Are you the kind of person that hates to discard used books for fear they’ll end up in a landfill?  Do those late-night pet adoption commercials get you thinking that you’d like to set up an adoption agency for used books?  We’re right there with you, and we’ve got some great news for you!

We Recycle Books: http://ecycler.com/books

We’re delighted to announce that we now accept books as a part of our recycling programs.  We’re committed to helping find good homes for your books, and now it’s easy to join in. Simply navigate to ecycler.com/books and click the Start Recycling Now button on the page, select the number of books you are recycling (or enter in the count). Fill in the form, print out your shipping label and then rest assured that your books are on their way to nice, new homes where they’ll be treated well, with lots of tender loving care.

Books cannot be easily recycled like other paper, because of the chemicals, such as glue, and other binding materials used to make them, so reuse is a great option.

We happily accept all sorts of books, be they hardcover or softcover editions, new or old. All we ask is that the books be in decent condition, without mold or mildew. It’s okay if there are markings. Just use common sense – don’t send any books that you yourself wouldn’t want to receive. The books will transferred to the care of our recycling partner who shares our commitment to getting books out of the trash and into the hands of new readers. The goal is to give each book as many new lives as possible. Come join the revolution.

According to ALA Recycling Industries, in 2006 the U.S. printed more than 172,000 new book titles. In order to produce just one ton of paper needed for these new books, 3,688 lbs. of wood, 24,000 gallons of water, 216 lbs. of lime, 360 lbs. of salt cake and 76 lbs. of soda ash are required. The process produces 84 lbs. of air pollutants, 36 lbs. of water pollutants and 176 lbs. of solid waste which must be treated and properly discarded.

Happy recycling!

Attention, no books were harmed in the filming of these Crush that Can videos:

Thanks for Ben Oh for the use of his image

We, at ecycler.com, do NOT support SOPA / PIPA.

For the very first time, we are posting something not related to being green or recycling. SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) are dangerous and written from a point of ignorance of the Internet and Innovation.

For an explanation, please watch this short video PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks the Internet from Fight for the Future.

Some initial thoughts (partially borrowed from WordPress News):

• Our legal system maintains that the burden of proof is on the accuser, i.e., people are innocent until proven guilty. This tenet seems to be on the chopping block when it comes to the web if these bills pass, as companies could shut down sites based on accusation alone.
• Laws are not easily reverted. We should not be so quick to codify something this far-reaching.
• The people writing these laws are not the people writing the independent web, and they are not out to protect it.

The government has already wrongly shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with anything copyrighted in it, or what sites like Youtube and Twitter do, would be considered illegal behavior according to this bill.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill would cost us $47 million tax dollars over the next few years — that’s for a fix that won’t work, disrupts the Internet, stifles innovation, shuts out diverse voices, and censors the Internet. This bill is bad for creativity and does not protect your rights.

We’ve added the “Stop SOPA” ribbon to our blog and encourage all other blog owners to do the same.

For more information:

Daily Kos: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/18/1055849/-Confessions-Of-A-Hollywood-Professional:-Why-I-Cant-Support-the-Stop-Online-Piracy-Act-(UPDATED)
Mashable: http://mashable.com/2011/11/16/sopa-infographic/
TechDirt: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/why-hollywoods-idea-innovation-is-sopa.shtml
TechCrunch: http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/15/sopa-brad-burnham/

Thanks! And, now back to our regularly scheduled programming…

We are all about recycling and being green. Some may call it junk, but it can certainly be reused, recycled or upcycled! With so much upcycling inspiration around here, we thought Pinterest would be a great place to showcase some of our discoveries!

If you’re not familiar with Pinterest, think of it as a place to create virtual inspiration boards. If you see a craft project, a recipe, or anything else that inspires you, you can “pin it” on your Pinterest account to find later (and to show-off to the world!).

