EarthTalk: eWaste – Recycling Electronic Waste

EarthTalk® is a weekly environmental column made available to our readers from the editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: I work for an office equipment company selling copiers, fax machines, computers and printers. Each year new models come out making old ones obsolete. As a result, we have loads of trade-ins with nowhere to go. What can we do with this old equipment? – Jeff P., Worcester, MA

Electronic waste, or “e-waste” as it’s called, is a growing problem in the United States and abroad, as obsolete or broken computers and other electronic equipment are taking up increasingly precious amounts of landfill space and potentially leaking hazardous substances into surrounding ecosystems.

(more…)

“Green” Land And The Politics of Language

On one major platform, societies are judged by their knowledge, which is clarified and communicated by language, using words which are the framework of this language.

With this as a guideline, one might conclude that if a particular word had many, often disparate meanings, then societal knowledge would suffer, creating confusion and potential chaos.

Chaos? Isn’t that a bit exaggerated?

Perhaps , but certainly relative to one’s personal experience with chaos itself, or perhaps academic study into chaos theories of combustion powerful enough to create solar systems.

Ah, but the word. That particular word. Green, that’s it. Green.

(more…)

Eolic Foldable Wind Generator Brings Energy Anywhere

Perfect for remote sites (read: camp, fishing trip, rural areas), the Eolic foldable wind turbine is a great solution for small scale energy needs.  This is not for the permanent installation, but for those who need mobile power.  I ask, how soon will micro-wind and micro-hydro be the norm for remote areas?

Is it necessary to point out that the folded up version is wicked cool looking?  Breaking down into a single unit, the turbine is able to move from place to place in the back of a truck and set up quickly.  Imagine the applications for post-disaster Chile or Haiti?

The best feature is that unlike a typical gas or diesel generator, this thing can go all day and all night without needed to be refueled.  Plus, it can go all night, unlike solar applications.

Read more about the Eolic foldable wind powered generator here.

The Media Consortium’s Weekly Mulch: Updates on Green Energy and Green Products

By Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium Blogger
(reposted with permission)

Some people live off the grid, eat local food, and have an energy footprint so minuscule that even the canniest hunter couldn’t track them down. But the rest of us buy from supermarkets, get our energy from at least in part from traditional sources like coal, and occasionally forget to turn off the lights when we leave the house. For those of us who are still living with one foot in the old energy world, here are a few helpful hints about what you should buy and what the consequences of shifting to “clean energy” sources like natural gas and nuclear energy are.

(more…)

Olympic Skating Arena Cutting Edge Green-Wins “Gold” for Beauty and Sustainability

Vancouver, host to the ongoing winter Olympics, has long been considered one of the world’s most livable cities. And with the Olympics come the eyes of the entire world. Vancouver is now on display and one of the crown jewels of the Olympian host city is the Richmond Olympic Oval.

Completed a little more than a year ago, the facility has won numerous architectural awards, including the Structural Engineers 2009 Award for Sports or Leisure Structure.

Located just outside Vancouver along the Fraser River in Richmond, the $178 million complex features a distinctive wave-shaped roof that is the largest clear span wooden structure in the world. Inside the building 15 soaring wooden arches span the expansive roof, creating a rippling effect that evokes a feeling of “being sheltered by a massive heron’s wing,” a city official recently told Planet Ark.

Innovation in sustainability

The roof for the 7,600-seat facility is constructed with a million board-feet of pine beetle-infested wood that would have otherwise gone to waste. The sweeping curves of the roof harvests rainwater for irrigation and flushing toilets. Incorporated into the skating rink’s refrigeration plant, a heat recovery system heats the rest of the building.

By almost all accounts, the Richmond Olympic Oval is a marriage of aesthetics and functional sustainability worthy of its surroundings. Designed by Canon Design, the structure evokes an emotional response from those lucky enough to see it and use it first-hand. Says Australian skater Sophie Muir:

“It’s just absolutely amazing, like nothing I’ve ever seen. The place is just beautiful in the way they’ve set it up to be quite environmentally friendly, which scores brownie points in my books.”

