Read the full story at GreenerDesign.

Axion International Holdings is increasing the performance of its recycled plastic bridges with a contact from the U.S. Army to build two railroad bridges that can support 130 tons.

Axion will be building the bridges, which will be made almost entirely of recycled post-consumer plastic, at Fort Eustis in Virginia, the home of the US Army Transportation Corps. The bridges will be used for locomotives and freight traffic as part of military movements and base exercises.

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

The new SocialCycling program from DMD Green is an attempt to find uses for products and materials that aren’t handled by typical recycling systems.

DMD Green, an environmental and green business management consultant, says the program will find new uses for non-recyclable items like vinyl-coated fabrication materials.

The SocialCycling program, announced this month, will take post-consumer products and reclaimed material, collect them at a SocialCycling site, sort and separate materials, and then distribute them to converters and artisans that can use them to make new products.

On November 11th, 2009, at the I-Hotel and Conference Center in Champaign, IL, Willie Cade gave a lecture titled, “The Truth, Tragedy, and Transformation of E-Waste”.

Read the full story at Greener Computing.

We follow e-waste issues pretty closely here, because despite green IT’s huge potential for game-changing innovation, issues around the disposal of old gadgets represent the industry’s seamy underbelly.

So it’s always interesting when news about e-waste makes one of its occasional splashes into the news; when, after weeks of total or near silence about e-waste issues, you get a slew of headlines on the subject.

That’s been happening for the past week or so around these parts, as bad news crops up from a number of corners about e-waste, with just a small taste of some good news about how organizations are addressing it.

Read the full story at Earth911.

Yeah, it’s made of plastic and has a number, and OK, it’s technically recyclable. But while 80 percent of Americans have access to plastics recycling programs in some form, finding one that actually accepts our daily hard-to-recycle items is sometimes harder than we anticipate.

But instead of trashing that Best of the 80s CD case or those leftover packaging peanuts, consider reusing them in a fun, quirky way. Here are a couple of ideas to get you started.

Read the press release.

Tomra of North America, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tomra Systems ASA (TOMRA) and leading global provider of advanced recycling solutions, today announced that Fairfield University in Fairfield, Conn., has acquired four of TOMRA’s UNO recycling machines for use by students, faculty and visitors on campus. Students will be able to recycle glass, plastic and aluminum beverage containers in the “reverse vending” machines (RVMs); each container will redeem five cents.

Read the full post at Lifehacker. This probably also works with odd socks.

Don’t throw out single mittens when you lose their mate. Slip them over a pair of specs or sunglasses to protect them from scratches.

Read the full post at Green Inc.

From our colleagues at the Wheels blog:

Mercury, the only metal element that is liquid at standard room temperature, is notoriously hard to handle — in more ways than one. Until 2003, automakers used highly toxic mercury in switches that controlled trunk and under-hood lights, as well as antilock brake systems. Since then, carmakers have switched to benign alternatives, but an estimated 38 million mercury switches still remain in cars.

Read the full post at the Consumer Reports Electronics blog.

With early Black-Friday deals abounding, maybe you’re planning on getting some sleek, new electronic item to replace an old clunker. And you’re probably planning on heaving that old computer, TV, printer, or whatever to the curb, right? Do us all a favor and recycle it.

Read the full story in the Daily Illini.

Willie Cade, founder of PC Rebuilders and Recyclers, spoke at the I Hotel and Conference Center on Wednesday to inform people about e-waste and what can be done to collect and reuse it.

Cade emphasized the importance of reusing e–waste, or discarded programmable electric devices, to get their full potential. He compared a horseless carriage to a Ferrari to create a visual image for the group of about 200 attendants.

Read the full post at Treehugger.

Yesterday was America Recycles Day, which isn’t a bad thing as an idea — certainly, more recycling is better than less — but do we really need a day for it? Last year, Lloyd called recycling “bullsh*t” as a big picture solution, and reiterated it this year, and he’s right. Do we really need a day dedicated to reminding us to recycle? Isn’t it time to move beyond the inefficient model that supports single-use and disposable items like plastic bags and bottled water? Can’t we do better than this?

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

LG Electronics yesterday announced a new partnership with Waste Management that aims to keep thousands of now-outdated displays out of landfills.

The two firms are teaming up to recycle televisions and computer monitors from hundreds of hotels around the country, as the lodging industry embraces flat-panel and high-definition televisions for guestrooms; the two companies expect to collect and responsibly recycle thousands of displays during the first year of the partnership alone.

