Renewables At Home » Recycling

A greener way to get rid of your old car

thomas — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:37:08 +0000

Do you have an old car that’s reached the end of its useful life? Whether you’re getting a new one or have decided to live without a car altogether; make sure you dispose of it properly.

A car contains quite a selection of materials. Some of them are hazardous waste, many of them can be recycled. None of them should be dumped in a landfill and left to leak out into the environment.

By leaving your car with a proper green car disposal service, you ensure that it’s handled in a responsible manner. Hazardous waste will be dealt with properly. Recyclable materials will be stripped from the car and put to good use.

Where can I dispose of my car in a green way?

If you’re in Europe, chances are vehicle manufacturers are the ones ultimately responsible for handling old vehicles in an environmentally sound manner.

If you’re in the USA or Canada, Green Vehicle Disposal is a good option. They have a North America-wide network of car recyclers that will dispose of your car greenly.

If you’re in a generous mood, you could go for a double whammy and have the proceeds of your green car disposal go to the charity of your choice – see CharityCar.us for details.

Green Music Special: No littering, please

thomas — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:29:24 +0000

Stuff thousands of people into a small area.

Let them eat and drink and make out and enjoy great concerts.

What do you get? A kick ass festival.

And probably a big mess of mud, cigarette butts, food leftovers, pizza boxes, plastic cups, bottles and wrecked camping chairs…

…unless you have a plan for dealing with that mess, of course!

A master plan

Right from its very inception in 1999, the organizers of music festival Øyafestivalen has made efforts to handle the festival waste in a responsible manner.

While results were mixed for the first couple of years, their third year saw them sink their teeth into an ambitious plan for recycling and waste management.

Working with several industry partners and NGOs, they meticulously worked out a plan to minimize the amount of waste generated and recycle what they did generate.

Every year since, this plan has been honed and improved upon, reaching a recycling percentage of 67,21 for the 2008 edition of the festival.

The total amount of trash generated by the festival in 2008 was 39 tons – a meagre 500 grams (1.1 pounds) per visitor.

Few festivals are able to match this, but the goal for each year is always to improve on the previous year’s results. Here are the highlights of what Øyafestivalen is doing in 2009 to further improve their waste management program:

No flyers, bottles or camping gear allowed
What isn’t there, can’t litter. Several seating areas and easily recyclable GreenSeats are available for sore festival backs.
A comprehensive deposit system
Highly popular among children and broke students; anyone returning used cups, pizza boxes, popcorn boxes and cigarette butts get paid for their efforts.
A lot of fractions
Waste is sorted into 4 fractions in the visitor’s area, and then further sorted into 14 sub-fractions in the festival’s waste management station. Fine-grained fractions ensure the festival can sell their waste as raw materials.
A fantastic partner
Partner organization Natur og Ungdom (“Nature and Youth”) and its squads of volunteers continually patrol the festival site to keep it clean. They also do the sub-fraction sorting previously mentioned.
Recycling station in visitor’s area
A manned recycling station is placed slap bang in the middle of the visitor’s area.

Information about environmental issues and the festival’s relevant policies are prominent, a good example of greening by talking about yourself.

Want to read more about music and green issues? Take a look at the other posts in the Renewables At Home Green Music Special.

Cleaning up when you break a CFL light bulb

thomas — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:57:07 +0000

Here’s the first thing to do if you break one of your CFL light bulbs: Don’t panic.

While there is some mercury in CFLs, your health won’t be ruined just because you break one of them. Or three, for that matter.

That being said, mercury is harmful enough to warrant some extra precautions if you’re unlucky enough to spill it in your home.

The following instructions were copied from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s mercury spill page, which also has instructions for cleaning up more significant mercury spills (which you would get if, say, you broke a mercury thermometer).

Before clean-up:
Air out the room

Have people and pets leave the room, and don’t let anyone walk through the breakage area on their way out.
Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more.
Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.

Clean-up steps for hard surfaces

Carefully scoop up glass pieces and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
Wipe the area clean with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place towels in the glass jar or plastic bag.
Do not use a vacuum or broom to clean up the broken bulb on hard surfaces.

Clean-up steps for carpeting or rugs

Carefully pick up glass fragments and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
If vacuuming is needed after all visible materials are removed, vacuum the area where the bulb was broken.
Remove the vacuum bag (or empty and wipe the canister), and put the bag or vacuum debris in a sealed plastic bag.

Clean-up steps for clothing, bedding and other soft materials

If clothing or bedding materials come in direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from inside the bulb that may stick to the fabric, the clothing or bedding should be thrown away. Do not wash such clothing or bedding because mercury fragments in the clothing may contaminate the machine and/or pollute sewage.
You can, however, wash clothing or other materials that have been exposed to the mercury vapor from a broken CFL, such as the clothing you are wearing when you cleaned up the broken CFL, as long as that clothing has not come into direct contact with the materials from the broken bulb.
If shoes come into direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from the bulb, wipe them off with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place the towels or wipes in a glass jar or plastic bag for disposal.

