Dispose of Fluorescents As If Your Life Depends on It

A few days ago, Joe and I were talking with the manager of a local discount store (part of a national chain) and asked what they did with their spent fluorescent light bulbs. She sheepishly hung her head and said, “Well, I know we should recycle them, but…” Our state doesn’t require that fluorescent bulbs be treated as hazardous wastes, so the store manager isn’t breaking the law. But it was obvious to us that she feels guilty about dumping them in the landfill.

Although the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has included fluorescent bulbs under Universal Waste regulations since 2001. Although EPA considers fluorescent bulbs to be hazardous wastes, their disposal in landfills is permitted. But it’s not the best policy. …

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Event Banners Get New Life as RetroActif Fashion Accessories

Take a walk through any major city, and you’ll see tall banners fluttering from light poles or hanging from rooftops on the sides of a museum. Most are colorful and attractive. Some are splashy, with eye-catching designs. Nearly all are time-sensitive, advertising this month’s music festival, tomorrow’s convention, or next weekend’s exhibit.

Because banners have to survive the elements day and night — often for months at a time — the material they’re made from is generally not biodegradable. So what happens to these used banners? Do they retire to a storeroom to collect dust, or make a one-way trip to the landfill?

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Beverage Container Laws Expanding in Several States

When bottled water first appeared on product shelves, I initially thought it was a waste of money. I held off for a long time. Eventually, like many of you, I saw the relatively small investment as a fair exchange for the convenience of portability. It was an attractive lure. I bit. And I bought. And bought. And bought.

Now that I’m deeply steeped in environmental issues, I have come to understand the disaster of bottled water. Aside from questions about the quality of the water and the safety of the plastic bottles themselves — significant issues, for sure — there’s the problem of waste. Millions of plastic water bottles get tossed in our waterways, lie smashed on our roads, litter our green spaces, or end up in our landfills. In the best-case scenario, they get recycled into other products.

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Green Living — A Beginner’s Guide

If you’re just beginning your green journey, it may seem like there’s so much to catch up on: organic food, holistic medicine, natural fibers, hybrid vehicles, and so much more. In general, green living is about making changes to reduce the amounts of natural resources we humans use (and, more importantly, waste), and to becoming a caretaker of our remaining natural resources. It’s about working toward sustainabilty for our society and our planet.

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Notes from India: “Clean Lucknow, Green Lucknow”

I’ve spent my entire life in India, but have yet to see a trashcan anywhere on the streets. I guess that’s the reason why there’s a big pile of garbage at most street corners, especially in the residential areas. My family, and others in our neighborhood in Lucknow, will burn any garbage left on the street, so there are no smells, no germs in the air, and no filth outside the house.

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Notes from Serbia: Ending Litter through Laws and Education

Blue Planet Green Living invites our readers around the world to send us reports about the environment in their home countries. In the first of the “Notes from ….” series, we published a post from Jagdish Poudel, an environmental science student from Nepal. Today, we are pleased to share a report from Snezana Pavlovic, a 25-year-old student of Balkan languages from Niš, Serbia. “Avoiding pollution and ecology are my passion and hobby,” Snezana writes.

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Solution to Conference Waste Is in the Bag

If you’ve been a registered participant at a conference or trade show, chances are you’ve walked away with a conference bag. Have you ever wondered what happens to the extra bags that no one picks up? Tens of thousands of conference bags are dumped in landfills every year, and most of us never give it a thought.

Not so for Jeff Johnson. In an email, Jeff shared with us a bit about his personal crusade to put conference bags to good use. We were so intrigued, we wanted to share his letter with our readers.

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Rewards for Recycling

I know your kind. You recycle. You care about the planet. You might even be a tree hugger. You don’t want to dump things in the landfill if there’s a way to extend their lives for another go. But not everyone can be bothered. If the environmental mess we’re in isn’t enough to motivate them, what will? That’s one of the questions Ron Gonen had to figure out while developing the business model for his innovative, young company, RecycleBank.

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We’re Dreaming of a Green Holiday

Between Thanksgiving and New Years Day, Americans take an additional 25% of waste to the curb. That amounts to over 25 million tons of trash for the holiday season.
If every family reused just 2 ft. of ribbon from holidays past, that would save 38,000 miles of ribbon — enough to literally tie a big bow around the entire planet. 2.7 million holiday cards are sent across the country too — that’s enough to fill an entire football field 10 stories high!