Read the full story at Mother Nature Network.

Plastic bags, the scourge of the environment, are flying high in Beijing, thanks to a retired engineer who is turning the waste into colorful kites.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

Government officials from across the country on Nov. 5 called on the electronics industry to withdraw its lawsuit against the New York City e-waste recycling law, calling the lawsuit a challenge to the rights of states and cities to pass producer responsibility laws that hold manufacturers accountable for their products.

In a letter to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC), who filed the lawsuit, state and local government representatives from 18 states expressed their continued support for laws that give the electronics manufacturers responsibility for financing effective takeback services for all the products they are selling in those states.

Via Docuticker.

Independent Survey of Communities Shows Recycling Access Widespread With Room for Growth
Source: American Beverage Association

The American Beverage Association (ABA) released today a report showing that nearly three in four Americans have access to curbside recycling programs – but the infrastructure is in place for millions more to gain access to this convenient and efficient form of recycling.

The report, prepared independently by the environmental firm R.W. Beck, found that an estimated 229 million Americans, or 74 percent of the total population, have access to some form of curbside recycling at home. The data was compiled through a broad national survey of local recycling officials. Curbside recycling makes it easier and more convenient for people to recycle — and thus more likely to recycle.

While widespread access to curbside recycling is encouraging news, the study underscores the great potential for up to 95 million more Americans to have regular curbside pickup of recyclables. For these Americans, the infrastructure is in place for curbside recycling if two barriers are removed: extending recyclables collection to all who currently have curbside trash pickup and lifting of recycling fees for those who have access to “subscription” curbside recycling service. For example, right now, an estimated 36 to 60 million residents currently have trucks come to their curb to collect their trash but not their recyclables. So the pieces are in place for those same trucks, or entities, providing the trash collection to all to collect recyclable materials at the curbside. Also, subscription services can often be a disincentive for people to participate in existing curbside recycling programs.

+ Full Report (PDF; 323 KB)

Via Docuticker.

Plastic Bottle Recycling Reaches Record High of Over 2.4 Billion Pounds Annually
Source: American Chemistry Council (ACC) and the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR)

Plastic bottle recycling by consumers increased 75 million pounds in 2008 (up 3.2%), to reach a record high of more than 2.4 billion pounds for the year, according to figures released jointly today by the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR).

The 19th annual National Post-Consumer Plastics Bottle Recycling Report also found that the results reflect a continuing increase in the pounds of bottles collected for recycling each year since the industry survey began in 1990. The recycling rate for plastic bottles rose nearly 3 percent to reach 27 percent.
…
Over the last two decades, America’s plastics and recycling industries have invested over $2 billion in developing technologies and the infrastructure to recycle plastics in communities across the nation. Most recently, these efforts have focused on increasing awareness of recycling opportunities among consumers and expanding access to away–from–home recycling bins.

APR, which represents more than 90 percent of the postconsumer plastics recycling capacity in North America, has initiated a series of recycling workshops and webinars for recycling officials to help increase the volume of plastics available for recycling. In addition, APR works closely with packaging and consumer product companies on design for recycling of new containers and works with industry to minimize contamination of the recycling stream.

+ Full Report (PDF; 115 KB)

Read the full story at Mother Nature Network.

In a win for the environment, New York will expand its deposit laws to include water bottles starting Oct. 31. A five-cent surcharge will be added to the cost of each water bottle sold, which customers can then return to stores for a refund. About 80 percent of unclaimed deposits will go to the state as much-needed revenue, resulting in some $115 million annually.

Read the full story at Mother Nature Network.

Ever wonder what happens to a billboard after it’s been taken down? Assumed they just wound up in a landfill?

At CNN, the vinyl promotional campaigns are escaping the dump and finding new life as fashion accessories. The vinyl used for CNN’s outdoor billboards is being recycled into tote bags as the company transitions to digital boards. The idea came about as CNN developed its outdoor marketing campaign for Planet in Peril; the company did not want to just discard the vinyl once the campaign was finished. An intern (who later landed a full-time staff position) suggested the idea to reuse the boards.

Luther, Linda (2009) Managing Electronic Waste: Issues with Exporting E-Waste (October 7, 2009). Washington, DC : Congressional Research Service.

