We’ve all wrestled with a product package that’s almost impossible to open. In addition to being frustrating, plastic packaging is wasteful. But, some manufacturers are starting to make greener packaging for their mail-order products.
We at ecycler.com recently bought two Logitech web cams — one from a major electronics retailer and the other from amazon.com. The one from the brick and mortar store was encased in hard-to-open plastic inside a brightly colored box about three times its size.
The one that came in the mail was a simple cardboard box. Printed on the inside was a message from Logitech saying, “This box never has to deal with a store shelf. It doesn’t require layers of plastic — so you can open it easily. It can use fewer materials than our retail package — which can make recycling simpler.”
So while you save time by ordering online — and money by not having to pay sales tax — doing so can also be greener. On its box, Logitech also says, “A brown box may not be pretty, but we think the results are beautiful.”
We do, too.
Something not everyone knows about recycling is that water and soda bottles should be emptied before being placed in recycling bins.
Full bottles, or bottles with any liquid in them, mean extra weight in the trucks that transport recyclables – and the more a truck weighs, the more gasoline is consumed, making the whole process less environmentally friendly.
When Tim, the other ecycler cofounder, and I set up some recycling bins at a conference we experienced the non-empty bottle problem. We setup up wireframe style recycling bins that hold a trashbag. Throughout the day we watched the bags fill up. When we went to take down the bins at the end of the day we almost could not pick them out without the trash bag breaking. We found that many of the beverage bottles were more than half full!
To encourage people in offices and public places to properly recycle their plastic bottles, ecycler recommends placing recycling bins next to sinks or drains so that people can empty the bottles first. Or placing a sign on the recycling bin to remind people to empty their bottles before depositing them in the bin.
Today is the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day. In honor of the big day, we’ve put together a list of 40 items that can be recycled (some of them may surprise you):
40. Yogurt containers
39. Cottage cheese containers
38. Strawberry (and other berry) baskets
37. Plastic milk containers
36. Waxed milk cartons
35. Soap bottles
34. Juice bottles
33. Juice boxes and cartons
32. Gallon water containers
31. Plastics grocery bags
30. Paper grocery bags
29. Plastic toys
28. Plastic hangers
27. Plastic trash cans
26. Beer bottles
25. Aluminum cans
24. Cell phones
23. Tin cans
22. Newspapers
21. White office paper
20. Corrugated cardboard
19. Brown paper bags
18. Phone books
17. Magazines
16. Junk mail
15. Envelopes from mail
14. Refrigerators
13. Air conditioners
12. Batteries
11. Motor oil
10. Tires
9. Car batteries
8. Printer ink cartridges
7. Scrap aluminum
6. Old bricks
5. VHS tapes
4. Old prescription medicine bottles
3. Flip flops
2. Roof shingles
1. Recycle this blog post and let people know about ecycler!
Sources:
http://www.obviously.com/recycle/guides/common.html
http://www.squidoo.com/recycle-everything
Think going digital means being green? A recent blog posting on ZDNet says, “think again.”
The resources required to produce eReaders may be more harmful to the environment than the use of pulp to make your morning paper.
Dozens of minerals and metals have to be mined and refined to make eReaders, not to mention all the plastic that has to be molded to encase the delicate insides.
“There is no question that print media could do a better job of managing the sustainability of its supply chains and waste streams, but it’s a misguided notion to assume that digital media is categorically greener. Computers, eReaders, and cell phones don’t grow on trees and their spiraling requirement for energy is unsustainable,” Don Carli, Executive Vice President of SustainCommWorld LLC and Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for Sustainable Communication, said in an interview with ZDNet.
See http://blogs.zdnet.com/doc/?p=771 for more.
February 28th, 2010
craig
Ecycler.com has introduced new features that will make connecting with discarders and collectors easier.
ecycler's recycling exchange
A new collector directory allows people with recyclables to discard to find collectors in their state. Likewise, a new discarder directory allows collectors to see which discarders are nearby. It also enables discarders to see which other discarders are joining the ecycler revolution.
In addition, the site has a new recycling exchange feature that allows people to see what kind of recyclables are available in their state. For example, a collector could click on “ Florida ” and see that someone in a particular zip code has a trash bag of aluminum cans to give away. If that discarder resides in the collector’s area, the collector can then contact that discarder directly through ecycler.com to arrange for a pick-up.
Come check it out!
We recently ran an article on the decision process of using either paper or plastic while in the checkout line (check it out here: Which is Better… Paper or Plastic?). Our conclusion? Best to use a re-usable bag. So, we thought it would be a great idea to give away a pile of our bags to one lucky winner. What’s a pile? How about five bags!
ecycler Bag Giveaway
As always, the ecycler bags are available at shop.ecycler.com for $5.99 each.
