Hey HP and Canon – make it easier to recycle printers!

Have a computer or TV to recycle? There’s a free and convenient solution! Have a printer to recycle? It’s not so easy.

That’s why Zero Waste Washington is asking the two biggest printer manufacturers in the U.S. for free and convenient recycling programs for desktop printers. You can join us by sending postcards asking HP and Canon to step up and do more.

We’re asking for something called producer responsibility, and it’s already happening for computers and TVs here in Washington. Throughout the state, you can recycle your computers, monitors, and TVs through the E-Cycle Washington program. Zero Waste Washington fought hard for this manufacturer funded program and, as a result, over 39 million pounds of electronics were recycled last year. That’s about 2,200 units diverted from landfills and incinerators each and every day!

With this approach, manufacturers take responsibility for their products from “cradle to cradle,” including providing and paying for recycling programs. Residents, small business and schools can drop off their unwanted computers, monitors and TVs for free recycling at about 260 locations throughout Washington. The manufacturers have agreed to recycle responsibly, which helps keep our discarded computers and TVs – that contain mercury, lead and other toxic materials - from being sent to developing countries. It’s good for the economy, too. E-Cycle Washington has brought additional recyclers to the state and created close to 80 new jobs.

But printers aren’t collected as part of the E-Cycle Washington program. The 2006 state legislation that mandated the program didn’t include printers or other peripherals. While some manufacturers have voluntarily set up printer mail-back programs (often for a fee), that just isn’t very convenient for most of us.

Zero Waste Washington thinks printer manufacturers can do better! We are working to have producer responsibility for desktop printers in Washington. You can help us make it happen! Please ask HP and Canon to make it easier and more convenient for consumers in Washington to take back printers for recycling. You can click here to sign on and we’ll send postcards to HP and Canon on your behalf.

Here’s one final reason to support producer responsibility. When manufacturers pay to recycle the products they make, they have a financial incentive to design products that are less toxic, longer lasting, and more recyclable. And that means less waste and greener, safer stuff for all of us.

Post written by guest post from Suellen Mele, Zero Waste Washington’s Program Director Zero Waste Washington advocates for the design and production of healthier, safer products that are continually recycled and reused.

Tour de Fat recap

As promised, we spent the day of the Tour de Fat staffing the "Compost Offices" for New Belgium. It was a fun day, and a chance to learn a lot about how waste reduction works on the ground, and a bit about the company (check out their sustainability page - it's impressively comprehensive).

Lessons learned:

• An event like this can be run with minimal environmental impact: for example we managed a 95% waste diversion rate. I lost track of the exact amounts, but most of that was compost, with a small proportion of recycling, and only the remnant 5% going to landfill.
• Doing this takes a lot more work on the day than just dumping everything, and a lot of planning; one thing I was impressed with, for example, was that the food vendors had been pre-vetted for their ability to provide all compostable packaging.
• Staffing the waste stations makes a huge difference—we found a lot of inappropriately sorted garbage on the morning, from having left the bins out in the park overnight, but everyone is co-operative when pointed to the right bin.
• It didn't matter that the beer cups said COMPOST in big black letters on one side, or that there were signs up listing what went into which bin - people are creatures of habit enough that most automatically took those towards the recycling bin.
• But there are visual cues we can give people which help; a sort of Design With Intent for waste sorting. Here are two examples:
  • If you look at the picture below, the tiny office trashcan is for landfill waste, while the other two were recycling and compost - that made everyone who wanted to landfill stop and think. It was an accident originally—I hadn't realised we'd be handling landfill waste too, until it was too late to get official-looking bins for it so I improvised and raided our office—but it worked so well that I'll definitely repeat this next year and get intermediate-sized bins for recycling.
  • After this picture was taken, one of our volunteers (Tysan) hit on the idea of closing the lid on the recycling bins, to make people pause before dropping compostable cups in.
• And finally, one that I was taught repeatedly as a computer science student: document everything. Sustainable Seattle has done this job at the Tour de Fat before, but the people who did it in previous years have moved on and I had to rediscover a lot of things. I'm writing it all down, so even if it's not me next year they can do a better job of co-ordinating and spend half as much time on it.

