KESQ: Housing Foreclosures Sending More Pets to the Pound

Filed under: Pets 911 - January 31, 2008

By Rodney Wardle

Increasing home foreclosures have animal shelters around the country worried.

The Human Society released a statement this week warning of abandoned animals in foreclosed homes.

Shelters around the valley understand losing a home to foreclosure can be a stressful time, but they’re still disappointed that more pet owners are choosing to let their pets loose, or worse, abandon them inside the homes when they’re forced to move.

Hundreds of pets are dropped off at the Coachella Valley Animal Campus.

With all these pets, it’s tough for them to tell just which animals come from foreclosed homes.

“If someone says ‘I’m moving,’ we’re not going to say ‘well, why aren’t you taking your dog with you?,’” says John Welsh, an employee from the Riverside County Animal Shelter.

Shelters around the valley are seeing an increase in abandoned animals although the numbers are still vague on how many of these pets are from foreclosed homes.

But it’s the types of animals that might surprise you. Not dogs, but horses and cats are being left behind.

Experts say there’s a number of reasons animals are abandoned in foreclosed homes. The owners might be moving to a place that doesn’t allow pets, the animals are too old, or the owners just don’t have enough money.

The Humane Society has some tips to reduce the cost of pet care: don’t buy expensive toys, keep pets inside or on a leash, use pet health insurance and keep good medical records.

They say to treat your pet like you would a family member when you’re moving out to a pet-free apartment.

This problem isn’t just in the valley.

Animal shelters in big cities are reporting a rise in foreclosed animals.

The overstocked shelters are working closer with agencies to use their free space.

But with limited room already, shelters say the rise in pets couldn’t come at a worse time.

“I don’t think it’s going to get better as people’s living situation gets worse,” says Marla Tauscher, Volunteer for Pet Oasis.

For more information about what you can do with your pets, logon to www.pets911.com.

Pets911.com Showcases Pet-Friendly Rentals by Zip Code

Filed under: Pets 911, Press Releases - January 30, 2008

Scottsdale, AZ — January 30, 2008 — One lesser known victim of recent home foreclosures is the family pet. Shelters have seen an increase in pet surrenders due to families moving into apartments that prohibit animals. Worse yet, some pet owners are just leaving their pets behind with the house or turning them loose in rural areas. Even in a trying time, it is possible to keep the entire family together. Pet-owners finding themselves moving out of their homes and into apartments can use Pets911.com to find apartments in their neighborhood that accept pets.

Pets 911 is the national pet lost and found database and one of the top pet adoption portals. Its Pet Friendly Living section, in partnership with Apartments.com, provides a database of thousands of pet-friendly rental communities from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

An Apartments.com survey to current renters indicated that more than 84 percent own a pet and more than 34 percent stated that it was very difficult to find an apartment that allowed their pet. Because of this, one of the top reasons pets are surrendered to shelters is due to owner relocation.

“Financial situations may make it logical for people to rent instead of own, but pets shouldn’t suffer,” said Pets 911 Program Manager Tracyann Mains. “Pets 911 wants to make it as easy as possible for movers to bring along pets to their next apartment.”

About Pets 911
The mission of Pets911.com is to provide a public service that will one day create an America where all pets are valued companions that have lifelong, loving homes. Since 1998, Pets 911 has brought together the nation’s premiere animal welfare organizations, local government animal control agencies, and animal service providers to create the most comprehensive resource for pet health and well-being on the web.

At any given time, Pets 911 includes listings for more than 30,000 adoptable pets at nearly 8,000 animal shelters, contact information for more than 6,000 veterinarians, and postings of more than 8,000 lost or found pets. For more information, go to Pets911.com.

About Apartments.com

Apartments.com is the most visited national apartment Internet listing subscription service with more than 50,000 unique addresses representing more than three million rental units from managed properties, newspaper classifieds and for-rent-by-owner properties. With personalized searches, highly visual ads featuring 360-degree virtual tours, professional photography, and comprehensive community listings, Apartments.com makes it possible for renters to access apartment rental inventory from across town or across the country. Leads from highly qualified ready-to-rent prospects are delivered to Apartments.com customers, increasing closure rates and decreasing the average cost of leasing an apartment. The site’s foundation of solid partnerships with the local newspaper and television station Web sites of more than 10,000 newspaper affiliate and strategic partners across the country include Yahoo! Real Estate, AOL Real Estate, the Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. Apartments.com is a division of Chicago-based Classified Ventures, LLC.

For more information, please contact:
Trey Granger
Pets911.com
trey.granger@globalalerts.com
480-337-3326

Yahoo! Green: Recycle That Old TV

Filed under: Earth 911 - January 29, 2008

Before you trash your old TV set for any reason, consider that many municipalities have banned TVs from landfills.

And for good reason, since your old set contains up to eight pounds of lead, a poison that can cause nervous system damage. Lead is there to protect you from radiation while it’s still in your TV, but when the TV is crushed in the garbage truck and then in the landfill, bad news: that lead is going to leach out.

Unfortunately, you can’t just drop off the TV at the local thrift store or recycling center and call it a day. Some charities don’t accept used TVs anymore since the cost of disposing of broken sets is too high to offset the money they could make by selling working ones.

And some unethical recycling firms charge substantial fees to recycle old sets and then just ship the old TVs overseas.

You can’t leave the old set sitting on the curb. Instead, try these sites:

If you do go that route, just make sure you’re dealing with a reputable company. For starters, find out if they’ve signed the Electronics Recycler’s Pledge of True Stewardship. The Electronics Industries Alliance has also compiled a list of questions you can ask to ensure your old television is handled responsibly.

Fort Leavenworth Lamp: Lightbulb Replacement Leads to Energy Savings

Filed under: Earth 911 - January 24, 2008

Want to use up to 75 percent less energy and save money on energy bills at the same time? It’s as easy as unscrewing a incandescent light bulb and replacing it with a compact fluorescent light bulb—those long-lasting, swirl-shaped bulbs found in the household goods aisle at the commissary.

Lighting accounts for roughly 20 percent of the average home’s energy bill, according to the Department of Energy. To encourage commissary customers to decrease their energy use, DeCA is partnering with Osram Sylvania and General Electric to offer great prices on compact fluorescent lights—called CFLs. The ambitious plan is to sell 1 million compact fluorescent bulbs to customers in 2008, more than doubling the number currently sold in commissaries worldwide.

“Rising utility costs, coupled with an increasing awareness on the part of our customers about the benefits of conservation, have given us incentive to introduce this ‘1-million’ plan,” said Rick Page, DeCA’s acting director.

“We work hard at all our stores to cut energy costs and protect the environment by building energy-efficient stores, watching our energy consumption, and recycling plastic, wood and paper products. These are just a few of the things we do as part of our corporate policy,” he said. “Now we’re taking it one step further by offering customers an opportunity to ‘go green’ with us by conserving energy in their homes.”

Although CFLs cost more than a traditional bulb, they use less electricity, last up to 10 times longer, produce 75 percent less heat, and save consumers as much as $30 over the life of each bulb. In addition, CFLs now come in a variety of shapes and sizes to fit almost any light fixture in a home. Service members stationed overseas and living in off-base communities may have homes with different voltage requirements than CFLs offered in the commissary.

