Recycling

Recycling Plastic bags; it’s the law in California

After many to ban or limit the use of plastic bags and to encourage reusable bags, Assemble Bill (AB) 2449 was adopted by the California legislature; the Governor signed the legislation on September 30, 2006 and became effective on July 1, 2007. Law preempts municipalities from charging a fee to use plastic bags.

Cities such as San Francisco and Malibu were successfully banned the use of plastic bags circumventing the law and without a court challenge. Others cities such as Oakland lost similar attempts at court. Much of the challenges were based on the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). However, cities such as Manhattan Beach, Fairfax and Palo Alto were managed to save theirs with modifications.

As required by AB 2449, retailers are to take back plastic bags and recycle them, provide opportunities for reuse of bags, provide public education for recycling and label bags to promote recycling.

Subsequent attempt by AB 1998 to ban certain types of carryout plastic bags altogether, to impose a 5 cent charge on paper bags and to encourage reusable bags, lost in California Senate 14-21 on August 31, 2010.

How to reduce global warming from home

If you want to do your bit to save the word you need look no further than your own home to start. We all know the effect global warming is having on our planet; here are some things you can do to lessen the impact.

Recycle: re use anything that can be re used. Do not purchase new plastic containers re use the empty containers, re use plastic bags at the supermarket. Plastics cause so much damage to the environment.

CFL bulbs: these energy efficient bulbs use a lot less energy than conventional bulbs.

When buying new household appliances, buy energy and water efficient appliances.

Save energy use in the house by switching off unused appliances, even when in stand by mode they use considerable amounts of energy, make sure the house is well insulated to maximize the use of heating and air conditioning. Make sure all appliances are well serviced to ensure minimum energy consumption.

Plant plenty of trees in and around your garden. They clean the air around you and help keep the surroundings cooler, reducing the need for air conditioning.

Produce your own energy at home such as solar and wind power.

Use a hybrid car to reduce emissions.

SellCell.com Helps Consumers Sell Cell Phones

There are few online resources as valuable and practical as SellCell.com, the cell phone recycling price comparison site designed to help consumers like sell phones and receive the most cash for it.

With its simple, user-friendly site and quick turnaround time, SellCell.com, is making a name for itself.

We all know that old, unwanted, and broken cell phones should be recycled. But who has the time to find (and drive to) a recycling drop off center? However, through SellCell.com consumers can mail in their used cell phones and receive cash for it. Here’s how:

• Find your cell phone. Use the simple search box at the top of the home page to find your cell phone.

• Choose the best deal. After you have found your cell phone, you will be presented with prices from all the leading cell phone buyers on the market. Browse the prices to find the best deal on the Internet.

• Send in your phone for FREE. Once you’ve selected the recycler you wish to sell your cell phone to, simply mail your phone to the company without spending any money.

• Receive your money. After you have mailed in your cell phone, you’re done. Simply wait for your money or vouchers to arrive in the mail!

Sell Cell Phones For The Best Price

Most of us know by now that recycling electronics such as old cell phones is good for the environment. But what many of us may not know is that recycling old cell phones can provide us with some much-needed cash. 

So how much money can you get for recycling your old, unwanted or broken cell phone? It’s hard to say. The Internet is cluttered with thousands of cell phone recycle programs, making it difficult for anyone to determine whether they’re getting the most value for their Motorola Droid or BlackBerry Storm. But there is one recycling price comparison site called SellCell.com that is changing all that.  

SellCell.com is America’s number one cell phone recycling price comparison website that allows users to compare and find the best prices on old and new cell phones. If your personal junk drawer is overflowing with old cell phones and cell phone chargers, it’s time to find out how much you can get for these items waiting to be recycled. Sell Cell compares prices from leading phone buyers so that you don’t have to. What’s more, Sell Cell guarantees the best possible price!

And if you think that SellCell.com and other cell phone recycling programs accept only working cell phones, think again. Sell Cell offers price quotes for end-of-life cell phones. This means your broken cell phone can be mailed in for cash. In fact, according to the company, you can still get up to 90 percent of the value of your phone even if it is damaged or broken.

Although cell phone recycling programs should be common knowledge by now, only 10 percent of cell phones are disposed of properly each year, according to the EPA. This is why SellCell.com makes it easy for people to recycle their cell phones and receive the best possible price.

When is the best time to give away your old cell phone? Think about recycling your cell phone when it’s time to upgrade to a new cell phone or when it breaks.

Battery Recycling

Americans purchase nearly 3 billion batteries a year. Improper disposal of batteries is an environmental hazard. Batteries contain strong corrosive acids and heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and nickel. If burned, some of these metals are released into the air, polluting lakes and streams. Improper battery disposal makes landfills more hazardous, as these heavy metals leak from waste. 

Recycling batteries keeps harmful metals out of landfills, air, and water, also saving resources because plastic and metals recovered from old batteries are used to make new batteries. Some batteries, such as regular flashlight batteries, can safely be thrown in the trash, but it is still better to recycle them. 