Disposal of clean-up materials

Immediately place all clean-up materials outdoors in a trash container or protected area for the next normal trash pickup.
Wash your hands after disposing of the jars or plastic bags containing clean-up materials.
Check with your local or state government about disposal requirements in your specific area. Some states do not allow such trash disposal. Instead, they require that broken and unbroken mercury-containing bulbs be taken to a local recycling center.

Future cleaning of carpeting or rug: Air out the room during and after vacuuming

The next several times you vacuum, shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system and open a window before vacuuming.
Keep the central heating/air conditioning system shut off and the window open for at least 15 minutes after vacuuming is completed.

Think the above sounds like a bit of a hassle? Don’t worry – it’s very unlikely that you’ll ever break a CFL in the first place. In fact, if you’re careful, this post might end up being completely useless for you

PS: Remember that all light bulbs should be recycled properly – whether they’re broken or not. This includes the regular incandescent variety (it contains lead).

Plastic bags suck

thomas — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:42:37 +0000

Really. They suck big time. In fact, plastic bags are quite a bit like elevator music:

they seemingly show up everywhere
they hypnotize people into thinking they need them
they make people spend money on stuff they don’t really need
they sort of serve a purpose, but are doing a poor job of it
there are vastly superior alternatives available

(If you want some less rant-like information about how plastic bags affect the environment, I recommend reading the posts that are sure to pop up in reply to Reduce Footprints’ challenge, reinforced on Adventures into green.)

In the above mentioned challenge, readers and bloggers alike are encouraged to refuse plastic bags for 7 days or write about why plastic bags are bad for the environment.

Instead of detailing the whys and hows of plastic bag pollution, my take on it will be some practical advice about how one might go about kicking a plastic bag habit.

Did you notice that? I said “plastic bag habit“.

That’s what it is – a habit. Ninety-nine percent of the time, there really is no need to accept the plastic bags you’re offered everywhere.

Here’s a quick list that should help you through a full week of plastic bag resistance, hopefully letting you emerge on the other side fully weaned of the habit:

The next time you’re buying something, ask yourself: Do I really need a bag at all? If you’re just buying small stuff like a DVD or a bag of toilet paper, why not just carry it with your hands, bag-free?
Buy several reusable bags for your shopping trips:
- Two or more large, sturdy ones for the planned, fill-up-your-cart shopping trips. Since you’ll be using these on planned trips, you can keep them at home. Alternately, a set of these bags for each of your family’s cars.
- One or two light-weight (but still reasonably durable) ones that fold easily into small packages. Keep these in your pocket, purse, briefcase or whatever. These are good for lighter loads on the way home from work.
Always put the bags back where they belong once you’ve emptied them of their contents. Don’t worry, once you’ve nagged yourself into doing this for a little while, you’ll start doing it without conscious effort.
Alternatively, if you keep your bags in your car and can’t be bothered to put them back there once they’re empty, hang them somewhere easily visible near the door and pick them up the next time you’re going to the car.

That’s all very well, you might say, but what will I use for my garbage when I no longer get plastic grocery bags?

Well, that’s easy to answer: You buy plastic bags and use those for your garbage.

Huh? Wasn’t the whole point getting rid of plastic bags? And now I want you to buy them?

Yes. And yes.

But I don’t want you to go out and buy any old roll of plastic garbage bags.

There are good alternatives to regular plastic trash bags. One of them are BioBag, um, bags.

BioBag makes trash bags from corn starch, fully compostable. There are also bags for your dog’s business.

PS: Speaking of business – albeit a very different kind of business than the kind mentioned in the above paragraph: If you work in or run a UK business and you’re having trouble getting started on “greening” it, you might want to contact greenhouse environmental management.

the green house (that’s how they spell their name, lower case and all) provides businesses with tailored waste management programs to minimise their waste output and costs. I don’t have any personal experience with them, but they seem to have a solid portfolio of previous customers.

6 reasons why you worry too much about the mercury in CFLs

thomas — Mon, 25 May 2009 17:04:46 +0000

Mercury is bad for you. Very bad. And it’s equally bad for most animals and plants.

CFL light bulbs contain mercury.

That means no-one should buy or use them, right? Wrong. Read on to find out why.

Don’t get me wrong – CFL light bulbs are still hazardous waste. I just think the whole mercury issue has been blown out of proportion. Here are my reasons for thinking so:

You won’t break them…
…as long as you handle them responsibly. Take extra care whenever you’re replacing bulbs, and don’t put a CFL in a lamp that’s exposed to investigating children, excessive vibrations, things that might fall on it etc.
They last a long time
With a typical lifespan of 10000 hours – ten times that of an incandescent – you won’t have to handle them very often.
You know how to recycle them
Or at least you will know, after reading my previous post Light bulbs are hazardous waste. As long as they’re recycled properly, the mercury in the CFLs won’t end up in the wrong places.
Coal power plants release mercury
A typical coal-fired power plant – which, regrettably, is what a significant portion of the Earth’s population get their electricity from – will release more than four times as much mercury to power an average incandescent bulb, than it will to power a comparable CFL bulb. With the typical mercury content of an un-recycled CFL added, the total release would still be well below that of an incandescent.
Incandescents are dirty, too
Incandescents contain lead. While not quite as critically toxic as mercury, lead still isn’t something you want released to the environment (see the post about hazardous waste referenced above). And since incandescents have a very short life span compared to CFLs, the potential amount of released lead is all the bigger.
CFL manufacturing can – and should – be done responsibly
CFLs in general has unfairly been blamed for the poisoning of hundreds of Chinese workers. While it’s certainly tragic that workers suffer from mercury poisoning, the technology itself can’t be held responsible. Clearly, the factory management is to blame. It’s perfectly feasible to manufacture CFLs without releasing mercury or poisoning your workers. Rather than swearing off a whole technology just because there are bad practitioners of it, one should support organisations that work to improve worker’s conditions and factories’ environmental policies.

