Of course, it wouldn’t hurt to give a little more attention to the other two R’s, especially purchasing products with post-consumer content which have been minimally downcycled. A fleece sweatshirt made of soda bottles is nicer than one made from Texas crude, but a bottle made from a bottle made from a bottle ad infitnitum is finer.
Office supply stores like Staples often have recycling programs1 for computers and peripherals, including cash back for ink and toner cartridges if you prefer not to bring them to a local refill business like InkTec Zone or Cartridge World franchise.
Staples is also offering $50 trade-in rebates on old printers through April 3. If you do opt for a new printer, be sure to look at reviews and specifications regarding durability, ink frugality, and power consumption.
1. The equipment is picked up and delivered to our recycling partner, Eco International, who disassembles the equipment into its component parts for environmentally responsible recycling in the U.S. (Staples Recycling FAQ)
Initial information provided by “k / total recycling”
For people who use real Christmas trees, the question comes up each year—should they switch to artificial? Our general rule is that reusable is better than disposable, but in this case, it’s not that simple.
The existing suggestions are available for perusal on GreenGov at right, below the video. They include (many copies) of the usual suspects, like occupation sensors for lights or double-sided printing, as well as gems such as:
Replace grass lawns that require mowing with wild flowers that do not. This will save on pollution from lawn mowers. —Kris, Bethesda
Good idea. That should also cut down on run-off and water used for irrigation, as well as providing useful habitat for wildlife Kris.
There are also disappointing revelations like:
Many employees have mini refrigerators to keep their lunch cold. Each one uses around $30 per year worth of electricity. We could encourage people to share and eliminate the extra ones by charging a fee of $20 per year for a refrigerator permit. —Carl, NIH
Why aren’t there communal (high-efficiency) fridges in the first place? They’re a standard fixture in most offices…
From Canada comes the rather amazing story of Cansolair, a company that reuses soda cans to make solar panels. Once installed, this soda/solar unit can provide up to 30% of the heating for your house. All this in the cloudy, foggy Labrador region. All without adding another CO2 particle to the environment. Maybe Coke knew it was onto something when they introduced this new flavor last year.
The World Environmental Organization has made available a recycling database that provides advice on how to extend the life of pretty much any household item you can think of. Given our economic circumstances, this could be useful for saving more than the environment.
A couple of Warm Home Cool Planet’s favorites:
.Baseball Bats: • Use for a plant support. • Keep in bedroom in case of an intruder.
Hairdryer: • Cut off electrical cord and let kids use for Dress-Up. • Let children use as a space laser.
Washing Machine: • Detach glass bubble from door of front-loading washing machine, wash thoroughly and use as a salad bowl.
Warm Home Cool Planet wants it’s readers to be as efficient as possible. That’s why we bring you stories from around the Web that help you live the life you want without increasing your carbon footprint. From our recent travels on the information superhighway, we’re pleased to note many other fine media outlets are also sharing information on keeping it green close to your body.
One of Warm Home Cool Planet’s favorite political sites, The Huffington Post, has figured readers might be all caught up on Barack Obama and ready for some other useful info. If you’re reading this article from the campus of one our fine educational institutions here in Cambridge, you’ll find this article on how to make your own hacky sack a must read.
Beyond the weird, the well intentioned, and all the other advice on recycling your old duds that could make you look a homeless person trying to get through winter, Warm Home Cool Planet has noticed a couple of welcome trends from clothing manufacturers. First, their ability to recycle other materials beyond the soda bottle used in your favorite fleece includes some interesting and inspired ideas.
Second, more clothing companies are taking back old clothing from customers and recycling themselves, including every greenies’ favorite premium label, Patagonia. Check out out this video where one of their sponsored climbers, Tim O’Neill dons a cape and attempts to rescue Japan from mountains of old underwear. Not quite the threat Godzilla represented to our friends in the land of the Rising Sun–but frightening nonetheless.
Eco-friendly moving? According to the New York Times, it’s already here. Best of all, you won’t have all those UHaul Boxes making your new place look like a warehouse for the next year or so.
They also stack a lot better than the random boxes you get from the local liquor store.
For those of you in the Boston area, check out Rentacrate, located in Waltham, MA. For everyone else, go to GreenMovers.com to see if there’s an ec0-friendly moving company near you.
Not “reading, writing and ‘rithmetic” but reduce, reuse and—most notably—recycling. The Boston Globe has an article reporting that Massachusetts recycling rates are stagnant, and relatively low. A rather timely report given the effort by numerous organizations to get Beacon Hill to update the bottle bill.
On Monday, as another step in 