Summary: Electronic waste (e-waste) is a term that is used loosely to refer to obsolete, broken, or irreparable electronic devices like televisions, computer central processing units (CPUs), computer monitors (flat screen and cathode ray tubes), laptops, printers, scanners, and associated wiring. E-waste has become a concern in the United States due to the high volumes in which it is generated, the hazardous constituents it often contains (such as lead, mercury, and chromium), and the lack of regulations applicable to its disposal or recycling. Under most circumstances, e-waste can legally be disposed of in a municipal solid waste landfill or recycled with few environmental regulatory requirements. Concerns about e-waste landfill disposal have led federal and state environmental agencies to encourage recycling. To date, 19 states have implemented some form of mandatory e-waste recycling program. These state requirements, mixed with increased consumer awareness regarding potential problems with landfilling e-waste, have led to an increase in recycling. With that increase have come new questions about e-waste management. Instead of questions only about the potential impacts associated with e-waste disposal, questions have arisen regarding the potential danger associated with e-waste recycling—particularly when recycling involves the export of e-waste to developing countries where there are few requirements to protect workers or the environment. Answering questions about both e-waste disposal and recycling involves a host of challenges. For example, little information is available to allow a complete assessment of how e-waste ultimately managed. General estimates have been made about the management of cathode ray tubes (CRTs, the only devices where disposal is federally regulated), but little reliable information is available regarding other categories of e-waste. For example, accurate data regarding how much is generated, how it is managed (through disposal or recycling), and where it is processed (either domestically or abroad) are largely unknown. Further, little information is available regarding the total amount of functioning electronics exported to developing countries for legitimate reuse. What is known is that e-waste recycling involves complex processes and it is more costly to recycle e-waste in the United States, where there is a limited recycling infrastructure. It also is known that most consumer electronics manufacturers (who provide the market for material recovery from recycled electronics) have moved overseas. As a result, the majority of e-waste collected for recycling (either for reuse or recycling) appears to be exported for processing. Although there may be limited data regarding how e-waste is managed, the consequences of export to countries that manage it improperly are becoming increasingly evident. In particular, various reports and studies (by the mainstream media, environmental organizations, and university researchers) have found primitive waste management practices in India and various countries in Africa and Asia. Operations in Guiyu in the Shantou region of China have gained particular attention. Observed recycling operations involve burning the plastic coverings of materials to extract metals for scrap, openly burning circuit boards to remove solder or soaking them in acid baths to strip them for gold or other metals. Acid baths are then dumped into surface water. Among other impacts to those areas have been elevated blood lead levels in children and soil and water contaminated with heavy metals. The impacts associated with e-waste exports have led to concerns from environmental organizations, members of the public, and some Members of Congress.

Read the full story at Wisconsin Radio News.

Legislation designed to keep old TVs and computers out of landfills is on its way to the governor’s desk.

The Senate on Tuesday gave final approval to the bill, which requires electronics manufacturers to take a more active role in recycling their old products. Currently, Dan Kohler of Wisconsin Environment says many of those end up in landfills, with an estimated 10,000 tons worth of computer monitors and 24,000 tons of old televisions being dumped each year in the state.

Read the full story in the New York Times.

An antigarbage strategy known as “zero waste” is moving from the fringes to the mainstream, taking hold in school cafeterias, national parks, restaurants and corporations.

Read the full story in ComputerWorld.

Environmental groups like the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, among others, have been in the news lately, chiding gadget makers in general and Apple in particular for bad environmental policies. They’re bringing attention to the growing mountains of toxic PCs, cell phones, iPods and other electronics in landfills and pushing governments for “green” regulation.

This problem is real, and I applaud these and dozens of other organizations that are working to make a difference. But their prescriptions for consumer action — what they want you and me to do about e-waste — is actually bad for the environment. I’ll tell you why in a minute. I’ll also outline a superior alternative to the recycling they are demanding. But first, let’s review the problem.

Read the full story at GreenerDesign.

Since starting a program for recycling expanded polystyrene foam (more commonly, but not technically, called styrofoam), Pacific Seafood has recycled and sold more than 300,000 pounds of packaging material that it used to toss in the trash.

Via GreenBiz.

This report outlines the U.S. EPA’s list of best practices for companies that dispose of unwanted electronics; these guidelines can also be used as a procurement tool for companies seeking environmentally friendly electronics recyclers.

From the introduction to the report:

Customers want a simple means of verifying that an electronics recycling company is forthright and responsible about how it manages used and end-of-life electronic equipment. At the same time, responsible electronics recyclers want a means of highlighting their values and performance to customers.