DOE recommends consumers replace their traditional light bulbs with the more energy-efficient CFLs in all high-use fixtures in a home. High-use is defined as fixtures used at least 15 minutes at a time or several hours per day, such as those found in family and living rooms, kitchens, dining rooms, bedrooms and outdoors. Service members stationed overseas who live in off-base communities may have homes with different voltage requirements than CFLs offered in the commissary.

According to DOE’s Web site, if every American family replaces just five bulbs, it would save close to $8 billion each year in energy costs, and prevent the greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from nearly 10 million cars.

CFLs offer many benefits, but they contain mercury. To prevent mercury from ending up in landfills, the Environmental Protection Agency recommends customers visit http://www.epa.gov/bulbrecycling or http://www.earth911.org to identify local recycling options for CFLs, when possible. Customers living in military housing can check with their installation for recycling options, and service members living overseas in off-base communities can investigate host government programs.

Coal-fired power plants are the largest man-made source of airborne mercury because mercury that naturally exists in coal is released into the air when coal is burned to make electricity. Coal-fired power generation accounts for roughly 40 percent of the mercury emissions in the United States. The use of CFLs reduces power demand, which helps reduce mercury emissions from power plants.

NewswireToday: Promoters Go Green with Eco-Friendly Park City IceWater High pH Bottled Water for Concerts and Events

Filed under: Earth 911, Press Releases - January 24, 2008

Due to increased environmental awareness, concert promoters and managers are looking at new eco-friendly bottled water packaging. Venues are typically littered with empty P.E.T. water bottles after an event and this packaging cuts down on the litter.

Park City IceWater located in Park City, Utah is announces a nationwide introduction of the first Environmentally Friendly Bottled Water packaging. The world is at a time when the bottled water industry has been criticized for its impact on the environment and global warming. The country is begging for bottled water that is pure and has a packaging that produces a smaller impact on our environment.

Celebrity and talent promoters and managers from rock to country, concert venue and state fairs organizers are contacting Park City IceWater about providing their eco-friendly water bottle packaging at events. Many venues are adding recycle bins but unfortunately water bottles are filling up trash cans at those events and at schools and colleges. This unique packaging has an answer for that problem. Some venues originally thought they may have a problem selling another brand of water due to the very strong “soda contract” that some have with Coke and Pepsi. But the progressive promoters realized that Park City IceWater is bagged water, similar to kids juice drinks, not bottled water in the traditional P.E.T. bottle!

According to their website, Park City IceWater has less impact on the environment than traditional P.E.T. packaging. The patented GlacierPak requires 75 percent less energy to produce, however it is not biodegradable but it is recyclable. It does pay to recycle plastic bottles. According to Earth 911, they are used to make hundreds of everyday products, ranging from fleece jackets and carpeting to detergent bottles and lumber for outdoor decking. Every ton of plastic bottles recycled saves about 3.8 barrels of oil. The environmental impact is really if the package gets thrown away.

Reports show that unfortunately 77 percent of all PET water bottles end up in landfills, and if our packaging gets disposed of, it occupies 96 percent less landfill space. In 2006, it is estimated that Americans drank about 167 bottles of water each, with only 23 percent being recycled, that leaves 38 billion water bottles in landfills. It actually takes 27 semi-truckloads of empty P.E.T. bottles to equal 1 semi-truckload of empty Park City GlacierPaks. You can see the impact that Park City IceWater eco-packaging will provide to help the environment.

The key angle is that this packaging creates less pollution, reduces waste and protects our increasingly fragile ecosystem. Many people are very sensitive to “earth friendly” products and the press has been relentless at reporting the negatives in the industry. This product answers those calls.

Unlike a great number of bottled water brands, Park City IceWater originates from a subterranean trapped melted glacier, located 2,300 feet below the rugged ski mountains in Utah that has been protected and preserved for more that 20,000 years. “Water the way nature intended”.

Park City IceWater is extracted at a cold 41 degrees Fahrenheit through state of the art equipment thus ensuring purity and the finest quality. Park City IceWater is packed in flexible GlacierPak pouches rather than in plastic bottles. This environmentally friendly package consumes 96 percent less waste and requires 75 percent less energy to produce. This revolutionary and innovative product is the “GREEN” solution to the bottled water industry.

The air tight vacuum seal during the manufacturing process keeps the water in its original state for years. There is no expiration date on the pouch, and the water tastes just as good years from now as the day it was produced. The GlacierPak pouch is lined with a proprietary composite material that eliminates toxins from leaching into the water unlike the standard PET plastic bottle. The pouches have a “no spill” drinking spout and can also be frozen, which is a great advantage for outdoor activities.

Alkaline vs. Acidity: Why is alkaline water so important? Park City IceWater provides the perfect solution to health concerns with a natural 7.9 pH, which is a higher alkalinity. Other bottled water on your grocery store shelf is reported to have pH levels below the neutral 7.0 pH, some even being as low as 5.5 pH. Anything below 7.0 pH is likely acidic. Science has determined that disease can not survive in an alkaline environment. The purpose of alkaline water for your health is not only hydration, but also to help flush the body of acidic wastes and toxins. There is a lot of research showing that diet is extremely important to control acidity in our bodies. The water we drink should help us slow the process of acidic build up by removing it, not by adding to it. So, we must choose only pure water with an alkaline pH for maximum health, such as Park City IceWater.

What’s in Your Water? All water is not created equal and therefore it is extremely important to understand the unique characteristics of Park City IceWater. First of all, our source has been preserved and protected for more than 20,000 years in a subterranean limestone vault that is nearly a mile under ground in the ski mountains of Utah. This melted glacier has never been exposed to the ravages of man including nuclear testing and all the other unnatural toxins. Some companies use reverse osmosis as a purification process that removes all important minerals resulting in “dead water.” To understand the value of pure natural unaltered drinking water you must understand the phenomena that Park City IceWater is presenting to the world.

You can freeze this water in the ice chest and avoid buying ice. Then you have cold ice water as it melts. The patented no-spill top does not leak if you set the package on its side. They are flexible and can fit easily in a gym bag for workouts, or in a pocket by bikers, golfers, etc.

School districts are starting to offer Park City Ice Water in the lunch program to give students a choice instead of sugary drinks, and distributors are starting to stock stores nationwide. Upscale hotel chains are considering offering our environmentally friendly packaging to their guests in each hotel room, instead of water shipped all the way from the French Alps, thus saving on the footprint of delivery.

Chicago Tribune: 50 Simple Tips From a Year of Living the Green Life

Filed under: Earth 911 - January 22, 2008

By Karen Klages

Photovoltaics on the roof. Geothermal heating under-ground. Spiffy dual-flush toilets all about.

This wasn’t the nature of our eco-mania.

Over the last 12 months, the Chicago Tribune’s Home&Garden section embarked on a project we called “Living the Green Life,” meant for real people (with kids, budgets and mortgages) who want to do better by the environment. For the most part, we focused on lifestyle changes - minor adjustments in daily behavior that may seem inconsequential when one ponders the big picture of global warming. But taken in aggregate, as a nation (when all of us do even one thing), these little lifestyle changes have a huge impact.

We considered ways for reducing household waste. We looked at less toxic housecleaning products, and green gardening techniques and pet products. We answered readers’ questions and printed tips from the hundreds who wrote to us throughout the year. In the end, we amassed a huge bank of information on what we can do to make a difference.

