Get Paid For Your Old Electronics

If you're like me, you probably have a decent collection of old cell phones, video game systems, MP3 players, etc. Every year or two I seem to upgrade my gadgets and am left wondering what to do with the old ones. In the past, I've simply given them to Goodwill (which is still a decent way to get rid of things). However, with the IRS cracking down on charity donations and the issues around disposal of electronics (putting them in landfills is not good for the environment), I started wondering if there were better ways to get rid of this stuff. Turns out there are ways that I can both help the environment and make some money!

Second Rotation is a site that buys back all kinds of electronics - cell phones, digital cameras, video game consoles, MP3 players, etc. - and extends their life by selling them in markets where the technology is still viable or in demand. You enter your device, give the details about it (what condition it's in, etc.), mail it to them, and get paid. If your device can't be resold, they'll recycle it in an environmentally friendly way.

TechForward works a little differently - but the concept is the same. This site allows you to lock in a future trade value for your unwanted devices. I have an 80GB IPod that I know I may not want in a year. I can go to the site, tell them that I will send the IPod in one year from now, and lock in a trade value for the IPod. Once I'm locked in, I am guaranteed to get the amount that they promise - AND if I decide I don't want to send it in a year from now, I'm free to walk away! Just like Second Rotation, these items are sold in other markets and, if they're unsellable, are recycled in environmentally friendly ways.

There are a number of sites popping up around the net that offer this type of service. So - next time you're thinking of getting rid of a piece of electronics, think again. You may be able to pocket some cash in the process!

Stop Getting Phone Books

I remember, once upon a time, when you got a new phone book once per year and/or when you moved to a new residence. Those days are apparently gone. I swear I get a new phone book about once per month. I've got a giant stack of them under the island in my kitchen and I hardly, if ever, use them. These days, they even come in different sizes. I have a miniature version of the yellow pages that contains the exact same listings just in smaller print! Amazing. With the advent of the internet, who needs the print versions anymore. If you need a number, go to YellowPages.com or WhoWhere.com or 411.com.

If you want them to stop dropping new phone books off at your house every month (or however often you get one) and you live in an area served by AT&T (formerly BellSouth in my area), here's the number to call: 1-800-682-4000. Save a tree, some ink, some gas and some room under the island in your kitchen!

What's in Your Milk?

Britney and I recently had to make a decision on what kind of milk we were going to buy for Bailey. Bailey has recently made the switch from baby formula to whole milk and we're now faced with making a choice about the type of milk she should be drinking.

You may be asking why this is even an issue. I know that when Britney brought it up at the store the other day, I thought she was crazy. Whole milk is whole milk and the store brand is just fine. Wrong. All I had to do was a little digging to find out that what most of us don't know IS hurting us.

The sad fact of the matter is that, unless your milk is clearly labeled as hormone free, it contains Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH). This is a hormone that was approved by the FDA in 1993 for use in dairy cows to increase their milk production. This hormone, when injected into the cow, also elevates levels of a powerful growth hormone called IGF-1. Numerous studies have linked elevated IGF-1 with increased cancer rates in humans. The studies aren't conclusive - but that's a risk that I'm not willing to take with my child.

rBGH has also proved to increase the incidence of health problems in treated cows. Mastitis, a painful udder infection, is much more common in injected cows. This is treated using antibiotics - many are the same antibiotics used to treat infections in humans. Studies are also showing that bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics is being passed to humans through dairy products - all because of the use of rBGH.

Finally, rBGH has been proven to increase other health problems in cows. Birth disorders, increased rates of pus in milk (gross), heat stress, hoof problems - all caused by the use of the rBGH hormone. That, to me, sounds like something to avoid.

How serious is this issue? Serious enough for countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and all 25 countries in the European Union to ban the use of rBGH. Unfortunately, our government has opted to allow its use.

What can you do? Well - depending on where you live, you probably have a couple of options. You can buy organic milk which is hormone free by definition. That, however, is going to cost you a pretty penny - about $2.00 more per gallon. Fortunately, in our area, there is a Trader Joe's store. Trader Joe's is one of the few grocery chains that has taken a stand against the use of hormones in their milk and their non-organic milk is rBGH free. That's the option we're taking - as their milk price is only ten cents more per gallon than our store brand.

If you want to read more about this, start HERE - a good report produced by the Physicians for Social Responsibility. Also - keep in mind that ANY dairy product made in the US is likely to contain the hormone (cheese, etc.). If you don't see the 'hormone free' label and/or it's not made in Europe or Canada, rBGH is probably in it.

My 'Green' Posting for Today - 11/14/2007

I recently read an interesting article in a UK newspaper about whether it was 'greener' to use the ubiquitous paper coffee cups offered at every coffee shop I know of or if it made more sense to use the ceramic coffee cups that they offer and then wash/re-use. The answer really surprised me.

According to a research study done in the early 1990s (Dr Martin Hocking - Reusable and Disposable Cups: an Energy-Based Evaluation), you would have to use a ceramic cup over 1,000 times to break even, from an energy use standpoint, with its paper counterpart. Why? Because the kilns that are used to produce the ceramic cup are extraordinarily energy intensive, because you have to use energy to run the cups through a dishwasher, and because ceramic cups break. So, given that fact, Starbucks is doing the right thing by offering their coffee in over 2.3 BILLION paper cups per year right? Not so fast.

