Posts tagged ‘recyclable materials’
Spotlight: Digital Dumping Grounds
I knew developing countries were, to a degree, the rubbish dumps for electronic waste (e-waste) shipped in from developed nations, but I didn’t know how bad it was. I watched this episode of Frontline World this morning that really made it hit home for me. Here’s the promo:
You can access the full 20 minute segment about Ghana here. Sorry Deafies, there are no captions (which annoys the shit out of me – c’mon PBS!), but underneath the video there is a transcript of the segment (if it’s not exact, it’s pretty close). You can also see some photos with captions here on Jane Hahn‘s site.
It’s not just Ghana either – Vietnam, Pakistan, Malaysia, China and lots of other third-world nations are being taken advantage of. In fact, the segment discussed how the average computer-owner (and dumper) is also being taken advantage of, by companies who say they’re dumping responsibly, but who ship out unusable computers for reuse. Clearly, since they’re unusuable, they’re only going to become scrap, but labelling them ‘for reuse’ enables their export courtesy of a legal loophole.
I have a bunch of e-waste here at my place that I was looking to dispose of responsibly, but now I’m unsure how I can do that if I can’t even trust the recycling companies. Plus, I want to make sure no-one has access to my data (that image of the FBI guy smashing the hard drive with the hammer also make an impression on me). Is it really best for the environment for me to be smashing stuff up, regardless of how cathartic that may be? However, is it best for me to not smash it? Ghana is one of the world’s leading areas of cyber crime, after all – there’s has to be link between that and the dumping of e-waste, it’s too convenient a co-incidence.
The one ‘positive’ thing to come out of the whole thing isn’t even very good. I wrote a while ago about the impact of metal mining on the environment (here and here). Trawling through the e-waste for scraps of copper and other precious metals does at least eliminate the need for so much mining… but at what cost? The toxic fumes produced by the burning needed to scavenge this metal is detrimental to both the environment and the unsuspecting people who participate, not to mention every man and his dog who lives nearby.
Aside from making pretty earrings, and giving away old items on Freecycle, what can we do with this stuff? Does anyone know of a recycler who actually recycles stuff responsibly without exporting it?
Spotlight: Dilbert’s Take on Paper Cups
I like the Dilbert comic strip. It reminds me a little of my office, which reminds me of when I first found out I’d be working in an office (as opposed to teaching in a shitty classroom). I felt all sophisticated. Ha. Oh, how we grow. And oh, how our cynicism grows. Hmm. Nah, I don’t hate it that much really.
Anyway, I actually subscribe to the daily Dilbert comic strip, but for a while there I wasn’t checking my reader, so I missed them. One of my colleagues gets the daily strip emailed to her every morning by her sister (who in turn gets them from someone else), and when I expressed my liking for Dilbert, she started sending them on to me. I’ve since begun accessing my feed reader again, but haven’t had the heart to tell her to stop, so I get my daily dose of Dilbert twice. I like how sometimes the strips build on each other. The following two came through this week, and I they got me thinking.
The first strip makes me think of the way a lot of people commonly view eco-friendly items that replace the things they’re used to. The prevailing opinion seems to be that they’re not as good as the original version (squirrel, anyone?). Is this true? In my opinion, not usually. I think that often the producers of eco-friendly goods go to considerable lengths to ensure the newer version at least meets and often outperforms the original. Sometimes it’s something else (original) that is the problem. For example, until we got new printers at work a couple of weeks ago, we weren’t able to use recycled printer paper as it caused paper jams up the wazoo. The new printers are fine with it… which I think means it was really the old, out-of-date printers that were not so good. No-one has complained about the paper coffee cups though, but I guess I hardly ever see anyone using them.