WIN:
We have a pile of FIVE of these fun ecycler Eco-Friendly Bags to giveaway!
How to Enter:
To enter, make a comment telling us how you are trying to be more GREEN.
Extra Entries:
For extra entries you may do the following, make sure you indicate your extras in a separate comment.
Available in the US only, this giveaway will end on March 1, 2010 – See the official Rules here
We need your help in getting people to recycle more!
I recently spent a few evenings in St. Petersburg, FL posting our ecycler posters. To post posters in your own community, all you’ll need are:
- Posters printed preferably in color on recycled paper.
- Thumbtacks
- Green Transportation: a bicycle or hybrid/low mpg vehicle
- Internet access before you go
- Phone
ecycler Marketing Poster - PDF 180KB
Before heading out from the hotel I used maps.google.com to make a list of businesses that I know have community boards or are very likely to have community boards where posters can be posted. The following franchise businesses usually have community boards: Starbucks, Panera Bread, Jimmy Johns and Whole Foods. I made a list of these and called each to find out if they have a community board. Panera and Jimmy Johns all had boards and did not have restrictions. About half of the Starbucks had community boards, though some only allow non-profit organizations to post. Some of their boards even say “This board is for information, not for selling stuff,” so keep that in mind for your cause. With ecycler posters, Starbucks managers were cool about it. When I explained that the purpose of the poster is to let people know about ecycler and how they can create their own recycling program or list their recyclables, the managers approved the posters.
The other category of business that usually has community boards are independent coffee shops and organic grocery stores (as well as some regular grocery stores). I called three of the coffee shops and all three had community boards or allowed posting in the window. The Whole Foods and organic grocery stores also had boards.
The next step was to create an optimal route (for the engineers out there creating an optimal travel route is the classic operations research problem called TSP or Traveling Salesperson Problem). I used the website: http://gebweb.net/optimap/. It allows you to add up to 24 addresses and create a round trip optimal travel route. The site will list the order in which you should go to the stores to minimize travel time. If you are going on a trip from one city to another you can choose A-Z which then optimally determines which places to go. But since I my start and end point was my hotel I needed the round trip choice.
I saved my list to my blackberry and headed out. Starbucks stores usually have magnets so you don’t need a tack, but other places may or may not have tacks. As you are posting posters you will see and meet interesting people. I got several questions when I was posting the posters and had some good conversations about recycling!
So you may want to know if it worked. A week after posting 12 we had one person interested and people visited the site! When I returned to Florida two weeks later, I visited some of the locations where I posted posters and found that people had torn off the tabs that direct them to ecycler.com.
December 18th, 2009
craig
Come check out the write-up on TrendHunter.com and give us a “Hot” rating. TrendHunter.com is the world’s largest, most popular trend community. Fueled by a global network of 30,000 members. Sounds good to us!
Some neighborhoods don’t have free recycling pickup services but now, with the Ecycler site, there is no excuse not to recycle. The Ecycler site fulfills everyone’s green aspirations by connecting people who need a recycling service with those who want to do the recycling.
Basically, using the Ecycler site, eco-conscious consumers can find people in their communities who are ‘recycling entrepreneurs.’ These entrepreneurs get a customizable URL, downloadable personalized business cards and posters for publicity, while consumers with recyclables can simply choose from the list of entrepreneurs and arrange a pickup. Check out Ecycler.com to learn more.
Showcase here: http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/ecycler-site
Need to make some quick cash while at school, follow these tips:
- Recycle bottles and cans: Throw a party and make sure that all cans and bottles stay at your place. ecycler is King
- Get a job: You might have to work at McDonald’s and you might hate life, but at least you’ll have money.
- Sell your body for money: No, not prostitution…give plasma!
- Sell your unused stuff on eBay or Craigslist: Go through your old stuff at home and see what you can get rid of.
- Sell your old textbooks on Amazon: You can usually get more money from selling your books on a site like Amazon than you would from the bookstore.
- Take notes in class and sell them: You’re already in class taking notes, might as well try to sell them. Post this on your facebook and you might just find some interested buyers writing on your wall.
- Be a tutor: Tutor the dumb dumb in class and then make them pay you for it.
Register at ecycler.com
We’ve all wrestled with a product package that’s almost impossible to open. In addition to being frustrating, plastic packaging is wasteful. But, some manufacturers are starting to make greener packaging for their mail-order products.
