ecycler, a new way to recycle online!

Get ready for America Recycles Day!

America Recycles Day (ARD), November 15, is the only nationally recognized day dedicated to encouraging Americans to recycle and to buy recycled products. Celebrating its 14th year, it has grown to include millions of Americans pledging to increase their recycling habits at home and work. And to buy products made with recycled materials. Volunteer America Recycles Day coordinators are positioned throughout the country and work to organize recycling awareness events in their schools and communities, and in conjunction with their local municipalities.

On November 15 each year, millions of people become better informed about the importance of daily recycling and buying recycled products. One day to educate and motivate. One day to get our neighbors, friends and community leaders excited about what can be accomplished when we all work together. One day to make recycling bigger and better 365 days a year.

Check out the America Recycles Day website and Take the Pledge to Recycle!

Or, follow @recyclesday on twitter

Did you know that the recycling of VHS tapes is available? There are hundreds of thousands of people that have old VHS tapes and don’t know what to do with them. Many people feel guilty giving box loads of these tapes to donation services because in reality most people don’t even own VHS machines anymore. This doesn’t have to happen anymore because now you have the ability to recycle those tapes. Ecycler.com developed their website to make it possible for you to begin recycling almost everything you own.

VHS, cassettes, reel-to-reel and old 8-track tapes can now be recycled relieving you of the guilt of dropping them off on someone else. Over the years people probably have collected hundreds of different types of recorded media and as a result, they probably have boxes and boxes of these items stored somewhere in the garage or basement. Many of these tapes have probably already been digitized and now people are wondering what to do with them. You have to realize that by simply throwing them away doesn’t really do the trick because they aren’t biodegradable. If you do throw them away it will take thousands of years for them to break down.

Why take a chance when you can turn those old tapes into jobs, reusable resources and a positive contribution to the environment. That’s right, you can turn those old tapes into a job for someone else. You will also be providing a reusable resource by allowing the recycler to turn those tapes into new products or materials that will be used for future items. You are also helping the environment by decreasing our need to deplete more natural resources and not allowing those tapes to be buried in the country’s landfills.

You see, ecycler.com understands that people simply need to know that they can recycle items like VHS tapes, and by doing so they are able to see the positive effects it creates for their environment and the community. The neat thing is that all of this can be done quickly and easily right here on our website. Ecycler.com provides a way for people that have stuff to recycle the ability to connect with specialized recyclers, in this case, for VHS tapes.

The collector breaks down the VHS tapes into their basic components (plastics, metal, etc.) and gets paid for their recycle value. The items get recycled into something new, the collector as been provided a job, and all of this has been created by the person that submitted the items to be recycled. Pretty neat idea, but it all starts with you. Recycling of VHS tapes is available and what a better way to do it then by helping your environment, and the people that live in your community. Start recycling today to begin helping your environment one collection at a time.

If you have materials (in this case, VHS tapes) to recycle, sign on to ecycler.com, submit all the information, package the tapes (reuse a box!), print out out the label and ship the package. It’s that simple!

Thanks to makelessnoise for the image!

You now have a place for the recycling of crayons which is a well received alternative when it comes to discarding crayons in landfills. It has been found that between 45,000 and 75,000 pounds of broken crayons have been documented as the annual amount discarded in landfills throughout the country. This is no small number when you consider that crayons are a bi-product of petroleum called paraffin. Although the crayon wrapper may deteriorate over time, the wax is not biodegradable and will never break down leaving a waxy sludge in our landfills for centuries to come.

There is hope because ecycler.com has developed a service that will allow people, restaurants, education systems and community services programs to get rid of all those unwanted crayons in a safe and environmentally friendly manner. If you have broken, rejected, and very unusable crayons that need a new home, you can simply sign on to ecycler.com and a label will be provided to ship them to a specialized recycler. The process is simple and can be done easily and effectively. When using this service you are contributing to much more than saving your landfills.