After the games the Olympic Oval will be used as a multi-sport facility and exercise center. No doubt one of the most distinctive and beautiful sport and exercise centers in the world.

Charge up on the go with the Yogen

With all of the hype about green and energy efficient mobile chargers out there, its hard to sift through what is fact and what is fiction. And anyway, who has time to wait for the sun to charge their iPod?

The next best thing for impatient eco-conscious folks is the YoGen universal mobile charger. YoGen has introduced the first real energy-saving charger compatible for most mobile devices including iPods, iPhones, digital readers like the Kindel, cell phones, navigation units, PDA’s and more.

The best part? A few tugs on the string of this device charges your mobile unit in a few minutes and lasts as long as a charge from an energy sucking wall charger.

And if that wasn’t enough, the YoGen is mobile, so the next time you find your mobile devices are down on the juice when you’re on top of a mountain, or hiking alone in the woods, pull this light-weight baby out and charge away.

Awesome underground hotel

What’s cooler than a golf course? A hotel! And what’s cooler than a hotel? An underground hotel built underneath a gold course! Subterranean building is becoming all the rage. Underground buildings are more energy efficient and aesthetically pleasing alternatives to conventional design.

This 200 room hotel is currently in the planning phase and will include sunken courtyards to bring natural light to the rooms. We see a future with minimal landscape obstructions and a more beautiful world without compromising space and infrastructure.

Source: WebEcoist

Why you should not buy a hybrid

Now that we’ve got your attention… we really do think you shouldn’t buy a hybrid.  Not because we’re ignorant or stubborn, but because it is a waste both environmentally and economically to purchase a new hybrid vehicle when you’ve got a perfectly good vehicle in the driveway.

Now you see where we’re coming from.  If you’ve got a car, even if it’s an SUV, it is more environmentally friendly to keep your car rather than purchase a new one… even if its a hybrid.

The making of a new car, hybrid or convention, is an incredibly wasteful and energy-intensive process.  From sourcing new materials like metal, plastic and fabrics, to the electricity required to assembled the vehicle, it takes a lot to make a new car.  Yes, buying cars keeps jobs, but more and more domestic car companies are shipping jobs overseas anyway.

So save your money and save the environment by driving the same care that gets you to and from work every day.

If your car breaks and you must buy a new one, a hybrid will do just fine.

100+ steps to a green home

The green movement is becoming less and less of a movement and more and more of a way of life.  We all want a green home, and there are lots of ways to get there.  We have sorted through the silly, the pointless and the too expensive to get down to the real ways to get a green home.

Taking any number of these steps will help you transform your home into a thriving, environmentally friendly habitat.