We’re marking the one-year anniversary of the series’ launch with a compilation of 50 of the best ideas we’ve printed—tips from engineers, chemists, environmentalists, recycling experts, government agencies, medical professionals, appliance-makers, Master Gardeners and, of course, our trusty readers.

THE DISHWASHER

Use it. Contrary to popular eco-belief, it’s greener than hand-washing—if you run it with full loads and scrape rather than rinse. The average dishwasher in American homes today uses 8.7 gallons of water a load. Washing by hand for 10 minutes with water running can use 20 gallons. If you fill the sink, you still use about 5 gallons for washing, 5 for rinsing.

DRYING LAUNDRY

Do not over-dry laundry. An electric dryer operating an extra 15 minutes a load can cost you up to $34 a year in wasted energy; a gas dryer, $21 a year. If your dryer has a moisture sensor that turns the machine off automatically when clothes are dry, use it.

LAUNDRY

Wash only full loads of laundry and save (the average American home) as much as 3,400 gallons of water a year.

WATER-SAVING PLANTING

Plan for wise watering. Group thirsty plants in one bed close to the house. Fill farther beds with drought-tolerant perennials that need little or no watering. For lawns, choose fescues, which tolerate dry spells better than bluegrass. Mulch around trees and plants to keep water from evaporating.

THE GARBAGE DISPOSAL

Use it. It’s greener to feed the disposal than it is to encapsulate food waste in a plastic garbage bag and send it to the landfill. Sent down the disposal and into the sewer line, organic waste gets treated by the sanitary district and turned into fertilizer.

HOME ELECTRONICS

Power them off. A home office with a computer, printer, fax machine, computer speakers, scanner and cordless phone could consume as much power as two 75-watt light bulbs left on 24/7. And that could cost you $100 a year in electricity. Plug equipment into a surge protector-power strip. Power off all equipment and then turn off the power strip at the end of the day. If you have a high-speed cable connection to the Internet (i.e., Comcast), plug that modem into a separate outlet and keep that “on” all the time, as Comcast updates during the night. If you have AT&T DSL (high-speed Internet), it’s OK to power off that modem. In fact, AT&T’s technical folks recommend it, to preserve the modem’s life.

THERMOSTATS

Get a programmable thermostat and save as much as $150 a year. Set it way up (in the summer) or way down (in winter) when everyone’s at work or at school and when they’re asleep. And program it to turn up the heat (in winter) or air conditioning (in summer) shortly before folks get home or shortly before they wake up.

DOGGIE WASTE

Switch to eco doggie bags that biodegrade in the landfill—which means Fido’s poop won’t be forever preserved in the landfill, in the plastic bag you grabbed without considering its end-of-life issues. Among them: Chicago- (and corn-based) Poop Bags (poopbags.com) and biodegradable Pooch Pick-Up Bags from PetSmart stores.

LEAKY TOILET

Fix it now. A leaky toilet can waste 200 gallons of water a day. Check for leaks by adding food coloring to the tank. If you have a leak, color will appear in the bowl within 15 minutes. Flush as soon as you’re done with this test to avoid staining the bowl. A footnote: It is estimated that 2 out of every 10 toilets in the United States leak. Those two leakers can waste as much as 146,000 gallons of water a year. That’s enough water for a family of four to wash clothes in their washing machine for eight years.

NEWSPAPERS

A year’s worth of papers from a big-city daily weighs nearly a half-ton. Every ton of paper that gets recycled saves the equivalent of 17 trees, saves enough energy to power an average home for six months, saves 7,000 gallons of water and keeps 60 pounds of pollutants out of the air.

LIGHT BULBS

Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs. If you replace five of your most-used incandescent bulbs with CFLs, you can save $25 to $65 a year in energy costs. CFLs use two-thirds less energy than incandescent bulbs, generate 70 percent less heat and last up to 10 times longer. They do contain a small amount of mercury—but the benefits of using CFLs outweigh the mercury issue.

CFL DISPOSAL

Get rid of CFLs—recycle them—responsibly. The mercury contained in compact fluorescent light bulbs should not be accumulating in a landfill or, even worse, incinerated.

HAND SOAP

Rediscover good ol’ bar soap. And eliminate the plastic bottle waste that comes with using liquid soaps.

THE MICROWAVE

Yes, use it instead of the oven/stove to reheat food or cook small portions. You will reduce cooking energy by as much as 80 percent.

COOKING ON THE STOVE

Match pots to the appropriate-size burner. A 6-inch pot on an 8-inch burner wastes more than 40 percent of the burner’s heat. Using the right-size pot can save you as much as $36 a year with an electric range, as much as $18 with a gas range.

WATER FOR LAUNDRY

Forgo the hot water when doing laundry. Heating water to “hot” accounts for 90 percent of the machine’s washing energy; only 10 percent goes to power the motor. Switching to “cold” can save the average household more than $400 annually with an electric water heater and $300 annually with a gas heater.

MORE ON WATER FOR LAUNDRY

And get over the idea that you need hot water to kill nasties. Cold-water laundering is perfectly healthful in most situations at home, with a couple of caveats. One: If you suffer from allergies, you might need a shot of heat, which you can get from tossing the laundry into a hot dryer for 10 minutes. Here’s how it goes: If your problem is pollen or mold spores, cold water (and detergent) can rinse those out of your laundry as well as hot water. You need no heat on the situation. If your problem is animal dander or dust mites, you need some heat. Putting your laundry in a hot dryer (120 to 130 degrees) will kill those allergens. You don’t need to precede that with a hot water wash. It’s overkill.

The other big caveat: infectious diseases. If your family is dealing with something like E. Coli or norovirus (the cruise ship virus) or food poisoning or excessive diarrhea, all of which result in high levels of bacteria or virus in the environment, you need bleach. The hot water setting on most home washing machines is not hot enough to kill these. Add bleach with a cool or warm water setting and then follow with a hot dryer.

MORE ON DRYING LAUNDRY

Clean the lint trap before every load. It’s the safe thing to do and the efficient thing to do. A clean trap can save as much as $35 a year in energy costs.

GET ORGANIZED

Do your own (linen, storage) closet systems with a bunch of inexpensive clear plastic boxes/bins. Stash all sorts of household essentials in their own box - for instance, tape, ribbon, razors, soap, shampoo, etc. That way you can see what you already have at home and won’t be tempted to overbuy.

MULTIPLE-USE PRODUCTS

Pay attention to all the single-use items in your daily life—the throwaway plastic water bottles, paper napkins, paper towels, disposable wipes. And try to figure out alternatives: reusable water bottles; cloth napkins; microfiber dusting cloths that can be washed and reused; etc.

CLEANING TILES

Keep shower tiles sparkling clean without using chemicals. After a shower, use a microfiber cloth or chamois to wipe down tiles and fixtures or for glass, use a squeegee.

BRUSHING TEETH

Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth and save as much as 10 gallons a day, a person. For a family of four, that’s 14,600 gallons of water a year.

RECYCLING ETIQUETTE

SODA CANS

They’re small, but not insignificant. Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a television or operate a computer for three hours.

PLASTIC NEWSPAPER SLEEVES

Reuse the sleeves that your newspaper comes wrapped in. Wrap paintbrushes in them if you’re midway through a project but have to stop for the day. The plastic sleeve will keep the brush soft for up to a day and saves water normally used for rinsing brushes. You can also use them to slide shoes into when packing.