Which brings me to the second strip. Just like Dilbert, we actually did introduce paper cups in our offices Australia-wide this year, to replace styrofoam and plastic cups. They’re recyclable and made from recycled paper. But, just as Dilbert says, it’s not so clear how that helps the planet. See, no-one really used the disposable cups in my office anyway (not sure about other offices around Australia though). Everyone already used reusable mugs, which is really awesome cos I’m reading this book called true green @ work that I got from the library and it says that over the life of a mug (about 3000 uses), you make 30 times less solid waste than if you use a cardboard cup. (Whoa, talk about a run-on sentence. Yes, I edit for a living.) You also create 60 times less air pollution. Considering that as of the time of publishing (2007), Australians were using around 400 million disposable cups per year, think of all the eco-savings. And of course, paper cups are better than plastic and styrofoam, so if you thought those stats were bad, just imagine…
Of course, you could always make like No Impact Man and use a jar instead. I do wonder how that would go down in the corporate culture though. I think my boss might think I’m insane. Then again, I get the impression that my new boss may have tree-hugger hippy potential (in an affluent boss-y way), so you never know. (I’m already reusing glass juice bottles as my water bottles, but I think it’s more socially acceptable to drink from a bottle).
Regardless, I think the introducing-recycled-and-recyclable-paper-cups-initiative is a good idea, even if it is just a drop in the bucket and not as effective as getting rid of disposable cups entirely. It does raise visibility… but how much is it really helping the planet?
Recycle: Cleaning your Recyclables
I’m trying to get back into the swing or writing regular posts after an unplanned almost week off. Work is still ugh, but today I escalated some stuff that has been a concern for a while, and it does feel good to get it off my chest and also no longer be potentially accountable for any wrongdoing. That is really good. Today I even had time to empty the work recycling bin. Yay!
Recycle - even the dirty stuff!
On the topic of recycling, I found out last week that you don’t have to have perfectly clean recyclables. This is a good thing, because the people at work cannot rinse the milk bottles out to save themselves. It’s also good for me at home though, because even though I rinse my soy milk cartons, this means I don’t have to spend ages and waste water scraping peanut butter from inside the jar (although Loodle the hungry puppy often helps me with that anyway).
So yeah – rinse, but don’t do so to the point where it really wastes water. The recycling gods are not going to reject your items cos they’re a bit nasty.
Recycle: Ethical Metals
I like to wear silver jewellery. I don’t really mind much what it’s made of – but it needs to be silver-coloured. Some people prefer gold. I’m just a silver person. Of course, silver-coloured jewellery is made of metal. Yeah, you can get the plastic silver-coloured, but um… yeah. Really no.
Metal is natural, so that’s great! Go eco, go! Right?
Wouldn't it be great if they were made from recycled metal?
The process required to extract that metal from the earth is incredibly damaging to the environment. This is slowly becoming more and more well known. A few years ago, the ‘no dirty gold‘ campaign was introduced, encouraging people to buy only sustainably mined gold. The campaign was just the tip of the iceberg though, as not just gold but lots of other metals are mined unsustainably around the world. Don’t think the metals are just used in jewellery though. Metals are used in lots of things – gold thread in beautiful dresses, remote controls, mobile phones and other similar devices. And those are just the highest impact metals.People and companies are increasingly offering advice and alternatives which enable you to avoid metal mined in environmentally damaging ways. Almost all of them include recycling the metals we’ve already mined.
- You can recycle your mobile phone, as discussed in last week’s Recycle post.
- You can buy jewellery made with recycled metal.
- You can recycle lead from old car batteries. Service stations and car battery retail outlets will generally accept car batteries for trade-in. Be careful though – don’t empty out battery acid before taking the batteries for recycling.
- Scrap metal recyclers can take copper pipes, hot water systems, car bodies, metal appliances and other metals to be recycled.
- Remember kerbside recycling – putting cans into your regular recycling bin means the metal can be reused to create other cans, fridges and all sorts of other things.
To learn more about how metal mining damages the environment, check out this site or this one.
Note: The image of the rings is from Love and Pride.
Recycle: Mobile Phones
Mr Teeny-bop is starting high school next week. He’s going to be catching the bus (the regular city council bus, not a school bus) by himself back and forth. His school isn’t far away, but it’s pretty central, on busy streets, lots of people. So Yankee Elv and I decided it was time for him to get a mobile phone, so he can contact us, or vice versa – just in case. He’s been wanting a phone for ages, so he is very happy!
Aside from the fact that new phones are expensive, for environmental reasons, we wanted to get a second-hand phone – so we have one on it’s way to our house right now (go ebay!). It’s all about the reuse.
Yankee Elv has been wanting a new phone herself for a while now too – one with a strong vibration, since she’s Deaf and can’t hear text messages or alarms. Since we were already on the phone hunt, we’re looking on ebay for her too. What should we do with her current phone though? We can’t just throw it away (ok, technically we can, but we won’t).