When properly recycling your crayons you are actually creating jobs. You are not just creating jobs for the recycling industry but also for the ecycler collectors. You are allowing them the ability to work and redeem any recycling credits that can be used to sustain them and their families. You are also helping to decrease the need for foreign resources and materials that are needed to make new crayons. So what you’ve done is help to create jobs, helped to decrease our dependence on outside resources, and saved the environment from the crayons you may have discarded.

This is not to be taken lightly because look at what you have actually achieved. People are working because you simply decided you weren’t going to throw something away and instead decided you were going to recycle. Now you alone are just one person that has the wheels of sustainability moving forward. What if everyone were to do the same thing? Instead of throwing all their recyclables in the trash, they’ve decided that they too want to recycle. Not only would thousands and thousands of pounds of crayons be eliminated from landfills, but all the other items that could be recycled would be eliminated from landfills as well.

The program is simple! If you have materials (in this case, crayons) to recycle, sign on to ecycler.com, submit all the information, package the crayons (reuse a box!), print out out the label and ship the package. Depending on the company that recycles your crayons, they may come back as non-toxic recycled crayons that can be used over and over again. The recycling process all starts with you because in order for people to really be sustainable and lower their dependence on foreign resources, they will need to understand how important it is to begin right here at home recycling something as small as a simple crayon.

There are many great options to enable your business across facebook and twitter in what we, ecycler, call second tier social media channels. A couple of obvious examples are YouTube, TwitPic and Flickr. We would also include del.icio.us in this group. One way we’ve found to go beyond the standards is to engage our community with these great services.

One of our favorites is a site called foursquare.com––it is a geo-centric check-in service. It is a friend-finder, a social city guide and a game that challenges users to experience new things, and rewards them for doing so. Foursquare lets users “check in” to a place when they’re there, tell friends where they are and track the history of where they’ve been and who they’ve been there with…

In addition to monitoring the commodities market (aluminum, cardboard, paper) via special websites, we find going to (or calling) our local recycling center for “on-the-ground” reality an important aspect of ecycler.com. If you’re following ecycler on foursquare, you’ll see our occasional check-in to various recycling centers.

We also foursquare any of the green events ecycler attends. For example, in late May we attended an event at St. Pascal School in Chicago to show support of the rally’s mission of raising awareness among students about the importance of recycling. St. Pascal won PepsiCo’s Dream Machine Recycle Rally Dream Green School Makeover contest, a $100,000 prize that it will use to make green improvements at the school including a new energy efficient computer lab powered by solar energy.

Naturally, we check-in to ecycler HQ regularly to update our followers on upcoming site features or to send out random messages.

Follow us on foursquare! We are foursquare.com/ecycler

Almost every household item, from tennis balls to old cell phones, can be recycled –  if you know where to take them.

Many recycling centers only accept the usual suspects – newspapers, aluminum cans and plastic or glass bottles – but there is value and potential reuse in almost everything around your house.  And there are a lot of businesses that allow people to ship them items that the average recycling center or curbside program won’t accept. Some such services will send you a prepaid shipping label so that you don’t have to pay to recycle your item while others require you to pay the shipping cost.

With the advent of digital music and downloadable movies, many households have CDs and DVDs that they no longer use. Many homes and businesses also frequently upgrade their computers and components, leading to extra hard drives lying around.

CDs and DVDs are made of high value recyclable material such as polycarbonate plastic and precious metals.  It is estimated that it will take over a million years for a CD to completely decompose in a landfill.

Another common item found in homes and businesses is Styrofoam, which is one of the hardest materials to recycle because of food contamination. But there are places where you can mail your styrofoam dishes to be recycled.

There are even companies that recycle old tennis balls. Rebounces.com repressurizes dead balls, restoring them to their original bounce.

So next time you plan to toss out something that your city or local recycling facility won’t accept, do a quick search online to see if you can ship the item to a business that specializes in recycling it or go to ecycler and check out the shippable recyclable section where you can print shipping labels pre-populated with addresses to these specialized recyclers.

