part to be environmentally friendly through their recycling efforts and you can be involved in recycling efforts too!  Donate your used cell phone, PDA, digital camera, or i-pod today!

        The Battle for Green Domination Begins: Apple vs. Dell

        Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

        Apple and Dell have begun to use the extremely persuasive power of environmental marketing techniques to their advantage. In an effort to lure customers, Apple has claimed that they produce “the world’s greenest family of notebooks.”  Dell, a long time supporter of environmentally friendly initiatives and one of Apple’s largest competitors, found this to be a false claim and filed a complaint regarding the truthfulness of the claims made through Apple’s ads and marketing.  Yet, Dell did not receive the support they were hoping to receive from the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (NAD).  NAD ruled:

        “The advertiser has specifically undertaken to design all of its MacBooks to reduce their negative environmental impact, as reflected in Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) ratings, and that it should be free to communicate that information to consumers. While other manufacturers may have subcategories of lines with similar ratings, none has comparable high ratings for all of the notebooks it produces.”

        NAD further recommended that Apple adjust its tag line in that they:

        “make [it] clearer that the basis of comparison is between all MacBooks to all notebooks made by a given competitor, and avoid the reference to ‘world’s greenest’.”

        Apple was very pleased with the ruling; the full story is available here.  Apple continues their attempts to be mindful of the environment by producing energy efficient products that do not contain chemical components that are hazardous to the environment.

        After the ruling, Dell will continue to support movements against the overuse of “green” initiatives and to take a closer look at the usage of environmental marketing techniques.  They feel that the market has been completely “greenwashed” and that these practices must stop.  They would like to see a specific outline regarding the definition of “green” produced in the near future.

        Mirror, mirror, on the wall— who will be the greenest of all?

        Now THAT’S a good use for those wine corks….

        Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

        The majority of the 13 billion wine corks sold into the market each year wind up as waste, filling our landfills with yet another thing that we can reuse. Amorim, of Portugal is the world’s largest producer of natural cork. They are working to help keep it from being wasted by sponsoring the American arm of the organization called ReCork America.

        SOLE, a Canadian company that the manufactures premium footbeds, socks and sandals, announced its partnership with ReCORK America just recently. Their goal is to divert cork from these landfills and re-purpose them into the soles of their newest shoes. With the help of ReCORK, SOLE is collecting corks from companies such as American Airlines, The Wine Tasting Network, Whole Foods Markets in Northern California and the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, to name a few. The 2010 footwear line is still in the works but is making great strides. “They provided us with thousands of used corks and we did the [research and design] necessary to successfully develop a cork blend that enhances the material properties of our products. This is the kind of sustainable effort that benefits everyone.” states Mike Baker, president of SOLE.

        Be on the lookout for SOLE retailers near you that supply the re-purposed cork foot beds in 2010! голова болит секс голова болит секс

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