A huge thank you goes out to:

• Everyone who volunteered on the day, especially the couple of people who stayed for much longer than you had signed up for.
• New Belgium Brewing for taking the sustainability of the event so seriously, and Brian Bogan there for being patient when I had to ask all these things he expected me to already know from last year.
• Cedar Grove Composting for collecting the material and turning it into lovely compost that will be used in Seattle parks, among other places.

We're making the Tour de Fat a zero-waste event, with your help

This Saturday, New Belgium Brewing is bringing their Tour de Fat to Seattle. It's a bike carnival in Gas Works Park, with a parade around Fremont, costumes, "insane bicycle contraptions", music, and of course beer. As well as being a fun event, we love it because it promotes cycling, the day will raise money for two wonderful local nonprofits—the Bicycle Alliance of Washington and Bikeworks—and the organisers are partnering with Sustainable Seattle to make it a zero waste event. Making it zero waste involves not giving out any material that can't be reused, recycled or composted, and having volunteers at every set of bins to make sure people do recycle and compost everything they should. We need your help with that last part.

We'll have 5 compost stations, and we'd like to get two volunteers staffing each one from 11am to 5pm, ideally for two hour shifts. We'll give you a cheat sheet listing everything that goes into each bin, so you'll just have to talk to people and show them what to dispose of where. It's a great opportunity to help reduce the environmental impact of a public event and educate people about waste reduction, and you'll still have plenty of time to enjoy the event yourself.

If you are interested, please email Eldan Goldenberg with a preferred time (preferably a 2-hour block, but we're flexible), and a second choice in case everyone picks the same time. If you represent another non-profit, please let us know, and we'll be happy to give you some space to hand out flyers at the event.

UPDATE: there will be t-shirts and free beer tokens for volunteers!

Earth Day 4/22/2010

On the fortieth anniversary of Earth Day it is important to take a step back and see from where we've come.

Earth Days is a documentary about the history and origin of Earth Day and the environmental movement in general. It was produced by PBS and shown on KCTS as part of their American Experience history program. It is a must watch if your own view of Earth Day is a little rusty, or worse naive.

The foundation of a holiday that many of us take for granted now was not an easy ride. The founders were rife with criticism, attacks and vilification that sounds strangely like some of the more outrageous rhetoric we hear today from climate change deniers and vested interests who still see adjusting to the reality of climate change as a detriment to their economic growth, which we know is not the case in the slightest.

The film talks about the steps they took in order to start a holiday that has seen replication across the planet and the film uses primary sources, interviews with participants and publicly released advertisements or deterrents to make a seamless film that informs and surprises.

Also check out The Story of Stuff below.

DIY Zone at Green Festival

This year, the organizers of the Seattle Green Festival are looking for people who can demonstrate DIY skills, especially in repairing and repurposing goods. This is a great opportunity for anyone who has such a skill to share it with a large audience, so we're republishing their announcement:

On behalf of Global Exchange and Green America, we invite you to be a part of the 2010 Seattle Green Festival. Green Festival® is the largest sustainability event in the world and continues to grow year after year. Attendees come to these forward-thinking events to enjoy world-renowned speakers and innovative workshops, to buy green products and services, and to discover new ways to enrich their lives and restore the planet.

The Third Seattle Green Festival opens at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, June 5th and 6th, 2019. The Green Festival showcases area businesses, community organizations and city departments who are working together to make Puget Sound a healthier place to live. Previous Seattle Green Festivals have drawn over thirty thousand people – and attendance grows every year. Your participation is what makes this event shine, providing useful information and inspiring ideas for our neighbors.

This year, the Seattle Green Festival will feature a DIY Zone, an area where attendees will be able to see hands-on demonstrations of a broad range of skills, each of which can show them how to have fun while becoming more self-sufficient and learning to live more sustainably. We are asking DIY Zone presenters to develop 40-minute hands-on demonstrations of practical skills that Festival attendees will find compelling and relevant to personal and household sustainability. There is especially strong interest in demonstrations that show people how to conserve, repair and re-purpose goods.

The DIY Zone is intended as an interactive space - there will be no stage, but work tables and chairs will be available, as well as a 120-volt electrical connection. Presenters will be responsible for bringing their own demonstration materials, and for properly removing them afterward. There will be a Resources section of the DIY Zone where you will be able to post promotional materials or instructional handouts for the duration of the Green Festival – giving your organization increased visibility without the cost of a booth rental.