1. Buy Local
2. Buy Organic
3. Buy free range/cage-free
4. Avoid packaging
5. Do your research on products
6. Insulate or additionally insulate your home
7. Drive less
8. Make your own cleaning products
9. Wash clothes in cold water
10. Get a dishwasher
11. Convert to CFL bulbs from incandescent
12. Avoid greenwashing
13. Recycle
14. Eat less meat
15. Eat no meat
16. Reuse instead of buying new
17. Use Craigslist
18. Sell that extra car
19. Ride your bike
20. Take a staycation
21. Turn your computer off
22. Cancel your newspaper delivery and read it online
23. Offset your carbon footprint
24. Rake your leaves, don’t blow them
25. Get a reel mower (and ditch the gas one)
26. Start composting
27. Repurpose old things
28. Shop at garage sales, not stores
29. Turn down the heat
30. Turn down (up) the air conditioner
31. Eliminate phantom energy waste
32. Use power strips and turn them off at night
33. Shut doors to unused rooms
34. Stop printing things you don’t absolutely need
35. Use coupons
36. Make a donation to an environmental program
37. Convert your 2 stroke engines to 4 stroke
38. Mow your lawn less
39. Start a flower garden
40. Grow your own food
41. Paint instead of renovate
42. Use low VOC paint
43. Buy energy star appliances (only when you absolutely need a new appliance)
44. Don’t buy a hybrid (huh??)
45. Telecommute
46. Buy organic dog food
47. Ditch the paper cups for coffee and bring a mug to work
48. Dry your clothes on a rack
49. Dry your clothes on a clothesline
50. Seal up your home to stop heating (and cooling) the outdoors
51. Turn your AC completely off (we need heat to survive, we don’t need cold)
52. Wrap your water heater in one of those silver blanket things
53. Install a timer on your water heater so you only have hot water when you typically need it or…
54. Install a tankless (on demand) water heater
55. Convert to electric hot water and/or heat and…
56. Install solar panels or…
57. Install a wind turbine or…
58. Buy clean energy from your utility provider
59. Get netflix (instead of driving to Blockbuster) or…
60. Even better: download your movies
61. Cancel your junk mail and extra catalogs and magazines (the mail system is incredibly inefficient)
62. Give gift certificates for birthdays and holidays instead of shipping presents
63. Give to an environmental charity instead of buying “things”
64. Only run that dishwasher when full
65. Use electricity during off-peak demand times whenever possible (avoid mornings and evenings)
66. Clear off the top of your fridge (both inside and out)
67. Fill up your freezer (it’s more efficient when full)
68. Clean your fridge’s rear-end (the coils should be clear of dust and pet hair)
69. Take the bus
70. Start or utilize a ride-sharing program
71. Work four 10 hour days instead of five 8 hour days (cuts your commute waste)
72. Stop buying bottled water – bring a water bottle of tap water
73. Buy a filter if you can’t stand the taste
74. Turn off the TV and…
75. get some exercise
76. Turn off those extra lights or…
77. Install some light timers
78. Turn off those holiday lights at night
79. Turn off those fans
80. Turn down up the refrigerator temperature
81. Host your website with a green web host
82. Print with an eco-font
83. Reuse an older cell phone or…
84. Buy a used one or…
85. Stick with the one you’ve got
86. Read by candlelight (instead of electric light)
87. Light a fire (in a fireplace or something)
88. Keep plastics out of the microwave or…
89. Ditch plastics altogether and switch to glass containers
90. Bring leftovers, don’t buy your lunch every day
91. Recycle your metal, even old electrical wire and computers (did you know you could do that??)
92. Don’t burn yard waste (let it rot… seriously)
93. Eat less (a lot of a human’s carbon footprint comes from growing, processing, preparing, cooking and *cough* disposing of food waste)
94. Don’t even think about using paper plates
95. Drink green wine
96. Don’t host a progressive party (it’s wasteful to drive lots of people from place to place)
97. Send an e-vite
98. Serve and buy seasonal food (can YOUR region grow strawberries in January?!?)
99. Join a CSA Farm (community sustained agriculture)
100. Read this blog!
101. Keep your car instead of upgrading
102. Shovel snow instead of plowing or snowblowing
103. Turn the TV OFF (we already said this once but it’s double-important)

Do you have an idea for making a green home?  Post it here as a comment.

This article is CROWD SOURCED! What does that mean?  Our goal is to grow this list, and for each item to have a link to a helpful resource.  For example, if you have a resource for #91, recycling your metal, post it here as a comment and we’ll try to create a link for you.

Sources/Additional Resources:

• The Green Guide
• Planet Green
• Treehugger
• Daily Eco Tips

Image credit: souzablog.com

LED Traffic Lights are (almost) the perfect solution

We all know LED’s are better than regular bulbs due to their longer life, smaller energy consumption, less maintenance requirements and brighter light.  As municipalities start switching over to the more energy efficient technology, we are seeing a lot of benefits.  But road maintenance workers across the country have run into another problem they may not have anticipated.

Because LED’s burn with less heat, keeping them free of ice and snow is a bit trickier.  Drivers are finding their traffic lights completely covered with blowing snow.  State’s like Wisconsin have converted 90% of their traffic lights to LED’s.  Whatever the solution, LED’s are a technology that is pivotal to our environmental progress.  We will find a way to make this work.

Source: New York Times

Happy New Year from Hippie Magazine!