By Nancy Whelan

Plastic recycling is important but reducing plastic usage is our ticket to a healthier planet moving forward. If we were reluctant to buy in to the mass hysteria surrounding plastic waste before, recent news coming from reputable sources such as The New York Times and Sierra Club warn us that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now twice the size of Texas. The waters there have been described by scientists as “minestrone,” containing plastic of all types and sizes, from identifiable household items to confetti-sized litter. It remains to be seen what can be done, if anything, to remove existing plastic from our oceans.

Reducing plastic waste in our environment begins with you and me. Refusing plastic packaging requires time and energy and difficult choices. Recycling the plastic we already have is also time-consuming and challenging.

There are some easy ways to stop using plastic in the household and even when you’re on the move:

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By F. Tadesse

Costco Trade-in Program

In their effort to become leaders in recycling electronics, Costco has teamed up with Gazelle.com. Gazelle is a leader in the on line electronics reuse and recycling business. What you do is, fill out an online form at the Gazelle website about the electronic equipment you are recycling. Gazelle will give you a quote on your item and if you agree then you can print out an on line free shipping label. They will even send packaging material for shipping your old electronics. As long as the value of your gadget is at least one dollar shipping is free. If they determine your electronics has no resale value, they will recycle it responsibly for free. At this time they recycle laptops, cell phones, LCD monitors, MP3 players, digital cameras, and gaming systems. They don’t recycle faxes, printers and TVs at this time. The recycling service is only available for members only.

Best Buys Recycling Program

Best buys have a well organized page on recycling at their website. They have set the highest standard for recycling responsibly and these standards are posted where it can easily be seen and read by the public. They recycle a wide range of electronics equipment such as T.Vs with sizes up to 32 inches, cell phones, monitors, DVDs, laptops etc… There is a $10 charge for T. Vs, monitors, and laptops but Best Buys will give you $10 gift card to offset that. They take desk top computers with the hard drive removed or they can remove it for you for a fee of $19.99.

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By Abraham R Chacko

Electronic-waste (or e-waste) is a collective name for trashed electronic items like obsolete PCs, laptops, fax machines, cell phones, batteries, consumer electronics etc. As we are about to see, it is agonizingly difficult to dispose off e-waste safely since it is loaded with several highly toxic (poisonous) and harmful substances such as lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium (chromium VI), polybrominated flame retardants etc. that are not found in other forms of human waste. The lightning speed of growth of the Information Technology (and now mobile telecom) industry is leading to fast-growing piles of e-waste worldwide, particularly in developed nations, and unless they are quickly and safely disposed off, e-waste is going to take its huge, fearsome and absolutely irreversible toll on all life and the environment soon.

Now comes the question, why is it such a problem to get rid of e-waste? Isn’t it just as easy as getting rid of other forms of human waste? The answer is a very blunt NO! E-waste does not lend itself to current forms of municipal waste disposal i.e. by practices such as landfilling and incineration. Here’s the reason why. Metals lead, mercury and cadmium (all of which are found in e-waste) leach out of landfills, leading to serious soil and groundwater pollution. Incineration (or waste destruction by burning), on the other hand, is crippled by other limitations. Typically, the incineration process creates slag, fly ash, flue gas and filter cake. When e-waste is incinerated, the burning of the plastics component generates highly toxic dioxins and furans while high concentrations of metals, including heavy metals are left in the slag and fly ash. Hence the incineration method results in dangerous air pollution and hands us another toxic by product at the end – slag and fly ash! In other words, it gives us another waste problem to deal with, without really solving the original one! Safe e-waste disposal requires use of specialized mechanical and chemical processes by which recyclable components like mercury, gold, copper etc. are first recovered and the residual matter is chemically treated and rendered harmless to life before being disposed off in landfills/incinerators.

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