If you are interested in scheduling a presentation for the DIY Zone, please contact me as soon as possible – the schedule is filling up quickly.

If you are interested, please contact Ken Cousins from the Seattle Green Festival Host Committee - ken.cousins at gmail.

Computer Recycling Organization

Computer Reuse – it’s the new and improved way to recycle.

By Charles Brennick

You received a new computer for Christmas and now you want to recycle your old one. But there is a better way to get rid of your computer than recycling it, reuse it. Fortunately, InterConnection, the state’s largest non-profit computer refurbisher, specializes in computer reuse.

Computer reuse involves erasing data from the hard drive of a computer and testing and replacing components to make it functional. Recycling, on the other hand, involves shredding the computer into parts to extract raw materials such as copper, plastic and steel.

Computer reuse provides opportunity to someone in need. Computers refurbished at InterConnection’s reuse center in Seattle are donated to unemployed and low-income individuals. Anyone who completes their computer hardware training program receives valuable job skills and a free computer. Every week up to twenty people start the program and this year 910 participated.

Most computers refurbished by InterConnection are sent to schools and non profit organizations in developing countries where access to technology is extremely limited. InterConnection has partnered with development organizations like Peace Corps and World Vision to distribute their computers to organizations in countries that include Cameroon, Uganda, El Salvador and Chile. To date, they have shipped over 20,000 computers to people in need of technology around the world.

Many local businesses like Nintendo and Alaska Airlines have chosen to reuse their surplus computers through InterConnection. Businesses, like individual donors, are extremely concerned about the data on their hard drives. InterConnection wipes all hard drives for free and for a nominal fee they will either provide certified data destruction or use their onsite hard drive destruction device they affectionately call ‘The Crushinator”.

InterConnection accepts all computers and monitors, working or not, for free. If they can’t reuse the computer they will properly recycle it at their facility in Seattle.

Anyone can drop off computer equipment at their center in Seattle and businesses can schedule free pick-up if they have at least three computers. InterConnection even offers a way for people who live outside of Washington to donate. They will pay shipping costs for anyone who wants to donate a laptop.

For more information about reusing or recycling your surplus computers please call InterConnection at (206) 633-1517 or visit their website at www.interconnection.org. The center is located at 2222 N. Pacific St., Seattle, WA, 98103. Hours of operation are 10-6 Monday–Friday and 10-5 on Saturday.

The little things count

Most people do not use the phone book anymore regardless of the advertising campaign undertaken by Dex and Yellow book. Most people get their annual copy of the phone book and throw it in the trash can or recycle bin. Well there is a way to remove yourself from the list so that they do not deliver a copy to your home.

Yellow Book USA, Inc.
http://corporate.yellowbook.com/contact-us/print-directory-inquiries/?searchSiteUrl=%2fdefault.aspx

R.H. Donnelley / Dex
www.DexKnows.com/SelectYourDex (Proceed to Select Your Dex and enter
'0' as the number of requested copies for delivery.)

1-866-60-MY-DEX or 866-606-9339

Idearc Inc.
800-888-8448, select Option 2 (Closed til January)

Holiday Sustainability

This holiday season is the last one of the first decade of the 2000's. This is the perfect time to take some steps to reconnect with family and friends that perhaps have been drifting apart. Take the time to call someone from your past that you haven't spoken to for a long time and tell them how much they mean to you.

Healthy families and communities start in the home and in the maintenance of relationships. A simple phone call, email or holiday card can be an important first step in repairing and enhancing meaningful relationships. We need to take the time to slow down and show each other what we mean to one another.

Take time this year in this holiday season to get to know your family and friends through shared experiences instead of simply buying more and more products. Have a game night or go to a park together for a winter picnic or simply stay home and enjoy each other's company.

Be safe this holiday season and remember that the amount of inebriated drivers increases during this season from an average of one out of ten cars, to one out of four. Check your mirrors, give plenty of space and be a pleasant giving driver. Always have an out when driving and stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary.

Also remember to be responsible with your holiday decorations when you are ready to take them down. Recycle what you can, reuse your decorations next year and take your trees to recycling centers.

In King county you can follow this link for options on where to take your tree.