Tag: RECYCLING

Electronic waste is quickly becoming a major concern, as cell phones, PCs, and other gadgets have started piling high in landfills around the world -- especially in developing nations. Poorer countries often snatch up the garbage in hopes of harvesting the minute amounts of precious metals lurking in their circuitry. However, the methods used in these countries is often inefficient and harmful ...

What happens to your old electronic device when you upgrade to a newer model? Do you dump your cell phone in the trash? Toss that old desktop into a dumpster? Many people do, but they don't consider where this waste eventually ends up. According to BBC News, much of this "e-waste" finds its way to developing nations, and it could lead to major problems in the future. A U.N. report stated that ...

Imagine if you had to walk to work on a prosthetic foot. It's a sobering reality, but many Americans do it every day. Dragging around such a limb takes a lot of effort, but a new prototype could make it easier by recycling the energy a wearer would typically expend between steps. According to Inhabitat, when walking, we spend most of our energy transitioning from one foot to the other; ...

Some people just don't know when to get rid of a t-shirt. Face it, that shirt from college doesn't fit you five years and 20 pounds later. We're not saying you ought to throw it in the trash, but why not consider putting it to new use? That's where the upstart company Hello Rewind comes into play. According to Engadget, the company recycles old shirts into soft, custom laptop sleeves. Just pay ...

If your office is searching for a new way to go "green," we might have found just the (bizarre) solution. Don't let the name throw you. The White Goat recycles all that excess office paper into rolls of beautiful, white TP. According to DVICE, just dump in the shredded equivalent of 40 sheets of paper, add some water, and, 30 minutes later, you'll have a roll of toilet paper. (Check out a ...

That aging, tube-style TV or monitor in the basement is like a personal Superfund site. It's filled with poisonous lead, cadmium and mercury, yet only 10 percent of CRT TVs and monitors are recycled every year. In many states, recycling these devices is now mandatory, anyway, so check Earth911.org to find recycling locations near you. ...

The next time you buy printer ink, check to see if the store will accept your old cartridge for recycling; doing so will not only keep it out of a landfill, but can also save a half-gallon of oil that would be used in manufacturing a new one. Staples offers a $3 discount on replacement cartridges from popular brands like HP, Dell and Lexmark. ...

We had a feeling that people are having problems erasing the personal and sensitive data on their gadgets before recycling or reselling them. After the election, McCain campaign staffers had their BlackBerrys resold. This wouldn't have been a problem if the phones hadn't been loaded with information (including phone numbers and e-mail addresses) about donors, organizers, and other politicians. And ...

The Brits get all the cool stuff -- Queen Elizabeth II, The Sex Pistols... and now a rubbish truck that runs on rubbish (sort of). That's right: up in Huddersfield they've just unleashed a modded three-and-a-half ton Smith Edison Ford Transit garbage truck that tools around, picking up garbage, hauls it to a nearby Energy from Waste power station and recycling center which then burns the 'bage ...

In 2008, Hong Kong authorities stopped 41 U.S. ship containers trying to carry 1.4 million pounds of "e-waste" and 82,000 pounds of lead into the region for disposal, according to USA Today. While governmental authorities can prevent some of this technological refuse from entering their country, Jim Puckett, the head of non-profit, watchdog group Basel Action Network (BAN), says that they cannot ...

Thank heavens -- the $154 million water recycling system, which is designed to convert sweat, moisture and urine into an ingestible fluid, um, works. According to NASA, the Urine Processor Assembly (UPA) managed to get through three rigorous testing sessions, and apparently that was good enough for officials to leave it in orbit. So yeah, theoretically we now have a way to keep long-term space ...

As is the case with many businesses these days, high-tech recyclers have a tough row to hoe in light of current economic circumstances, according to Boing Boing. One California recycler, ACCRC, has seen a significant drop in profits since the market for scrap metal has started its sharp decline. While business had boomed for such companies during the recent heyday of copper and scrap metal, ...

var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/world_news/China_s_Wasteland_of_toxic_e_waste'; Any self-respecting gadget hound knows that China is responsible for packing millions of shipping containers with the consumer electronics we crave. What you may not know is what we ship in return: our waste for recycling. Of growing concern is e-waste, resulting from the deluge of PCs, cellphones, televisions ...

Ever taken home some office supplies from the office? Maybe a Post-It pad or two, hmm? Yeah, we thought so. It's okay; usually, the boss doesn't mind so long as you keep it to a minimum. If you were to, say, take home 100 computer pieces and nearly 20,000 other miscellaneous pieces of office equipment over a 10-year period, though, that's liable to get you in trouble, as one I.T. staffer in ...

If "going green" sounds great but not quite groovy enough to "get off the sofa," Unplggd has compiled seven ways for you to do some good without doing too much ... anything. The tips range from recycling your obsolete gadgets to swapping out your incandescent bulbs for energy-saving CFL alternatives (which use 80 percent less energy). Some tips are a bit obvious ("wash your clothes on lower ...