PRINTER CARTRIDGES—RECYCLE

Office Depot, OfficeMax and Staples take back ink and toner cartridges—and hand you a $3 store coupon for your effort.

PRINTER CARTRIDGES—REFILL

Walgreens and OfficeMax offer in-store refilling stations in some of their stores. Bring in your empty printer cartridge and a store clerk will refill it on the spot (or in a matter of 10 minutes or so) and at a price that beats buying a new one. Walgreens charges $10 for black cartridge refills, $15 for color. Check the Web site (walgreens.com) for the list of refillable cartridges and for the list of participating stores. OfficeMax charges $12.49 to $26.99; call stores to inquire about participation; visit officemax.com for store locations or call 800-283-7674.

BATTERIES

Walgreens stores in Chicago, for example, take back household batteries for recycling. So does any Chicago Public Library. All Office Depot stores take back cell phone and household batteries. All Staples and OfficeMax stores in the Chicago area take back rechargeable household batteries. Or visit earth911.org for a battery recycling site near you.

DISCRETE RECYCLE STATIONS

Don’t be quick to say “I don’t have room to recycle all that.” Or: “I hate the look of recycling bins in my kitchen.” Try scattering (pretty) wicker or rattan baskets in bare corners of your apartment or condo or in any home where space is at a premium. They will add warmth to your place and be your catchall for recyclables such as batteries, printer cartridges, magazines you plan to pass along to friends and family.

E-WASTE

E-liminate it. Recycle your electronic waste—computer monitors, desktops, laptops, fax machines, printers, scanners, peripherals, keyboards, telephones, digital cameras, VCR players, DVD players, televisions, etc.—which could be chock full of lead, mercury, plastics, etc.

PLASTIC BAGS

Bring your own (string, canvas, any kind of reusable) bags to grocery stores and say “no” to the store’s plastic bags. Americans toss some 100 billion of those low-quality polyethylene plastic bags annually and the recycling rate for them is just 0.6 percent. Each high-quality reusable bag has the potential of eliminating hundreds or even thousands of plastic bags over its lifetime.

PESTICIDES

Avoid using them in your garden and yard. Build up healthy soil instead to help prevent disease. Use barriers such as netting or cutworm collars. Wash aphids away with spray from the hose. Encourage beneficial insects that eat harmful ones. And learn to tolerate a few weeds, spots or insects if it’s only an aesthetic problem.

FERTILIZERS

Don’t over-fertilize. Plants only can absorb so much; the rest washes away to pollute waterways. Follow directions or err on the side of less. Look for organic fertilizers that release nutrients slowly.

NATIVE PLANTS

Use them in your garden. They know how to fend for themselves; they’re adapted to the local climate, soils and pests. That means less watering and fewer chemicals.

WATERING THE GARDEN

Don’t sprinkle more than necessary or in the heat of the day when much water evaporates. Put drip irrigation and soaker hoses on timers to water at night or in the early morning. Water lawns long and deep once a week, not lightly and frequently.

SAVE THE RAIN

Put a rain barrel under a downspout to collect free water for the garden. And/or make yourself a rain garden by making a bed designed to collect rainwater so it can be absorbed by deep-rooted natives and perennials.

COMPOST

It is the basic ingredient of good soil. Start with a simple heap of plant material or buy a bin to keep out animals.

GARDEN PLASTICS

Keep them at bay. Take cardboard boxes to the nursery and leave plastic nursery flats behind. Look for plants grown in biodegradable containers. And start seeds in yogurt cups or other recyclable containers (poke a hole for drainage and wash in a 10 percent bleach solution).

THE ORGANIC SEAL OF APPROVAL

The term “organic” should mean produced without chemical fertilizers, fungicides or herbicides—but it’s best to ask. If you see the OMRI (Organic Materials Research Institute) seal, it means the product has met a strict standard.

THE ORGANIC PRICE TAG

Expect to dole out some green, for the green. Organically grown plants generally cost more. So do organic fertilizers. But they’re worth it.

GARDEN POWER

Consider electric yard equipment—and your own muscles. Electric mowers, string trimmers, leaf blowers and hedge trimmers create less pollution and are more energy-efficient than gas ones. Even better: manual equipment.

TREES

Plant them. They’re like giant air filters. One mature tree takes care of the pollution caused by 13 cars.

SCREEN-SAVERS

Get rid of them. It takes more energy to run those floating toasters or even a static image than it does to have your computer and monitor go into a low-power mode. Unlike 10 years ago, the screen-saver does not extend the life of your monitor. Killing it could save $50 to $100 a year on your electric bill over a year’s time.

OLD CLOTHING

Reinvent clothes. Turn children’s jeans with worn-out knees into shorts. Reinvent clothes that you still like and still fit, but have minor “style” problems - for example, hemlines that need to be shortened significantly. Many dry cleaners employ seamstresses for those who can’t (or can’t find the time) to do it themselves.

OLD CLOTHING—PART 2

Be conscious of how you dispose of well-worn clothes. They’re not likely to end up on the shelves of your local thrift store. (In 2005, an estimated 11.1 million tons of textiles were generated as municipal solid waste, only 15.3 percent of which was recovered for export or reprocessing.) The Salvation Army, AMVETS and Unique Thrift Stores are three organizations that work hard to divert all types of unsold fabric from landfills. (Many charities sell unsold clothes to textile recycling companies, which in turn sell wearable items to wholesalers overseas, where demand is high. The really worn stuff could be turned into cleaning cloths or filler inside your mattress or car’s interior roof.)

The non-profit Gaia-Movement, USA (773-651-7870, gaia-movement-usa.org) and U’SAgainLLC, a commercial textile recycling company (800-604-9533, usagain2.com), have drop boxes in and around various U.S. cities. Call them or check their Web sites for locations. Both of these organizations also ensure that worn clothes find a second home overseas or a second life through reprocessing.

DRIVING

Three simple ways to improve your mileage:

  1. Don’t drive aggressively. Speeding, rapid acceleration and hard braking can lower your highway gas mileage by as much as 33 percent and city mileage by as much as 5 percent.
  2. Don’t go super-fast. Driving 75 mph instead of 65 mph can cut fuel economy by as much as 15 percent.
  3. Keep up with your car’s maintenance. Clean air filters can improve gas mileage by as much as 10 percent. Properly inflated and aligned tires improve mileage by about 3 percent.

REUSE

Check out freecycle.org. It’s a kind of eBay experience—but without the financial gain. The city-specific site allows people to post items they want to get rid of and others who live close by, in turn, to “shop” for something they need. No money is exchanged between parties.

THERMOSTATS—PART 2

Use your programmable thermostat—even if you have a leaky old home and are worried that your furnace is working too hard to bring the house back up to your comfort zone two times a day. Without getting into the issue of proper insulation, it saves more energy to let the house cool down when you’re not home during the day and while you sleep at night than to keep it at the comfort zone continuously. But, if you’re setting it back to, say, 60 degrees, that may be too far for a very cold winter, especially if your home isn’t well-insulated. At 60 degrees, countertops and dishes will seem cold. Try setting the thermostat back to 63 to 65 degrees in the winter. That way the recovery is not so steep, but you still get some benefit from the set back.