In 1996, the “Mercury-Containing and Rechargeable Battery Management Act” was passed, phasing mercury out of certain types of batteries. The decline of mercury use in batteries continues today. The alkaline battery, for example, have no added mercury. Silver-oxide and zinc-air button batteries contain less mercury today and are gradually replacing mercuric-oxide batteries.
A few steps can be taken to reduce household battery waste: don’t buy new batteries if you already have some you can use; use hand operated products eliminating the need for batteries; and look for batteries containing less mercury and other harmful heavy metals. Rechargeable batteries are also useful in eliminating the need to buy, use, and dispose of batteries. However, they contain heavy metals, do not last forever, and must be disposed of properly. 

The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation can help you find the proper places to recycle your used batteries.

Thai tech pioneer presents breakthrough in recycling

A technology pioneer in Thailand who found his own scientific research firm has discovered a way to convert waste into wealth—by converting laminated paper to reusable plastic. He demonstrates his invention by dropping a small laminated piece of paper into a jar that contains some cloudy liquid. In a few minutes, he holds up the paper under flowing tap water to help wash down paper pulp, revealing a clear piece of plastic film. With his invention, he hopes to grow his young business into a multimillion dollar entity.

Sangchai’s company, Flexoresearch, is in the late stages of developing a series of blended enzymes that strips paper pulps or fibers from laminated material such as milk cartons, stickers and cigarette packets, separating it from plastic and thus making it possible to recycle similar waste materials. An enzyme in the mixture first breaks down the coat of water resistant chemical on the surface, and then the other enzymes step in to strip down all the paper fibers, pulps and adhesive layers, isolating the plastic material. The pulp that the enzymes retrieve can thus be recycled to save trees, or to serve as an asbestos alternative to help combat lunch cancer caused by asbestos fibers.

His firm’s research is currently the first of its kind in the entire globe. Apart from being able to recover paper pulp, plastics can be recovered safely as well without adverse side effects to health, thus hitting two birds with one stone by being able to recover two materials from a single waste product. Thus, Sangchai’s firm was named by the World Economic Forum as one of 31 “Technology Pioneers”, which says that Flexoresearch technology will be able to reduce asbestos use globally and thus have a direct positive impact on health.

Grassroots Environmental Movement Begins $5,000 Contest

New grass roots movements are launched everyday around America and other nations across the world, encouraging citizens to stand up for something they believe in. These movements can be anything from something small-scale and simple, such as promoting public safety in the local neighborhood, or to something much wider in scope, such as an entire national political movement.

A movement known as Paper Retriever, which is a community paper-recycling program, asks individuals to share their input on how recycling impacts your local and global environment. The movement is offering a prize of $5,000 for the grand prize winner, who will create a winning original piece of artwork, photograph, video, or written word to show how recycling impacts the environment. Winners will also receive a $500 dollar donation to a local Paper Retriever center, helping to promote community recycling programs.

Their aim is to help educate individuals on how recycling can truly make a difference in their ecosystem. Paper Retriever is a grassroots movement formed of a conglomerate of non-profit organizations, who have raised a collective $3.8 million dollars since the program’s inception from over 15,000 contributing organizations.

Contest winners will be announced on the official “America Recycles Day” celebration on November 15, 2010. Everyone is invited to participate, so long as they are able to create an original submission. Judges will pick the best submission and runner-up submissions for honorable mentions and a permanent featured location for the top projects on the official website of Paper Retriever. 

Paper Retriever once again reminds us that creativity is the fuel of human progress.

The New Recycling of Electronic Waste

The tech boom has brought a lot of additional benefits to modern human society, not the least of which being less paper generated to fill up landfills. However, the new use of computers and laptops has created a new type of waste. The new waste that is being created when people trade out their old computers, is dubbed ‘e-waste’, due to its electronic nature, and it is also generating problems for landfills and other trash disposal systems.

Going Green Computers, a company founded by Bradley Frick in Illinois, has been working to recycle old computers so that they don’t end up in our nations’ landfills. The landfills are already crowded, and companies such as Frick’s intend to keep as many laptops and used desktop computers out of those landfills. Currently it is estimated that only 13% of disposed computers are recycled, even though they make up the fastest growing segment of waste today.

By stripping down old computers for parts before they end up in a landfill, companies like Going Green provide a needed service to the community. Many times as businesses and schools replace their aging computers, they would rather not simply toss the old ones into the trash, so recycling companies will come, pick them up and begin the recycling process so that the parts can be used again.

It is a scenario with several winners; first, the schools are able to remove their old systems without having to haul them away or create more waste. Secondly, the recycling company makes a profit from the resale.

Environment Minister visits Bridgwater recycling depot

ENVIRONMENT Minister Lord Henley today visited Bridgwater to learn about the progress in waste reduction and recycling.

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Environment Minister visits Bridgwater recycling depot

Eastern Environment Announces 1071% Year-Over-Year and 230% Sequential Increase in Revenue for the Second Quarter of …

NEW YORK and HARBIN, China — Eastern Environment Solutions Corp. , a leading provider of municipal solid waste processing and disposal services in northeast China, today announced its results of the second quarter of 2010 and provided an update on its landfill operations and newly launched plastic bottle recycling business.

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Eastern Environment Announces 1071% Year-Over-Year and 230% Sequential Increase in Revenue for the Second Quarter of …

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