The problem with the paper cups like the ones used at Starbucks is that they are coated with a polyethylene plastic - the stuff that keeps the coffee from soaking through the cup and burning you (thus allowing you to sue Starbucks for millions). Most recycling plans do not have the ability to separate the plastic coated inside from the paper shell - rendering these cups unrecyclable. There are also those little white plastic lids to account for. Those things, for the most part, are also unrecyclable.

What should you do given all of this? Take your own cup. My Starbucks fills up my coffee tumbler for $0.43 - a savings of $1.50 each time I use it. I wash this thing by hand (because it says I have to) so there is no dishwasher energy consumed and less likelihood of it breaking. So - the next time you have the choice between paper or ceramic, choose neither and hand them the cup you bring for yourself!

My 'Green' Posting for Today - 10/30/2007

Today's green post is not only eco-friendly, it's also extremely helpful because it helps alleviate one of life's major annoyances - junk mail.

Junk mail is a $40 BILLION industry. The average household receives 41 pounds of junk mail a year. To produce that much mail, over 100 million trees are cut down each year, over 28 billion gallons of water are consumed, and more than $320 million in local taxes is spent disposing of the junk mail (either spent on recycling or on dumping paper in a landfill). ProQuo is a site that puts you in control and helps you eliminate (at least partially) the stream of junk filling your mail box.

Here's how it works - go to ProQuo and register for an account. You then get to a screen where you can opt out of several direct mail lists such as coupons and weekly circulars (think ValPak) and marketing lists and data brokers. ProQuo even has a 'stop all' button which allows you to opt out of everything! Now - it's not entirely that simple. Some organizations require written notice - but ProQuo helps you there too - helping you print off the letter that you need to mail and prepopulating the letter for you.

The service is completely free (unlike some of the other services out there) and, in return, you agree to allow ProQuo to advertise products to you on their site in case you want to 'opt in' and receive info on them (which you don't). They claim they can reduce up to 90% of the junk mail you receive and you should start seeing results in about 4 weeks.

My 'Green' Posting for Today - 10/25/2007

I recently listened to a speech given by former Vice President Al Gore on Global Warming. I'm not going to go into whether or not I agree with the politics of Global Warming or even whether or not I believe that Global Warming is actually happening. That is something that, frankly, I'm not informed enough to have an informed opinion on - so I'll keep my mouth shut. There was, however, one specific part of Gore's speech that I found thought provoking. It was a quote from the late Carl Sagan, a famed American astronomer:

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

Thought provoking isn't it?

My 'Green' Posting for Today

This is scary and ridiculous. Read this article from the San Francisco Chronicle. It relates to one of my postings from last week about the use of plastic bags. Apparently there is something called "The Great Pacific Garbage Patch" and it floats in the rarely travelled waters between San Francisco and Hawaii. It started developing in the 1950's and is composed of 80% plastics. Want to know what's most concerning about this "toxic swamp"? IT'S TWICE THE SIZE OF TEXAS! Texas is the size of New England, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania combined. This garbage heap is twice that size, grows 10% per year, and will cost in the billions to remove. Yikes.

Quick - go here or here and buy some reusable grocery bags!

Are You Green?

I'll be the first person to admit that I'm not (or historically haven't been) what you'd call a 'green' person. By 'green', I mean earth friendly. I have long regarded people that were into earth friendliness as tree hugging, left wing liberals that had no understanding of what it takes to grow an economy and no regard for the beliefs that I hold dear when it comes to things like religion and/or politics. Recently, however, I've been reevaluating my stance.

I was alarmed recently when I read a statistic that said that only 50% of the households in Matthews recycle. Britney and I are faithful recyclers of all our paper, plastic, and cans. Why? Because it's really easy and it's our nod to trying to help out a little. Given that we all have to take our trash out to the street each week anyway, is it really too much to ask to at least segregate your trash and throw the recylables into a different container? Apparently 50% of us in Matthews think it is too much to ask. That's pretty weak.

I also recently heard on NPR that the city of San Francisco is preparing to outlaw plastic grocery bags. Why? Because they are virtually impossible to do anything with. They're so flimsy that they are hard to reuse and they're so 'fly away' that their hard to recycle in any large quantity. Do you know where most of them end up (even IF you throw them in the recycle bin)? They end up being shipped in bulk to third world countries where there are more lax regulations regarding air quality and they end up being burned. Paper bags? Not much better. They're extremely expensive to produce, cause a TON of pollution (50 times more pollutants than plastic bags!), require trees to be cut down, etc.

So...what to do about this mess? I'm not prepared (yet) to start a compost heap in my backyard or stop flushing if it's not a #2 (some recommend this practice - I'm against it). I am, however, willing to do the following:

- Buy some reusable grocery bags (they cost like $2.00) and stop getting paper OR plastic

- Turn off the water while I brush my teeth (saves 3 gallons of water per day)

- Put a plastic quart bottle of water in my toilet tank (45% of the water you use in your home goes down the toilet or shower drain and this reduces the amount flushed by 1/3)

- Use recycled ink cartridges in my printer (it's cheaper AND eco-friendly)

That's just a start. Are you willing to do anything? Do you care? You should! If you want some ideas on how to make minor changes that make a big difference (and don't require you to stop showering and join a hippie commune), check out these sites for ideas:

Ideal Bite - http://www.idealbite.com
EcoJoes - http://www.ecojoes.com
TreeHugger - http://www.treehugger.com