The purpose of this document is to take a first step in addressing this situation –- to develop a commonly accepted set of R2 practices for the electronics recycling industry. Accredited certification programs — by verifying an electronics recycler adheres to these R2 practices — will enable customers to make better informed decisions and have increased confidence that their end-of-life electronic equipment will be dealt with in a responsible manner.

The R2 practices set forth herein are not legal requirements and do not replace electronics recyclers’ legal obligations. Electronics recyclers that adhere to this set of R2 practices are doing so on a voluntary basis. If a requirement of this document conflicts with an applicable legal requirement, the recycler must adhere to the legal requirement.

Read the Green, Inc. analysis of EPA’s new report, Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Materials and Land Management Practices, which I posted about last week.

Read the full story at GreenerDesign.

Consumers are generally not deterred from buying products packaged in mixed-color recycled glass, according to a new U.K. study.

Press release sent to me via e-mail.

Coca-Cola is entering its seventh year as the presenting sponsor of The TOUR Championship, a tournament featuring the top 30 players in the PGA TOUR playoffs for the FedEx Cup and one of the most prestigious events in all of golf. This year’s tournament is held from Sept. 24-27, 2009 at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

As part of this year’s sponsorship, Coca-Cola has partnered with Atlanta-based Insignia Promotions to turn 20 oz. PET Coca-Cola bottles into recycled golf shirts that will be worn by all of the 1,300 tournament volunteers at the event. These RPET (Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate) shirts contain fiber made out of post-consumer bottles and end up as a blend of 50% Waste Cotton and 50% Polyester. The RPET shirts were created as part of the initiative to deliver against a goal of 100% reuse of PET bottles put into the market by Coca-Cola. Following is the process that ends with seven 20 oz. bottles in each shirt:

1. Consumer recycles 20 oz. bottle
2. Bottle goes to recycling plant
3. Bottles get washed, separated and decontaminated
4. Caps are cut off of the bottle
5. Bottles get ground up into clean flakes
6. Flakes are weaved into a polyester yarn
7. Yarn is turned into fabric
8. Fabric assembled, cut and sewn
9. Manufactured PET garment sent ready for volunteers to wear

**The shirts have passed a RPET certification and verification process.

In addition to all volunteers wearing RPET shirts, extensive recycling efforts will be conducted throughout The TOUR Championship Presented by Coca-Cola – including more than 200 recycling bins and specific receptacles for recyclable bottles placed throughout East Lake Golf Club, as well as messaging at concessions areas, restrooms and VIP hospitality areas.

Additional Coca-Cola Recycling Initiatives:

In January of this year, Coca-Cola opened the world’s largest bottle-to-bottle recycling plant in Spartanburg, S.C. The plant is capable of producing approximately 100 million pounds of recycled PET plastic each year — the equivalent of nearly two billion 20 oz. Coca-Cola bottles. Over the next 10 years the plant will prevent the release of one million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions — the equivalent of removing 215,000 cars from the road.

**The Bureau Veritas Group conducted an audit to confirm the fabric truly contains post-consumer PET bottles. To certify the facility and the products for the Coca-Cola RPET program, the certification process started three months prior to manufacturing. Facility certification must be conducted on a two-year cycle, however, each product is approved separately and the RPET shirts that all 1,300 volunteers will be wearing at THE TOUR Championship were certified on April 23, 2008. For more info on The Bureau Veritas Group visit http://www.bureauveritas.com.

Contact:

George Fiddler
Fast Horse
612-751-4904
georgef@fasthorseinc.com

There is much potential to reduce the nation’s greenhouse gases through recycling, waste reduction, smart growth, and by reusing formerly contaminated sites including brownfields.

EPA’s report Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Materials and Land Management Practices finds that 42 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are influenced by materials management policies. This includes the impacts from extracting raw materials, food processing, and manufacturing, transporting, and disposing of products. Another 16 to 20 percent of emissions are associated with land management policies. That includes emissions from passenger transportation, construction, and from lost vegetation when greenfields are cleared for development. In addition, the equivalent of 13 percent of U.S. emissions is absorbed by soil and vegetation and can also be protected or enhanced through land management policies.

Some of the materials and land management activities that have the potential to decrease emissions include:

• reducing the use of non-packaging paper products
• increasing municipal recycling, and recycling of construction and demolition debris
• reusing land, including redevelopment of formerly contaminated lands
• reusing formerly contaminated lands for renewable energy development
• encouraging smart growth

The report suggests that land management and materials management approaches should be part of the nation’s toolbox to meet the target of an 83 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

More information on the report: http://www.epa.gov/oswer/publication.htm

From the Be Spartan Green web site:

In January 2008, the Michigan State University Board of Trustees authorized the creation of a new recycling facility to be located west of Farm Lane in the service district, which will triple the amount of materials currently being recycled. A new comprehensive recycling program, coupled with the new facility, will allow the university to expand recycling collection in all buildings. Currently 14 percent of the white and mixed office paper, newspaper, cardboard and plastics are diverted from the landfill through the recycling program and the capture rate of these five materials is projected to double by 2010.