On ecycler, all you have to do is click on “start recycling” and scroll down to the list of shippable items. You can select from among discs, crayons, tennis balls, alkaline batteries, wine corks, VHS tapes, inkjet cartridges, eyeglasses and keys. Once you indicate how many of those items you have to recycle, you will be taken to your dashboard, where you can view the transaction and print out a customized printing label so that you can ship them off. Ecycler also will e-mail you the shipping label, along with shipping instructions for each type of item.

The recent rise in social media has enabled ecycler (and many other businesses) to get in front of more customers than they ever would have been able to before.

The recognition that social media sites have created for various brands can work offline, as well. Companies can include their twitter handle or facebook page address in traditional marketing campaigns or post it on decals in their brick-and-mortar stores to point customers to their products and services online.

The possibilities for harnessing the power of social media offline are limitless. Ecycler, for example, has labeled all of its recycle bins located at various businesses and restaurants. Also, the front door to ecycler HQ has a social media window cling applied to it; these are available for anyone to attach on their establishment’s windows and doors. Companies could, perhaps, print their social media information on shopping bags, the sides of city buses and on billboards. It’s basically double advertising-– social media engages consumers with brands in the virtual world and points real world customers-–or potential customers-–to their brand online.

The logos and identities of the top social media sites-–including twitter, YouTube and facebook-–are so recognizable to people now, that once they see that a product or service they like has a social media presence, they are more likely to seek that company out online, too. That can lead to more purchases-–and therefore more revenue for your business.

Another fantastic way to let someone really know about your business is adding your QR code to your advertising. This will allow people to scan your offline social media ad with any QR code supported phone and learn more information about your business. Everything they need to know about your business will pop up on their phone.

Ecycler is rolling out a new feature that will make it easier for people to tell their friends, family and co-workers about our site.

Spreading the news of ecycler is a great way to be more green. You can simply tell your friends about our site, or you can send to them an e-mail introduction directly from ecycler.com.

The new feature will enable a message to be sent to the e-mail addresses of anyone you choose. A link will appear in your friends’ inboxes that will take them directly to the ecycler sign-up page where they can choose to register as discarders or collectors.

Or, you can enter your gmail or yahoo account information and choose who would want to invite. And, the site will automatically send an email to those contacts.

Lastly, you will be able to grab a customized link to post on your twitter stream or facebook wall.

From your ecycler dashboard, you will be able to track everyone who registers from your invitation(s). You will receive credit for every successful registration.

We developed this feature because sometimes word-of-mouth only goes so far. You might mention ecycler.com to your friends, but they might forget to go and register later. Having a tangible reminder in their inbox, while they’re right there at their computer or on a mobile device, might just nudge them to sign up right then and there.

ecycler.com – A new way to recycle!

Make improvements to the environment through recycling–it all starts with one can or one bottle. Collect. Connect. Recycle.

Enjoy!

Ecycler provides an alternative to the many U.S. (and Canadian) households, institutions and businesses that are not offered curb-side recycling. It’s also an option for people who have to pay for curb-side recycling or who want to have their recyclables picked up when and where they desire.

We’ve entered the Green Giant “The Green Awards” contest.

Come Vote for ecycler!

On the ecycler contest page, click on the “Vote Now!” next to the video… It will most likely ask you to register which takes less than 120 seconds.

The registration process is easy, it will ask for a name, email address, password, birth date, city, ZIP code and where you grocery shop.

This is a spam-free site…

We really appreciate the vote! Please also tell your friends and family.

ELEVATOR PITCH:

At ecycler.com we bring together those who have recyclables to give away with those who want to collect those recyclables. Many US households, institutions and businesses are not offered curb-side recycling; we’re giving them that option.

The collectors—or community entrepreneurs—will redeem the recyclables they collect for cash.

We believe that the easiest way for individuals to make a difference in the improvement of the environment is to recycle, and our goal is to make it even easier by pairing discarders and collectors through our web site.

We currently are trying to reach people who would like to become ecycler discarders; we hope to get businesses apartments and groups of friends to start saving their recyclables for their local collector. Also we are looking for people to become a local ecycler collector and pick up recyclables from the discarders.