KITTY LITTER

Consider alternative litter. There are more earthy-friendly, organic options than the standard clay litters, which pile up in landfills. Among them: Feline Pine (made of pine), Sweat Scoop (wheat) and World’s Best Cat Litter (corn). When it’s time to change the litter, you can let organic litters biodegrade naturally by dumping them in your yard—far, far away from where kids may roam and from the veggie garden and compost. If you would rather not engage your yard, you still can go green with a biodegradable liner for the cat pan. (Biobags makes one; order at dirtworks.net).

STUDY

Check out these Web sites:

Boston Herald: Disposing of E-waste

Filed under: Earth 911 - January 20, 2008

The Herald features a story today about how quickly consumers go from one techno-gadget (MP3 device, cell phone, laptop, etc.) to another these days. From that story:

“The Environmental Protection Agency projects that 283 million personal computers will be sold this year, and U.S. residential and business users toss about 133,000 PCs daily. The United Nations environmental program projects there will be 2 billion cell phone users worldwide this year; 130 million cell phones are thrown out annually.”

Now, I recently upgraded my cell phone and the new company enclosed a plastic bag mailer which I could put my old cell in, drop it in a mailbox and it would be recycled. And my town has a location for people to drop off certain types of electronics (old tvs and monitors), but I am not sure how much of those dropoffs are recycled or reused, but I assume they are disposed of in a more ecological way than if they were just put in the trash.

Earth911.org is one resource I found on the web that offers a lot of helpful information on recycling “e-waste.” From that site:

“E-waste recycling options vary across the country. So, the first step to determine what options are available in your area is to review information about your local recycling program.”

Try out their search engine at the top of the page which will help direct you to dropoff sites.

WSYR: Company Runs Own Recycling Center

Filed under: Earth 911 - January 15, 2008

We’ve all gotten something packed up in cardboard and Styrofoam but where does it all end up? One local company is working to keep all of its packaging materials out of the landfills.

Raymour and Flannigan built its own recycling center on its Liverpool campus. Millions of pounds of material are saved from the trash.

All day long workers are feeding machines with the millions of pounds of packaging materials the company uses every year. By volume, cardboard is the biggest item, but Styrofoam is the product the company really zeroed in on with two machines.

Jeff Lannier is the Senior Vice-President of Distribution for Raymour and Flanigan. He says Styrofoam does not biodegrade in landfills. “The product you see in a condensed form of Styrofoam really exists that way in a landfill for years to come.”

Lannier says the product the company recycles ultimately does get used for other things. “It’s used for picture frames, it’s used for insulation in air conditioners and those types of end products other manufacturers can use,” Lannier says.

About 50 tractor trailers a day bring in plastic, cardboard and Styrofoam from all of the companies 89 stores and service centers, but the company isn’t stopping there. “We provide beverages to all our customers that come into our showrooms and we’ll generate a million and a half bottles of empty water that would be used and can ultimately be recycled through this facility and consolidated down into different type of form,” says Lannier.

The company says it’s not really a money maker; it’s a saver, of the environment, and the company hopes an example to others of what can be done.

To find out where you can recycle things like bubble wrap and packing peanuts check out Earth911.org. The UPS Stores are one place that takes these things free of charge.

KPNX-12: Lost and Found Pets

Filed under: Pets 911 - January 7, 2008

By Hannah Mullins

Have you lost a pet or found a stray? Take a look at the slideshow by clicking on the above link to view pictures of animals taken in by Maricopa County Animal Care & Control within the last few days. Contact MCACC if you recognize one. You can also send us your own photographs.

MCACC registers all stray animals with a national database called Pets 911. You can browse through pictures and descriptions of lost or found animals on their website. The site allows you to post online flyers for animals, even if you don’t have a picture. You can also call them at 1-888-PETS911 or (480) 889-2640.

Arizona Humane Society, Arizona Dog Line, Missing Mutts & Cats and Pet Finder are some other organizations you may want to contant. You can find their information on the right side of this page.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: An Earth-Friendly Guide to Ditching Your Debris

Filed under: Earth 911 - January 5, 2008

By Cathy Frisinger

Feeling blue because the holidays are over? Change that blue to green as you get your life and your house back in workaday-world order, with an eco-friendly post-New Year’s cleanup.

Got a new laptop for Christmas? Lucky you. But what do you do with your old computer?

Consumers will discard about 400 million electronic items this year, Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas Kostigen write in The Green Book (Three Rivers Press, $12.95), making it the fastest-growing category of waste.

Don’t throw out that old computer, cellphone, DVD player or pager (you still have a pager?). Recycle them instead. Yes, it may take a bit of work to figure out how, but it is particularly important to keep electronics from ending up in landfills, because they often contain toxic substances such as heavy metals and lead. Here are some options:

General electronics

Arlington residents can take used electronics to the Arlington Landfill, 800 Mosier Valley Road. Components that are not reusable are sold to ARC, an Arlington company that recycles electronic waste.

The city of Euless has electronics recycling events twice a year. Check the city’s Web site, www.ci.euless.tx.us, to find out when events are scheduled.

Fort Worth residents can drop off used electronics and appliances, working or not (no TVs and no business items) at three drop-off centers, 2400 Brennan Ave., 5150 Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway, or the temporary site at 6260 Old Hemphill Road.

If your used electronics are working, they can be donated at any Goodwill Center. (You’ll get a tax deduction for the value of your donation, too.) Many office-supply stores accept some used electronics, including computers.

Desktop Disposal will pick up used electronics for a fee ($12 for PCs, for instance). There is no fee for pickups of 10 items or more. Or, drop off items at its location, 1719 Peters Road, No. 526, Irving. Call 866-622-5758 or go to www.desktopdisposal.com for more information.

To find more sites in your area that accept used electronics, go to www.earth911.org, click on the item you wish to get rid of (battery, computer, cellphone, etc.), type in your ZIP code and hit “search.”

Computers and game systems

Computers and game stations—working or broken—are accepted for recycling at Goodwill Centers throughout Tarrant County.

Cellphones

Cellphones typically can be returned or sent to phone stores for recycling. Sprint, for instance, accepts phones in its stores, and now includes postage-free shipment bags for the recycling of old phones. The returned cellphones are refurbished and donated or resold to raise money for charity. Don’t want to go to a store? Go to www.911cellphonebank.org, where you can print a label and get free shipping.

Before you donate a phone, disconnect the service and erase personal data. One quick way to clean a phone is the data eraser offered at www.recellular.com.

Batteries

Batteries of any kind don’t belong in the trash. Take them to the Fort Worth Environmental Collection Center, 6400 Bridge St., Fort Worth. Residents of most other cities in Tarrant County are eligible to use the center. For a list of cities that participate, go to www.fortworthgov.org/dem and click on “Household Chemicals.”

Old toys, miscellaneous

If you have children or young teens in your household, you may want to get rid of items they’ve outgrown, or that have been replaced with new items. Be careful about recycling. Not all plastics are recyclable, and most toys are not. Old toys, bikes, games and books that are in working order, as well as clothing in good condition, can be donated to places such as Goodwill.

Another place to donate used items is Berry Good Buys, 1701 W. Berry St., Fort Worth. Donations are accepted 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays. Or call 817-921-5898 to arrange for pickup. Money from the sale of items at Berry Good Buys goes to support Safe Haven Tarrant County.

“Regifting” for a cause

Consider donating Christmas gifts you received that you know you’ll never use to a charity, such as Goodwill or the Salvation Army, rather than letting them sit in the back of a closet forever.