Currently, MSU ships all of the recycled material it collects in loose boxes that have to be processed by whoever recieves them. The new facility will enable materials to be sorted and shipped in bulk. By processing the materials at MSU, they can be sold at a higher price to recycling facilities.

Find out more from the New Facility FAQ, including a map of where the facility is located.

Read the full story in the New York Times about MIT’s Senseable City Laboratory.

A project that tracks garbage through the waste disposal system over the next three months will help give people a concrete sense of their impact on the environment.

This new fact sheet from U.S. EPA is targeted at businesses that are disposing of equipment containing hazardous waste (e.g. computer equipment). The brochure gives a list of questions to ask potential recyclers before sending outdated equipment to them.

U.S. EPA has released this fact sheet with great tips for starting the school year green.

Read the full story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

For years, Milwaukee County public works employees were mixing recyclable glass, plastic and cans with trash from the courthouse complex and numerous other offices, county auditors revealed in a report released Tuesday.

The recyclables ended up in landfills, a clear violation of state laws, the audit says.

“Officials mistakenly believed the vendor picking up the trash had been separating recyclables from other waste items at its facility,” says the audit.

Listen to the full story and read the transcript at NPR.

The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that the government’s hugely popular Cash for Clunkers program is leaving some of the most polluting automobiles on the road. Cars built before 1984 are excluded from the program because of lobbying efforts by classic car interests. Madeleine Brand speaks with L.A. Times reporter Ken Bensinger about the exemption.

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

In the wake of General Motors‘ bankruptcy and reorganization, funds for a partnership that takes mercury-containing parts out of vehicles headed for the trash could be drying up.

The End of Life Vehicle Solutions (ELVS), an auto industry partnership, was created in 2005 to support the removal of mercury switches from vehicles before they get shredded. If left in the vehicles when they are destroyed, the mercury leaks out, posing a danger for humans, animals and the environment.

ELVS works with the National Vehicle Mercury Switch Recovery Program, and has collected 2.5 million mercury switches and 5,600 pounds of mercury. ELVS is scheduled to run until 2017.

Read the full story in Technology Review.

The US Department of Energy has granted $9.5 million to a company in California that plans to build America’s first recycling facility for lithium-ion vehicle batteries.

Read the full story in Waste & Recycling News.

Call2Recycle, a rechargeable battery recycling program, says it is being recognized as an “e-Steward” by the Basel Action Network.

Read the full post at Lifehacker.

Grab your box of misguided music choices, because your Limp Bizkit CDs will no longer embarrass you. Turn those old CDs (and AOL promo disks, too) into DIY dumbbells.

Read the full story in Waste Age.

U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., have introduced legislation to increase the recycling of electronics and to reduce the use of hazardous materials in the products.

The Electronic Device Recycling Research and Development Act “would provide research grants to find ways to deal with the growing amount of e-waste, much of which contains hazardous materials and should not be dumped into landfills,” says a press release from Klobuchar’s office.

From the website:

Apple will recycle your school’s old, unwanted Mac computers, PCs, and qualifying peripherals from any manufacturer for free. There’s no purchase required and all accredited K-12 and higher education institutions with at least 25 pieces of recyclables are eligible to participate. Just register in time, follow the steps, and we’ll do the rest.

How the recycling works

To take advantage of this opportunity, you’ll need to register by July 31, 2009. All products must be packaged according to the instructions and collected by August 31, 2009. Remember, you must recycle a minimum of 25 pieces (computers, printer, or displays)  in order to participate.

In addition to the 25 pieces, we accept all brands of the following equipment: computers, monitors, laptops, printers, fax machines, scanners, desktop-size copy machines, CD drives, hard drives, TVs, VCRs, projectors, overhead projectors, networking equipment, cables, keyboards, and mice.

Read the full story in the New York Times.

In the General Grant Houses in Manhattan, two women are spreading the word about recycling, door by door.

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

This month, Earthbound Farm and Naked Juice have announced they’re each putting out products in plastic packaging made with 100 percent post-consumer recycled (PCR) content.

