“I regard this novel as a work without redeeming social value, unless it can be recycled as a cardboard box” Ellen Goodman

When I drive through some neighborhoods I am amazed by the amount of items on the curb. TVs and Computer monitors will not be taken by the trash services. The simple reason is that they cost money to dispose of. I have seen these things stay in front of houses for years apparently in hopes the Earth will reclaim it. This is not going to happen. Instead you might as well bring it over to Best Buy and drop it there. Best Buy has a decent recycle program. They say they adhere to strict Consumer Electronics Recycling Standards which means they recycle all of it and do not ship to foreign countries to be disposed of. Now I should say if your computer or monitor works I recommend dropping it off at a thrift center where it can be reused. If is dead bring it on over to Best Buy. It will cost you $10 bucks to get rid of TVs and monitors but you get a $10 dollar gift card in exchange so you break even. Other items like computers and printers can be brought there for free. However you must remove hard drives from them. I am for any recycle program that follows the proper rules and if you end up with a card to buy more stuff in the end I won’t complain. There are more rules to what they will and won’t take so please read through before you head on over. One of the rules is two items per household per day. Below are the links to the info. So to sum up you might as well go green and get something in turn.

Best Buy recycle Program and rules
Best Buy fine print about recycling

"I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues." The Lorax

Quite a ways back I posted about a great site called Freerice. It is a game site that when played earns rice to be donated to others in need. Now TreeWala is almost exactly the same concept but for trees. We all need more trees. All you do is answer questions, mostly vocab and a couple of sciencey ones, to gain leaves. For every correct answer you get one leaf and for every twenty leaves one tree will be planted. It all works through ad revenue and a co-op between the site and the Marion institute. It is one of those simple games that you can play guilt free. I mean first and foremost it is educational and second it is doing something beneficial for the planet. If you are a word buff or just trying to be green, give this a try.

Note: Yesterday I was in the lab and saw a patron using FreeRice. I asked her if she knew about TreeWala and she said she knew nothing about it but her English teacher (ESL) was making her do it to improve her vocabulary. Now I don't want to be geekier than normal but I think that is AWESOME!

“I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree. Indeed, unless the billboards fall, I'll never see a tree at all.” Ogden Nash

Do you use Yahoo as your search engine and would you like to help the environment? If yes then Ecocho is for you. It is a search engine that uses Yahoo’s search technology and advertising so that they can afford to plant two trees for every 1000 searches. It seems like a fine venture similar to the freerice site. Also if you are the type of person who does all their searches in the search box in upper right part of your browser they offer a plug-in so you can use the service. If you would like to green up your searches then give this one a try.

“I get mail; therefore I am.” Scott Adams

How much junk mail do you get in your post box in an average day? I usually get a couple of offers for credit cards and refinance letter of some sort. Then I get some other random pieces of junk. Americans spend more than $245 million annually to dispose of this junk mail. This is a crime as far as I am concerned for several reasons. That material is coming from somewhere, most likely not a recycled source, and on the other end is all the money to get rid of this paper spam. That money could be spent on so many other important things. Plus the one that concerns all of us because it is so close to home is the amount of time you spend wading through and filtering what makes it into your house. Well it is time to take some action. The World Privacy Forum put together a wonderful list of opt outs. These are ways out of getting spam in one from or another whether is email, post, or phone. Now I have seen many of these lists but they usually just give it to you without much thought. This site describes why, what you have to do, and anything else you need to know. They have done a fantastic job with this site and it should be mandatory reading. Even their introduction is nicely done with a well thought out explanations of why they did this. Give this one a try for at least one of the reasons above.

“Do not call for black power or green power. Call for brain power.” Barbara Jordan

When Microsoft screws up I am one of the first to start throwing things however when they get it right I hope I am among the first to congratulate them. Recently MSN went green. They have made a big push in the right direction for the environment. Their new site is filled with info about how to green up, along with political info of all kinds. They have quizzes and calculators to determine your impact on the planet. Also the pairing up with sites like Grist and Conservation International really help their credibility. Pledges are available so that you can take a stand on all sorts of small things like lowering thermostats and such. You may not agree with the cause of global warming or even if it is happening but when I get into a car I still put on my seatbelt even though I do not believe there is major chance I will get into an accident. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Give it a try.

“Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are” Jose Ortega y Gasset

So you can find every bit of info that you could ever want online but do you really pay attention to it? Southern California Edison Energy believes you don’t have any interest in looking at raw data and I agree. They are installing small white orbs in houses to try an experiment that seems to be working well. The idea is this. When power consumption is expensive for you and everyone else the little orb glows red. This means you should start turning off electronics or at least put them on hold. When the power consumption is low it glows green signaling you to power up if necessary. Now why do you care? Well this is showing by just using a little light it gets you to do more than actually giving you numbers to think about. This was originally designed for people paying attention to things like mutual funds and stocks. Since this has been tried it people seem to be responding well to it. To read more here is one article of many that is out there. As usual there is a net component as well. People have started communities to show off how little they use of the power available. Pretty soon we should not be surprised if a new piece of software shows up on a social site that allows us to put our carbon foot print or usage on something like Facebook. No matter what happens if this shows a real effect on us reducing energy then maybe it will be coming to a house near you.