Donated items should be clean and in working order. Otherwise, follow your city’s recycling rules for disposal.

Charities typically maintain staffed drop-off stations open during weekday business hours and weekends, except holidays.

Goodwill maintains clothing-only unstaffed drop-off stations in Arlington, Benbrook, Fort Worth and Keller. Many are in Albertsons grocery store parking lots; check www.goodwillfortworth.org for a list of locations and addresses.

What to do with holiday “trimmings” Christmas lights

If you’re going to discard Christmas lights that aren’t working, consider replacing them with low-energy LED lights, which are 90 percent more efficient than incandescent bulbs, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Three 100-light strands of LED bulbs running for five hours every day between Thanksgiving and New Year’s use 30 cents’ worth of energy, compared with $60 for the same number of incandescent lights, according to Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas Kostigen in The Green Book.

One source of LED Christmas lights, www.holidayLEDs.com, even has an incandescent recycling program through the end of January. You mail the lights to the company and they’ll recycle them (information is on Web site).

Christmas trees

Christmas trees take up a lot of space in landfills, but they are easily converted to wood chips that can be used as garden mulch and as a surface in playgrounds. A number of area cities have free Christmas-tree recycling/mulching programs.

Arlington will recycle trees left on the curb Thursday, Friday or Jan. 12, depending on the trash pickup day in the area. All ornaments, lights and tree stands must be removed. Do not place tree in a plastic bag. Flocking is OK. Also, Arlington residents can drop off trees to be recycled at Calloway’s Nursery, 4940 S. Cooper St., during business hours. Tree-chip mulch will be available from the city.

Euless is turning tree mulching into a party. On Jan. 12, bring your tree to Midway Park, 300 W. Midway Drive. There will be free hot dogs and hot chocolate, and if you bring a bag, you can bring home free wood chips.

Fort Worth has curbside tree pickup, and residents can also bring trees to two drop-off points: 2400 Brennan Ave. and 5150 Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway. Drop-off is 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Friday and 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday. Flocked trees are accepted. Free wood-chip mulch is available at both drop-off locations.

North Richland Hills is no longer accepting trees, but wood chips from recycled trees are available through Jan. 13 at Green Valley Community Park, 7701 Smithfield Road.

Southlake residents can drop off trees at Bicentennial Park, 450 W. Southlake Blvd., through Friday. Wood chips will be available to the public at noon Jan. 12.

Wrapping paper, bows, boxes and peanuts

Most wrapping paper is not recyclable, says Arlington Recycling Coordinator Lorrie Anderle. The best thing to do with gift-wrap paper and bags is to save and reuse it. Paper that is slightly crumpled can usually be ironed flat with an iron on a low setting.

Cardboard boxes can be saved for reuse. Or break them down flat and put them out with your recycling bin. (You can check out recycling rules for individual cities at www.timetorecycle.com.)

Packing peanuts are not recyclable, Anderle says, but they are reusable. Most mailing-center stores are delighted to accept them. Or save them for your own use.

Christmas cards can be recycled, but here’s another idea: Save the picture sides of the cards and cut them up to use as gift tags next year.

WXIA-TV: Keeping a ‘Green’ Resolution

Filed under: Earth 911 - January 5, 2008

By Marc Pickard

Every year around this time, we commit ourselves to accomplishing something personally significant in the New Year, otherwise known as New Year’s resolutions.

All too often we begin with the best of intentions and end up with the same list for next year.

There’s an easy way to check off one important resolution for 2008: to be “green” for the New Year.

How sad that something which had offered us the opportunity to brighten our holidays should end up ignored and unwanted now that Christmas is over.

It used to be that an unwanted Christmas tree was as worthless as a two day old soufflé.

But not anymore.

“This is number one on the list of how to green your holiday,” said Keep Georgia Beautiful’s Kim Portmess, “So we made it easy for you by making it a tradition each year and the word’s out there.”

Weatherby’s Christmas trees, a Marietta institution, got the word. “We’re loading the smaller ones to take to the chipper sites,” Jack Weatherby said. “They can be recycled for parks and rec and places like that.”

Weatherby understands that every year he’ll have several hundred trees left after Christmas. But these trees will not have lived in vain; they will find a new life as mulch.

“A layer of three to four inch mulch can help protect the root system of any garden or outdoor landscape systems,” Portmess pointed out. “That will protect and mitigate the effects of drought that we’re all suffering from.”

Christmas tree recycling day is Saturday, January 5th, from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Free dogwood seedlings are available while supplies last.

To find the nearest drop-off location to you, visit Earth911.org or KeepGeorgiaBeautiful.org. You can also call 1-800-CLEANUP, and follow the prompts.

Before taking your tree to be recycled, be sure to remove any lights and/or decorations from the tree.

Earth Talk: How to Recycle Almost Anything

Filed under: Earth 911 - January 5, 2008

It’s true that recycling items other than paper, plastic and glass is still no easy task. But if you’re committed to unloading something without adding it to a landfill, a little research can go a long way. Fortunately there are some great resources out there to help.

One of the best is a May 2006 article published in E – The Environmental Magazine by Sally Deneen entitled “How to Recycle Practically Anything.” Besides debunking myths about the ineffectiveness of municipal recycling programs, Deneen outlines where and how to recycle dozens of different types of household items not typically picked up by the recycling truck at your curbside.

Regarding compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs)—which shouldn’t be thrown in the trash as they contain trace amounts of the toxic heavy metal mercury—Deneen recommends first checking with your local household hazardous waste disposal facility to see if they will take them for recycling. If not, many hardware stores will take back spent CFLs. If none of these options pans out, a free online listing of companies that recycle CFLs can be found at the lampecycle.org website.

As for disposable batteries, Deneen says they, too, can usually be dropped off at municipal hazardous waste facilities, where they will be disassembled and their parts recycled for use in other products. If such facilities in your area won’t take them, some local or national retailers (such as Walgreen’s in some areas and Batteries Plus nationwide) may—just call and ask. Another option is to pay for the privilege by sending them to Battery Solutions, a mail-order company that will recycle them for 85 cents per pound.

Another common question is how to recycle (or at least responsibly dispose of) portable electronics—cell phones, video games, MP3 players, etc.—given that they usually contain heavy metals and chemicals that can pollute soils and groundwater. Deneen recommends dropping them off at your local Staples, Office Depot or Radio Shack store, which should take them back free of charge even if you didn’t buy them there. Another option would be shipping the worn out items to CollectiveGood (4508 Bibb Boulevard, Tucker, GA 30084), which will recycle them and donate the proceeds to the charity of your choice.

If you’re stumped about how or where to recycle an item, check out the Earth911.org website. It offers a free keyword-searchable, zip code-based database of municipal and commercial recycling and hazardous waste disposal facilities across the United States. The frequently updated database, which is funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as well as state governments and several non-profits, can also direct you to the proper municipal facility or local business to off-load potentially toxic items, like old tires or unused paint, in a safe and responsible manner. If you don’t have handy Internet access, give Earth911’s toll-free telephone hotline a call at 1-800-CLEANUP.

Associated Content: Earth911.org: A Website with a Global Mission

Filed under: Earth 911 - January 4, 2008

By MrCopilot

Earth911.org is on a mission. A mission to provide the public with as much environmentally responsible information as possible in one convenient place. Using the Earth911.org website or 1-800-CLEANUP phone number, information and news on a wide range of environmental Issues can be accessed for free.

