Goal For The Green

OK, so it does take some time and effort to be a conscientious recycler. However, in most areas there are now recycle depots, that make the job much easier. Yes, most Waste Management, facilities offer single stream pick-up , which for those of us who pay for that convenience, it means no more separating our trash.

We have always had our own system, and chosen not to pay the near $40 a month, for garbage pick-up. The one peeve, that has always bothered me though, is the menace of, “What About Styrofoam?”

Thankfully, Marilyn Lauderdale of Kent WA, asked herself the same question.

“Somebody needs to do this. Why not me?”

The “this” that is the question, is figuring out how to keep the untold thousands of pounds of expanded polystyrene foam (eps) – better known by the trademark name, Styrofoam – out of landfills. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever wondered how much carbon dioxide your blog creates?

According to a study by Alexander Wissner-Gross, PhD, physicist at Harvard University and environmental activist, an average website causes about 0.02g (0,0008oz.) of carbon dioxide for each visit. Assuming an average blog gets 15,000 visits a month, it has yearly carbon dioxide emissions of 3,6kg (8lb.). This can mainly be tracked back to the immense energy usage from (mainframe) computers, servers, and their cooling systems. Read the rest of this entry »

This post is in helpful response, to a request from Software Advice, a website that reviews retail point of sale software.  They want to get rid of paper receipts. It is a peeve of mine, and I agree with the idea enthusiastically.  So, they’ve asked members of the green community to weigh in by taking a short poll. You can take the short poll here:

Software Advice thinks paper receipts represent a wasteful vestige of the last millennium. There is no reason – legal or otherwise – why consumers or retailers, need paper receipts. Electronic receipts are completely valid and they are far more efficient.

Moreover, the production of paper receipts, does some real damage to our environment. For example, 9,600,000 million trees are cut down each year just to produce paper receipts. Additionally, roughly 2,278 lbs of trash is produced during the production of a single ton of receipt paper. This means 1,457,920,000 lbs of trash are being fed into our landfill just to make receipts (according to AllEtronic).

So, what will it take to end paper receipts? Strong incentives, primarily monetary incentives. We need to motivate consumers and retailers, to push toward the vision of paperless retail purchases. To see a list of motivations, and continue reading their article, please visit: Please Kill the Paper Receipt If you didn’t take the poll, at the link at the top of this post, be sure to take it at the above linked article.  This poll is very important, as is your participation in it, because thermal receipt paper cannot be recycled!