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Ecopreneur Makes Paper in Paradise

“Waste is a resource. But when people think of waste, they usually think of it as trash, rather asking, What can we do with it?

“Everything we use at Costa Rica Natural paper products is totally disregarded material,” says Harry Johansing, the company’s founder. “There’s no other use for it. When I approach a new fiber, I look at it as, Is this completely trash? and then I ask, How can I use it?

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Green Carpenter “Turns Liabilities into Assets”

“If you’re building a LEED-certified house in Iowa, but you fly the bamboo flooring in from California or China, that’s not green,” says carpenter Roger Gwinnup. “On the other hand” he points out, “you can pull up the oak flooring in an old house that’s being torn down, then drive across town and nail it in place in another house. That’s greener.

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Keeping Recyclers in the “Green”

With the economic downturn, the markets for recyclable materials is shrinking. But there’s still hope for this green industry. “Keep bringing us your clean recyclable materials. And follow the guidelines for sorting. The economy will recover, and if we can keep our expenses in line, we’ll still be here once the market improves,” says Brian Holtz, vice president of sales and marketing at City Carton in Iowa City.

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Rescuing Architectural Treasures

You might say the Salvage Barn is a temporary refuge. Architectural castoffs from another time (or, more accurately, times) line the walls, drawers, and shelves. Even the rafters get in on the act, with antique carousel horses hanging high over visitors’ heads.

Walk through the aisles, and you’ll find yourself surrounded by rescued pieces that barely escaped burial in the landfill: wooden corbels; tongue-and-groove flooring; antique light fixtures; drawers full of doorknobs; a hundred-year-old, oak staircase; and even a picket fence. True to its name, the Salvage Barn sells architectural items that have been saved from buildings in the nick of time, before being lost forever to the wrecking ball.

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The House Recyclers

“We weren’t born with silver spoons in our mouths,” says Lucille Duwa. She stands in the shell of the two-story farmhouse where she and her husband raised their children. In the rooms around her, workers are tearing out floorboards and removing doors. “Leroy and I don’t like to see things that can be used get destroyed,” she adds.

Parts of Mr. and Mrs. Duwas’ 1870s-era home are being salvaged by Friends of Historic Preservation (FHP). The Duwas no longer need this large, old home, as they’ve built a smaller, newer home beside it. Volunteers are saving what they can of the house’s architectural features to take to the FHP’s Salvage Barn. The ultimate goal is for these treasures to be recycled into other projects by new owners.

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Donate Your Cell Phone

Do a quick online search for places to donate your old cell phone, and soon your head will be spinning with choices.

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What to Do with Your Old Cell Phone

How often do you buy a new cellphone? With the latest options to choose from (Smart Phones, iPhones, Blackberries, Treos, and more), 18 months with the same cell begins to feel like a long-term relationship. But when you fall in love with your new phone, what do you do with the old one? Cast it off like a spurned lover? Or tuck it away like a memory you can’t let go of, but don’t quite want to revisit?

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Part 4: Safety Tips for Battery Recycling

Collecting batteries for recycling doesn’t mean just dumping them together into a box or a pail. Careless handling of batteries — spent or not — can lead to disastrous consequences. As you gather household batteries for recycling, follow these simple steps.

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Part 3: Finding a Battery Recycler

Finding a battery recycling center sometimes feels like looking for Waldo in a crowd wearing red-and-white striped sweaters. In most cities and towns, there are recycling centers that accept almost everything. But battery recyclers are elusive.

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Part 2: The Inside Scoop on Batteries

Batteries are kind of mystifying to me. My flashlight does nothing until I put a battery inside. Then, suddenly, there’s light. The same is true of my digital camera. No battery, no picture. And my watch? Without a battery, time stands still. The magic doesn’t happen until I put in just the right battery in just the right way. But how? What allows a battery to give “life” to inanimate objects?

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Part 1: Much Ado about Batteries

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Americans use billions of batteries every year. That’s Billions, with a B. We buy them, use them, and throw them away. Buy, use, throw. Buy, use, throw… Sounds like a bad habit.

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