The buzzword at Earth911.org is “actionable” information. It is not enough to tell people to recycle their batteries, Earth 911 provides not only information on why you should recycle your batteries and the process involved, but also the closest locations of where their batteries can be recycled. Pooling together information from government agencies, earth friendly corporations and private organizations, Earth911.org becomes a clearinghouse for the green generations insatiable need for information.

A common use of the site is to find recycling centers. To do this, goto Earth911.org, type a ZIP code and click on the type of waste disposal needed. The system searches its database and locates the closest available recyclers for that waste. Popular searches include recycling of new low energy fluorescent bulbs, e-waste (old computers & monitors) and the seasonally popular Christmas Treecycling Program where this year’s Yuletide tree becomes next year’s fish habitat or beach erosion protector.

The site is advertiser supported, however engineer Jeffrey Rassás, the chief executive of Global Alerts the parent company of Earth 911, has explained “Our advertisers are on a very narrow, well-defined course.” Focusing on advertisers like Staples with a stake in recycling programs or green living keeps the site on message, while still providing the financial support to keep the company afloat.

With tips on Green Living, environmentally responsible Shopping, Energy Conservation, Composting, recycling and more, Earth911.org is a great resource for any environmentally conscience citizen to gather information to live greener.

Siskiyou Daily News: Put Trees to Good Use After Holidays

Filed under: Earth 911 - January 3, 2008

By Jamie Gentner

Now that the holiday season is over, it’s time to take down the Christmas decorations, including the Christmas tree in the corner of the living room.

And there are several places in the county those trees can be taken to be put to good use, even after the holidays.

Yreka Transfer LLC will pick their customers’ trees up for a $2 fee and dispose of them.

For more information, visit 303 Yama St. or call 842-7306.

Beginning next week, McCloud Transfer Recycling Center will also pick up trees free of charge if they are set out by the trash within the one-week window they give their customers. According to District Secretary Beth Steele, the trees will be taken to their old, closed transfer site and burned.

McCloud customers can visit 220 W. Minnesota Ave. or call 964-2017 for more information.

Transfer stations in the county will use the trees dropped off at their sites to create other products.

At the Yreka and Black Butte transfer stations, trees are taken for a minimal fee that is determined by its size, according to Jim Gaeddert of Black Butte Transfer Recycling.

The tree is then added to the station’s woodpile, which is chipped and used to create fuel and products made from recycled wood.

“It can be shipped off to do all sorts of things,” said Josh Swenson, a supervisor at the Yreka Transfer Station, which is located at 2420 Oberlin Rd. and is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and on Saturday.

Swenson said they request that as many decorations on the tree be removed as possible.

Call 842-5865 for more information.

Black Butte Transfer—located at 3710 Springhill Rd. in Mount Shasta—is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day except Sunday and Thursday. They can be reached at 926-1610.

Some of the trees that make it to the transfer stations - as well as leftovers from tree lots—are also picked up by the Yreka branch of the California Department of Fish and Game, which uses them for warm water habitat in lakes around the county.

According to Fish Habitat Supervisor Rick Davis, the department collected about 50 trees this year. They will be tied in bundles of three, attached to a concrete anchor and sunk in the lakes.

The trees provide young fish a place to hide, and when the trees get older and lose their needles, Davis said the older fish will use them for habitat.

“It provides structure where there is no previous structure,” Davis said. “It creates a sort of artificial reef like there is in the ocean.”

Fish and Game is done with its tree collection for the year, but Davis said it is likely the same thing will be done next year, as well.

For more information, call 841-2550.

The National Christmas Tree Association also offers tips for recycling Christmas trees online. Visit http://earth911.org/green-your-holidays to find out more.

Monticello Herald Journal: Go Green: Recycle Your Christmas Tree Safely

Filed under: Earth 911 - January 2, 2008

By Amber Tomlinson

As the needles fall off the Tannenbaum and the memories of Christmas Day fade, many may be wondering how they can dispose of their tree.

The City of Monticello is helping make that decision a little easier by going green.

The city street department picks up the trees that are left by the curb just as it does the fall leaves and other brush left throughout the year.

Doug Roberts, Monticello street superintendent, said the city will accept the trees during the next couple of months.

“People leave them on the curb and then we recycle them into chips,” Roberts said. “We generally mulch all of the brush, which is how we treat a Christmas tree.”

He said the mulch is then picked up by a company that grinds it and disposes of it. He said sometimes people request the mulch but he doesn’t recommend it.

“You don’t always know what you are going to get from the brush. There could be ants or other things in it,” Roberts said.
When leaving a tree for recycling make sure all decorations, tree stands, nails and plastic bags are removed.

Other ways to recycle the Christmas tree include:

To really go green the National Christmas Tree Association has partnered with EARTH 911 to support and promote Christmas tree recycling programs nationwide.

One of the nearest tree drop-off sites is in Valparaiso. Other sites are located in Angola, Auburn, Bicknell, Bloomington, Brownsburg, Chandler, Columbus, Crawfordsville, Danville, Evansville, Floyds Knobs, Fort Wayne, Franklin, Gary, Greencastle, Greenwood, Indianapolis, Leo, New Albany, New Haven, New Unionville, Plainfield, Rockville, Saint Mary of the Woods, Trafalgar, Vincennes, Warsaw and Woodburn.

Sierra Star: E-waste Recycling Effort Hits Oakhurst Next Week

Filed under: Earth 911 - January 2, 2008

By Elizabeth Gabriel

Want to get rid of that old VCR? Here’s your chance

So you had a bunch of new electronic devices under your Christmas tree. It’s so 2007 to keep the old ones.

It’s how you get rid of them that gives environmentalists the willies.

Electronic devices have more scary and long-lived hazardous elements in them than a fruit cake has candied fruit.

Such things as cadmium, copper, mercury, arsenic, PCBs, nickel, zinc and lead leach out of all our handy gadgets when they’re just tossed out. Because of the dangers from these elements, in California, it is illegal to throw e-waste, also called universal waste, in the garbage.

That’s part of the reason the Oakhurst Area Chamber of Commerce has scheduled an e-waste recycling event this weekend. Collection will take place in the chamber parking lot (next to the library) from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

New chamber president Shelle Abbott said the chamber cares about what’s happening to the earth.

“We can’t live without them (electronics), but we have to help keep our landfills clean,” she said. “Besides, we thought this would be a good time because a lot of people probably got new things for Christmas.”

There is no limit to the number of items household can turn in.

A flier from the chamber states that e-waste is defined as all consumer and business electronic equipment that is near or at the end of its useful life.

“E-waste is the fastest growing solid waste problem in the U.S.,” states the flier, “comprising as much as five percent of the U.S. municipal solid waste and growing at a rate five times faster than all other waste categories.”

On the list for the chamber’s recycling program are computers, VCR and DVD players, fax machines, copiers and printers, amplifiers, microwave ovens, LCD and plasma screens, laptops, television sets, cell phones, MP3 players, stereo systems, speakers and 10-key machines.

Be sure to erase all information off your computer or have this done for you.

According to the Web site www.earth911.com, Americans have amassed an enormous amount of electronic devices—an estimated three billion. Given the large amount of potential products involved, e-waste includes a broad range of electronic devices. Improper disposal of e-waste creates a significant burden on landfills because toxic substances can leach into the soil and groundwater.