Read the full story in the New York Times.

There is now somewhere to take some of the 99.1 million television sets that sit unused in closets and basements.

Read the full story from CBS5 (San Francisco).

A CBS 5 investigation which uncovered a huge loophole into California’s e-waste recycling laws is prompting enforcement action in a neighboring state.

California’s recycling rules are so strict that we send our electronic waste across state borders. CBS 5 Investigates found a huge pile of glass from California’s TVs and monitors in Arizona, a pile that environmental experts said contained potential environmental hazards. Now officials in Arizona agree.

Read the full story in Scientific American.

Millions of printed circuit boards from discarded electronics are tossed into landfills every year. In addition to the volume of waste, the material can leach chemicals into the soil. As an alternative, researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China are finding various ways to reuse the panels, including as an additive in asphalt.

Read the full post at Green, Inc.

Shoe manufacturers have been busy burnishing their green credentials over the last few years, incorporating everything from recycled rubber soles to hemp shoelaces.

But one company appears to be taking the green theme to an extreme, integrating recycled CDs, old sofas, and even water bottles, among other materials, into a new running shoe.

Read the full story from GreenerComputing.

Headlines abound with stories of branded technology being fished out of rivers and landfills in developing nations leaking toxic metals into the water supply. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates roughly 400,000 tons of e-waste goes to recyclers every year, and that up to 80 percent of the materials sorted for recycling end up in operations in China, India, Southeast Asia and West Africa where it is disassembled and burned or dumped.

But it doesn’t have to be that way, declares Mark Newton, the senior manager of environmental sustainability at Dell Computers, the computer manufacturing giant based in Round Rock, Texas.

Read the full post at ElephantJournal.com.

The placing of recyclable materials into recycling bins is only one component of the bigger picture.  A vast disparity exists between the tonnage collected for the purpose of recycling and the tonnage of materials actually making it back into material used to make new, environmentally responsible product.  What doesn’t make it back into new product composition, more than likely ends up in your local landfill or in a waste to energy (WTE) incinerator facility, neither contributing to creation of a sustainable planet for future generations.

How can we change?  Oddly enough, look at our government.  Change always happens slowly because of psychological inertia that slows the adoption of even obvious benefits.  Government is important for facilitating the speed necessary and desirable changes — using its own buying power, setting an example, setting regulations, and providing tax incentives or subsidies.  Government can, should, and will be a growing change agent for sustainable practices.

Read the press release.

Carolyn Adams, program coordinator for the Humanities Research Center, was among the those who took advantage of Rice’s first “free”-cycling event, held at Rice Memorial Center’s Grand Hall May 21. Departments dropped off their excess or unused office supplies in the morning, and in the afternoon those items that had been one department’s surplus became another’s provisions — for free.

Thirty-six tables were filled with various office supplies, including an abundance of binders, which proved to be a popular item. “At the end of the day, we had nine binders left out of several hundred,” said Ute Franklin, manager of Delivery Services.

Items that were not claimed by the end of the event were slated for donation to a charitable organization.

After tomorrow, June 12, 2009 all full power television stations will only broadcast in digital, over-the-air signals. EPA encourages all U.S. citizens who own an analog TV set and who receive free broadcasts (via rabbit ears or a roof-top antenna) to extend the life of their TV by subscribing to a paid TV service or connecting it to a converter box. Energy Star-qualified digital converter boxes are available for purchase.

For consumers who choose to buy a new TV, EPA recommends purchasing Energy Star-qualified sets. EPA also encourages consumers to recycle their unwanted TVs, which recovers valuable materials from the circuit boards, metal wiring, leaded glass, and plastics.

Last year Americans disposed of more than 20 million TVs, which represents a lost opportunity to conserve natural resources such as copper and iron.

Consumers who are interested in recycling their old TVs can contact their local household hazardous waste collection and recycling program to find out whether they will be sponsoring an upcoming recycling event.

EPA is working through its Plug-In To eCycling program to promote the environmental benefits of recycling and provide the public with information on safely reusing and recycling obsolete electronics products, including televisions, computers, and cell phones. Plug-In To eCycling is a partnership between EPA and electronic manufacturers and retailers to offer consumers more opportunities to donate or recycle their used electronics.

More information on the digital TV transition:
http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/ecycling/tv-convert.htm

More information on where to recycle a TV:
http://www.epa.gov/waste/conserve/materials/ecycling/tv-challenge.htm

More information on Plug-In To eCycling: http://epa.gov/plug-in