We use ecyler’s Pinterest board to bookmark and share awesome, eco-friendly, upcycled stuff that we stumble across. We want to create a pinboard that’s got green crafty inspiration for home decor, clothing and accessories and any other awesome upcycled or revamped craft projects we stumble upon in our travels. We also post some interesting images of recycling of materials from aluminum cans to wine bottle corks.

Want to keep up with the eco-friendly, upcycle action on Pinterest? Follow the ecycler Pinterest board! We’d also love to connect with other green pinners out there. Do you have a Pinterest account? Tell us who you are in the comments!

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

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.

A special guest post by our development team at Virtual Communications:

Established in 2005, Virtual Communications is an environmentally conscious IT consulting company. Their services include software and web development, Facebook and mobile apps, call center and BPO services, video conferencing, VoIP solutions, training and technical support for consumers and corporations.

With their goal set on providing a high standard of work, Virtual Communications focuses on world class coding standards and best practices. The skills pool covers all development platforms–they have experience working with Fortune 500 companies and multinationals and enjoy a high customer retention rate.

A recent project presented Virtual Communications with an opportunity to work with a green company. The successful launch of ecycler has helped promote a great service that puts collectors of recyclable materials in contact with those who have them to give away.

We love working with an organization whose goal is to redistribute recyclable materials in order to make good use of it and make sure it is used to the fullest of its ability to reduce waste worldwide.

To make the world a greener place as well as reduce their carbon footprint, Virtual Communications makes a conscious effort in their offices to reduce waste output. For example, the offices are illuminated entirely by energy efficient florescent bulbs, which reduces costs and is environmentally friendly. Backup generators are powered by natural gas which is far more efficient and expels fewer pollutants than gasoline or diesel. They use recycled paper, recycle all waste paper and ink cartridges. And, drinking water is provided in 19 liter (5 gallon) reusable plastic bottles which cuts down on waste from non-reusable sources.

By continuing their green initiatives they hope to make the community around their offices a safer, cleaner place and reflect these ideals across their worldwide client base, subsequently making the world greener. With all of these practices in place they are able to cut down on costs as well as the waste and pollutants associated with any business.

Virtual Communications’ work with ecycler has no doubt inspired and has reinforced the benefits of recycling. They encourage their partners and clients to maintain the environment to the best of their ability.

Check out Virtual Communications for more details!

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/

ecycler is a new way to recycle! In an effort to spread the word about ecycler, we sponsored a giveaway. And, it was quite a success! We thank everyone who registered on ecycler.com as either a collector or a discarder.

So, what’s the difference between a collector and a discarder?

• Collectors - Collectors are those who pick recyclables up from a business or house and then sell them to their local recyclable buyer.
• Discarders - The discarders are those who give away recyclables.

We also thank everyone that made bonus entries by following us on twitter, tweeting about the giveaway, creating a blog post or commenting on the original story. Up for grabs was an Apple iPad that retails for $499.

We randomly selected a winner from all the new ecycler users that registered between October 25, 2010 and December 1, 2010 with their “bonus” entries. The result via random.org was the number 762. We cross-referenced this number to our database and the winner was identified.

Who won?

Melissa D. from Washington State!

Melissa responded back to our communication, “I got your email this morning and am SUPER excited that I won!!” A huge congratulations to Melissa–your iPad, iPad case and ecycler reusable tote are on their way!

* Apple and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple, Inc.

Ecycler featured on StartUpLift.com! Come check it out and make a comment. StartUpLift.com was created to help promising startups get exposure and receive insightful feedback. People come to StartUpLift to learn about new startups and to engage in stimulating conversation. Sounds good to us!

Feedback sought:

• Do you find the site intuitive? Meaning, upon arrival to ecycler.com, is it obvious as to what the site is all about?
• We would love some suggestions on the registration process.

I think it’s very cool that this company allows you to schedule a time and place to pick up recyclables…

Showcase here: http://startuplift.com/ecycler-collect-connect-recycle/