So we’re going to recycle the phone. Why? Well, let’s look at what happens when you recycle mobile phones.
- Some companies refurbish and reuse the phones if they are in good enough condition
- The batteries are taken apart and the nickel, cadmium, coltan, zinc, copper and cobalt is extracted and used in new batteries and other products
- Circuit boards have the gold, silver, copper and lead extracted and reused
- Any other heavy metals, like mercury, beryllium and arsenic are smelted and disposed of appropriately
- Plastic from handset casings is used to make fence posts and pallets
- Paper packaging is sent to standard recycling stations
- Other parts (including plastic packaging as well as pure and impure metals) are either recycled or go into landfill.
Yeah, I hear you. Why is it good that these items are recycled or reused?
- Many of the heavy metals used in mobile phones can negatively affect your health and the environment if they enter landfill or are not disposed of carefully
- The demand for precious metals to use in mobile phones and other similar devices (like remote controls) has led to war over the rights to the metal, mostly in the Congo and surrounding African nations
- Thanks to strip mining, the sourcing of a tiny amount of metal involves the displacement of tonnes of land
- Plastic doesn’t really biodegrade, so reducing and reusing is the best we can do (no need to contribute to the Pacific plastic soup)
- Recycling paper has a far smaller impact on the environment than creating paper from scratch.
Here’s a video, if you want more information:
I must say – it was only within the last year that I found out the impact of not just releasing but sourcing precious metals. I knew about blood diamonds of course – but never imagined that the phones, remote controls or jewellery I was buying were impacting the lives of all these people, caught in the fight for resources. I resolved then and there to minimise my use of new metal. That involved buying second-hand, recycled or sustainably sourced metal, and recycling whatever metal possible.
So why not try it? Don’t become a statistic, hoarding your phone in the back of a drawer. Hand in your old phone when you upgrade.
Besides, recycling makes you feel good. Promise.
Recycle: Get out of the kitchen!
Where’s your recycling bin? Not the big one that gets emptied by the garbage person (non-gender specific!). The little one in your house that you fill to the brim, then take down to the big bin. Where is it?
Mine is in the kitchen, in the cupboard under the sink. Most of the stuff that goes into it is kitchen recycling. It’s usually full of things like squished cereal boxes, flattened soy milk cartons, tin cans and the free local newspaper that gets dropped off every week, rain or shine. We never read it.
Sometimes I feel good about myself for recycling so much, keeping junk out of landfill. Other times I feel bad – shouldn’t I be trying to re-use some more?
But beyond both of those points is another – am I junking things unnecessarily? Is there stuff that should be in the recycling bin… but isn’t?
Oh yeah. There sure is. I just gotta get out of the kitchen.
The bathroom, for example, has lots of stuff to recycle, like:
- Toothpaste boxes
- Shampoo bottles
- Soap boxes
- Toilet rolls
- Moisturiser and toner bottles
- Conditioner bottles
- Tissue boxes.
I am making a concerted effort to remember these things. I’m trying to be innovative, so I’m emulating the most lateral-thinking person I know of. I think… what would MacGyver do?
Remember to think: what would MacGyver do?
So when I stretched my brain and tried to think like MacGyver on the Mastercard ad with the sock and the pen and the paperclip, I thought of some other less obvious recyclable stuff you might find around the place too:
- Shopping receipts
- Junk mail, if you still get it
- Dog shampoo bottles
- Notebooks
- Printer paper
- Moving boxes
- Lightbulbs (environmentally friendly fluro bulbs should be taken to a collection agency)
- Medicine boxes and bottles (take off your labels)
- School newsletters
- Paint tins
- Mobile phones (most phone shops collect them)
- Magazines
- Laundry detergent bottles
- Plastic bags (grocery stores have collection boxes)
- Envelopes
- Old posters
- Old photos (shred the photos – by machine or the eco-friendly way – by hand)
- Bus tickets (although I go paperless these days).
As great as recycling is, it won’t make a significant impact unless everyone jumps on the bandwagon, and starts committing to the endeavour. But it really won’t make a difference unless everyone remembers to recycle everything they can.
So who is the most MacGyver of all? What weird stuff do you recycle?
Note: The What Would MacGyver Do? image came from Threadless t-shirts.
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