Don’t forget: Check out the contest and Vote for ecycler, we really appreciate it: http://voteforecycler.com/

Millions of tons of electronic waste is generated every year in North America and the amount increases with every new gadget, computer and smartphone that hits the market. In our quest to improve our lives through technology we are creating electronic waste at an unprecedented rate. In response, we have seen more attention focused on methods to reduce, reuse and recycle electronic waste.

Reduce

In the pursuit for faster computers, more features on our smart phones and better picture quality, we are constantly replacing our electronics with newer and better performing models. But what if there was a way to get that improved performance, more features and better picture without increasing the amount of stuff we buy? Well, there already is a movement afoot to reduce the amount of computer hardware that needs to be purchased in order to stay on top of the tech race. The term is “cloud computing” and although it may sound like a weather forecasting computer it is actually a concept of sharing resources such as computer memory, processing power, and software over a network. For example you may need a fast computer to run software that you don’t currently own and perhaps will only need for a set amount of time. With cloud computing you would contract with a company that has the type of computer/software/memory you need and pay them a fee to access it on the Internet.

Why you may ask is this reducing the amount of electronic waste produced? Well instead of you having to purchase another computer and more memory you can use what you need, when you need it from the company providing the service. The company will have one very large computer that runs the software you and thousands of others are using. Essentially, their one computer replaces the thousands that would have needed to be purchased to complete the same task. Their one computer can be used more effectively because while you are sleeping someone in Europe can be using your portion of the big computer which likely wouldn’t be happening if it was sitting on your desk in low power sleep mode. An additional benefit is that the company providing the service is likely to be continuously upgrading and improving the software to retain and attract customers. This means that you aren’t going to get stuck with a piece of out-of-date software in a few years. And, if you’re a business you can add users by simply buying more access instead of having to buy more software and hardware to accommodate growth. Cloud computing is both lean and green.

Reuse

We know it’s easy to recycle cans and bottles but who wants your old computer that is far from high tech? The truth is that lots of people might want it including schools, low-income earners, and even those pesky computer geeks. While it may not suit your needs anymore there is such a wide spectrum of computer uses out there that your old clunker may be just the thing that Junior could use to practice his typing or learn basic programming. Sometimes the latest and greatest isn’t the best tool for the job especially if you are looking to do a little tinkering under the hood, which is what many computer hobby hackers do. They are looking for something that they can strip down, try some new tricks on or simply strip the good parts. Whatever the use, if you can find Junior or a hobbyist, your computer will extend its useful life before it meets a shredder in the next phase, which is recycling. If you’re having trouble finding a home for your electronic waste or have large volumes consider a waste consultant who can use their knowledge and experience to find a solution.

Recycle

OK, you’ve tried to donate your outdated electronic waste but it seems nobody wants your old clunker. Now it’s time to find a recycling facility that will take your old electronic device and safely recycle the materials contained within. But a word of caution on recycling of electronic waste because all may not be well. If you find someone that is willing to recycle your electronic, ask some questions like “Where does my computer go to be recycled?” or “Can you provide proof of recycling at an approved facility?” If the answer to the first question is another country such as China or India you may want to reconsider. Not that all recyclers in China and India are irresponsible but there is considerable evidence that much of the electronic waste sent to these countries is processed in ways that is extremely harmful to the both the environment and the workers that recycle the waste. You may think your old iPhone is being carefully disassembled for valuable materials when in fact it is being processed in an acid bath over an open fire, which is then dumped into a river. This brings me to my second rule of thumb, which is asking for proof of recycling at an approved facility. Ask the recycler where they send their materials. If they can’t or won’t tell you, it is a red flag. If they will tell you, do a quick Google search on the facility they provide and see what you find. Ideally you want to have your waste recycled locally by a government certified facility that is operating a safe and ethical recycling system. Most recyclers dealing with a certified electronic waste recycler will provide a record of recycling to certify that your electronic waste was recycled at an approved facility.

The solution to the ever-increasing electronic waste issue is to use computing resources more efficiently (Cloud Computing), reuse and extend the life of electronic waste (Schools and Hobbyists), and use a responsible recycler (Local and Accountable).