So, do I think CFLs are a perfect solution, the be-all and end-all of indoor lighting? Not at all.

Mercury and lead free lighting would certainly be preferrable to the currently available options.

Luckily, we’ll soon have it. LED lightbulbs are steadily improving, and in a few years time they’ll be improved to the point that they’re the only sensible choice.

In the meantime, consider giving currently available LED light bulbs a test run, to show manufacturers that there’s a market for them.

Then, as they grow in quality and drop in price, we can start swapping out the old CFLs as they finally wear out (and recycle them properly, of course!)

Entertaining children with junk mail

thomas — Fri, 08 May 2009 21:16:13 +0000

Are you the unwilling victim of a constant deluge of junk mail? Is your budget for toys stretched? Does your toddler keep grabbing your newspapers and books to tear them apart?

Do not despair. These problems can all be alleviated in one fell swoop.

Every time a pile of junk mail precipitates its way onto your doorstep or into your mailbox, set it aside. Then, the next time you see your child setting its sights on the newly arrived Sunday newspaper, grab a handful from your junk mail stockpile and intercept the little one with it.

With any luck, your offspring will soon be thoroughly entertaining him- or herself by opening envelopes, studying all the pretty pictures and tearing, ripping and rending the publishing atrocities apart, leaving your newspaper unscathed.

When the carnage is over, you can put the remains into the paper recycling bin, happily in the knowledge that the junk mail was actually useful for a change.

PLEASE NOTE: Make sure there aren’t any small bits of plastic or anything else in the junk mail envelopes that your child could choke on or otherwise use to harm itself.

Light bulbs are hazardous waste

thomas — Sat, 02 May 2009 19:59:39 +0000

Light bulbs contain toxic heavy metals and other unpleasant substances. Therefore, they should be handled with care and treated as hazardous waste.

For simplicity’s sake, we’ll divide the bulbs into three groups:

Incandescent bulbs
LED bulbs
Everything else

Incandescent bulbs

Incandescent bulbs contain lead levels exceeding hazardous waste limits. If they’re thrown away in the regular garbage, this lead will sooner or later find its way into nature.

Lead is acutely and chronically poisonous to aquatic organisms and mammals. Even in small concentrations, lead poisoning may cause neurotoxic and immunologic problems. Lead can also cause fetal damage in humans and reduce fertility.

Lead accumulates in fish and mammals over time, and is only released at a very slow rate. Humans are mainly exposed to lead through polluted air and food.

LED bulbs

LED bulbs are relatively clean compared to other light sources, but since they in essence are electronic equipment, they should be recycled like a computer or other electronic equipment – but check with your local municipalities to make sure they end up where they should.

Everything else

This group includes, among others, fluorescent tubes and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). Other more uncommon types of bulbs and lamps – like sodium-vapor lamps and high intensity discharge lamps – also belong in this group.

They all contain mercury – some contain just traces of it, others contain pure mercury vapor. None of them should ever, ever be just thrown into the garbage.

Mercury is the most dangerous heavy metal there is. It vaporises at normal room temperature, and is therefore easily spread.

Mercury vapor is highly dangerous to breathe in, and can cause major damage to the lungs and the nervous system. Mercury will also damage fetuses, genes, livers and kidneys. It may also cause mental illness.

Mercury accumulates in plants and animals – including humans. Once absorbed, it won’t be naturally released again.

If you happen to break a bulb or tube containing mercury, mercury vapor will be released. If this happens, you should aerate the room with plenty of fresh air immediately, clean up the remains of the bulb – make sure you put it in an airtight container – and then leave and stay out of the room for at least 15 minutes.

Where to recycle bulbs and lamps

Luckily, all is not doom and gloom, even if there aren’t any available bulbs without harmful substances in them. If they’re recycled at the proper locations, the lead and mercury will be disposed of properly and not allowed to enter the ecosystem.

The appropriate place for recycling will vary between locations. In Europe, many countries require any dealer selling products containing hazardous materials to accept the same product types for proper disposal. In the US (and Europe), your local IKEA store will happily accept light bulbs for recycling.

There’s also the excellent website earth911.com, which will help you find recycling centers across USA.

If the above doesn’t help, most municipalities will have some sort of system for collecting hazardous waste – contact them for details. Don’t be afraid to sound your displeasure if the details are hard to find, or if there isn’t any proper system in place.