The site states that that total annual volume of e-waste is approaching 40 million tons.

“In the U.S. alone, it is estimated that we generated 1.5 billion pounds of all kinds of e-waste in 2006. This includes an estimated 44 million computers and televisions,” the site stated.

It’s the stuff electronics are made of that make them such a threat, not just now, but for thousands of years into the future.

The book The World Without Us by Alan Weisman posits an earth without humans. No apocalypse or destruction, just the sudden disappearance of people. In a segment on farming, chemist Steven McGrath says he figures zinc will take 3,700 years to disperse, cadmium will take 7,500 years, zinc will take 35,000 years and lead won’t disappear for 70,000 years.

Why It’s Bad

What that means for the future is what these elements do to living things.

Here are some conclusions from Earth 911.

About Recycling

In addition to taking your e-waste to a recycling center, there are other avenues to disposing of your electronics with minimum impact on the earth.

Many manufacturers will take back their products for recycling. Check with the company to see if there’s a free or low-cost program.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency Web site, www.epa.gov, lists manufacturers, retailers and service providers that offer recycling of e-waste and can also scare the mercury out of you with information on what elements in e-waste can do to you.

Because there are so many things in e-waste, recycling them is a lot more complex than, say, smashing some aluminum cans.

But e-waste recyclers have the same goals as any recyclers: they want to make money by pulling out the useful things and keeping them out of landfills.

Earth 911 states that as much as 99 percent of all materials from electronics are recycled, reused in a different capacity or sold off.

The vast majority of these materials are used for new electronic items because some of the material, the plastic, for example, is the right grade for electronic devices to begin with.

ABC 7 News: New Lightbulb Standards Confuse Consumers

Filed under: Earth 911 - January 2, 2008

By Michael Finney

We are all being urged to switch over to the compact florescent lightbulbs. In a few years, incandescent bulbs won’t even be sold anymore and that has left consumers confused.

Compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs), use about a quarter of the energy of a standard bulb. The main issue is that consumers don’t understand how to get rid of them once they are used.

Arturo Samayoa showed 7 On Your Side an example of his ecological concern. He has replaced the incandescent bulbs in his kitchen with CFLs. He says his kids get a lot of the credit for that.

“With my kids getting older, they bring material from school and at any time, they can they remind me about recycling or saving energy. So, thanks to the schools, we are becoming more friendly to the environment,” said Samayoa.

Arturo has heard plenty about using CFLs, but now, he has a concern: what happens when the bulbs burn out?

“It is easy for someone to just chuck them in the garbage and that’s what I have a problem with,” said Samayoa.

The bulbs contain mercury and we’ve heard from other consumers worried about that. We brought all these concerns to PG&E. They say that CFLs are the most environmentally safe way to light your home. Your home thermometer has 100 times more mercury in it then CFLs, so you are talking about trace amount of mercury.

Still, even the smallest amounts of mercury must be disposed of properly and not all stores recycle these bulbs. What is a consumer to do? One thing you can do is log on to earth911.org. Type in your zip code and as easy as that, the nearest CFL disposal sight will pop up for you.

As time goes on, it will get easier and easier. For now, log on and find the closest location. Don’t forget to write your lawmakers and tell them that they need to make this process easier.

The Southtown Star: Energy Efficient Light Bulbs Worth the Effort

Filed under: Earth 911 - January 1, 2008

I’m really confused by the major push for compact flourescent lightbulbs. When you buy them, the package notes they can’t be thrown into the garbage can. I understand they contain mercury, so if the country switches from incandescent bulbs to CFLs, will we reduce carbon emissions only to create a major problem with mercury waste? Do we really expect people to start gathering their used CFL bulbs to bring to hazardous waste collection sites or hope the employees at some of the stores that take them back will know how to handle them? How can we be sure the mercury won’t be leaching into groundwater supplies?

Paige

A: This is an especially important question given the new energy bill signed into law earlier this month. It requires phasing out old incandescent bulbs for more energy efficient bulbs. This includes new types of incandescent, compact flourescent and LED bulbs.

As you said, CFLs have mercury, and you can’t simply throw them into the trash. However, this doesn’t mean we are headed toward another major environmental disaster. First off, the mercury in CFLs can be recycled. Unfortunately, recycling opportunities have been relatively limited until recently.

You can’t place CFLs in your regular curbside recycling. Instead, they must be taken somewhere that recycles them, such as the Household Hazardous Waste and Electronics Recycling center in Chicago. Ikea has been a pioneer with its free take-back program (it has stores in Bolingbrook and Schaumburg), and I recently learned ACE Hardware collects old CFLs.

The little bit of effort it takes to recycle CFLs really is worth it in terms of reducing energy use and reducing carbon emission. It minimizes mercury pollution, too. Burning coal in power plants releases mercury into the air, which can fall back to the earth with rain. The careful disposal of these bulbs can really minimize the risks of mercury contamination.

However, you should be careful when handling the bulbs. When they break, they are more complicated to clean up than traditional bulbs. The EPA Energy Star Web site (energy star.gov) gives detailed instructions for how to deal with cleaning up a broken CFL. Following these instructions can minimize your risk of mercury exposure.

If you break a CFL, open the windows to the outside and close off the room from the rest of the house. When the mercury starts to vaporize, you don’t want to inhale it. Stay out of the room for 15 minutes or so before returning to clean up the spill.

Then use a piece of stiff paper or cardboard to scoop the fragments into a plastic bag. Be sure to wear disposable gloves because mercury can be absorbed through the skin. On hard surfaces, use a damp disposable towel or cloth to wipe up the spill and toss it into the bag.

On a rug or carpet, use sticky tape (duct tape would be great) to pick up any dust and place it in the bag. If any vacuuming is necessary, place the vacuum bag or empty (and wipe out) the vacuum canister into the bag.

Seal the plastic bag and place it inside a second sealed plastic bag for disposal.

If we make a little extra effort to recycle CFLs and prevent them from breaking, we won’t add extra mercury to our landfills or contaminate our groundwater.

CFL manufacturers should make this clearer on their labels, but we can all share this information with friends and family.

Want to learn more? Check out www.epa.gov/bulbrecycling or www.earth911.org.

The Seattle Times: A Noble Cause

Filed under: Earth 911 - January 1, 2008

Nationwide, 35 million real Christmas trees are headed this week to their final resting places.

New Year’s has always been marked by a vista of trees biodegrading in backyards, withering by the side of roads or resting atop garbage piles in local landfills. A fourth and better option is recycling the trees. It saves valuable landfill space. Recycled trees can be mulched into a natural fertilizer or used for coastal marine projects.

A recycled tree helps stave off global warming by reducing methane, a greenhouse gas created by landfills.

It is an interesting tradition, this growing trees on large farms for the sole purpose of cutting them down to grace glittering holiday windows. Some would argue that this is no different from raising roses for bouquets. But it isn’t what we choose to value so much as how we dispose of it once the value is gone.

Thick with gifts, the holidays behind us, a final gift of the season could be the most practical and environmentally sound one.

Washington and Oregon are among the five top state producers of trees. More than 90 percent of the Christmas trees purchased by Californians hail from the two states.

Local chapters of the Boy Scouts of America and other community organizations pick up and recycle trees for minimal or no fees. A listings of places to recycle Christmas trees can be found at Earth911.org.