Green Business

December 11, 2007

BUSINESS/HOME OFFICE RECYCLING

www.greenlinepaper.com America’s Green Office Supply Store allows to purchase a variety of recycled products for your home and office.

ELECTRONICS

Batteries:

www.rbrc.org for mores about rechargeable battery recycling

www.batteryrecycling.com The best strategy is to buy rechargeable batteries whenever possible and reuse them (you can buy a re-charger for $15 to $40 at home centers and office supply stores). When they’re finally spent, recycle rechargeables at Best Buy, Target, Circuit City, Radioshack, Wal-Mart, or Home Depot. Battery Solutions Inc., a Michigan-based company, will ensure that single use batteries don’t end up in landfills. For a one-time fee of $8, they will ship you a 2-gallon container so you can deposit your batteries (the container holds up to 25 pounds) and mail it back. They hand-sort the batteries, recycle them, and return the container to you. You pay for shipping and a fee based on the quantity and type of batteries you’ve sent, typically about $17. Return automobile batteries to auto shops. They’ll recycle or dispose of them for you.

www.greendisk.com Supplies you with TechnoTrash cans to fill with byte-sized technotrash and return to the GreenDisk for recycling. Also sells cds in recycled jewel cases, other recycled techno-products.

Cell Phones:

www.wirelessfoundation.org

www.collectivegood.com If you’ve got one or more of the estimated 250 million unused mobile phones in America right now, don’t throw it away—cell phones contain toxins that can contaminate water supplies. Call to Protect, a joint initiative by the wireless industry and the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, collects cell phones, fixes them, and donates them to women at risk for abuse. The cell phones are programmed with emergency numbers and links to local shelters. You can also send phones to CollectiveGood, a nonprofit that gives them to economically disadvantaged people in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Computers:

www.cristina.org

www.sharetechnology.org Like cell phones, computers contain toxins such as lead and mercury that can leach into groundwater supplies if left in landfills. The National Cristina Foundation in Greenwich, Connecticut, collects and donates used computers to hundreds of prescreened foundations, such as Patch Worx (which donates computers to critically ill children so that they can communicate with each other and the outside world). You can also donate a computer through Share the Technology, an organization that lists specific equipment requests from schools and community organizations. You might be giving away exactly what they’re looking for. Don’t forget to check with your local county recycling program to see if they can accept your old computer or monitor!