Green Notes

Recycling cellphones

Still got some old cellphones lying around? Here's another opportunity to do the right thing:

EPA is launching National Cell Phone Recycling Week as part of its efforts to celebrate Earth Day the entire month of April. The week, which runs from April 6 through April 12, is a joint effort between EPA’s Plug-In To eCycling program and leading cell phone manufacturers, retailers and service providers to increase national awareness about the importance of cell phone recycling.

To celebrate National Cell Phone Recycling Week, Plug-In partners across the country, including AT&T, Samsung, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless, are introducing a series of in-store promotions, contests, and giveaways.  The partners will provide in-store and online recycling opportunities for consumers.

With only 10 percent of unwanted cell phones being recycled in 2007, EPA is encouraging consumers to increase the nation’s cell phone recycling rate.  Recycling or reusing cell phones helps the environment by saving energy and keeping reusable materials out of landfills.  Cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) are made of precious metals, copper, and plastics.  Recycling or reusing them not only conserves these materials, it also prevents air and water pollution and reduces greenhouse gas emissions that occur during manufacturing and when extracting and processing virgin materials.  If Americans recycled the 100 million cell phones that are no longer being used, enough energy would be saved to power more than 18,500 homes for a year.

Donating cell phones or PDAs can also have social benefits for communities.  In fact, many existing recycling programs donate cell phones that are in good working order to worthy charities, raise funds for charitable organizations, or provide them for discounted sale. 

Plug-In To eCycling is a voluntary partnership between EPA and electronics manufacturers, retailers, and service providers to offer consumers more opportunities to donate or recycle their used electronics.  In 2007, as part of their commitment to the program, retailers and electronics manufacturers voluntarily recycled more than 47 million pounds of electronics, mostly computers and televisions.

Information about EPA’s Plug-In to eCycling program: www.epa.gov/plugin
Information about cell phone recycling: www.epa.gov/cellphones

$200,000 prize for environmentalists in LatAm and Caribbean

The Inter-American Development Bank is sponsoring a competition to develop innovative ideas for improving energy efficiency, and access to efficient energy, in the region. Prizes are up to $200,000.

Watch the videos on YouTube in Spanish here and in English here, or check the IDB's website.

Urban Development Boundary: Dade says 'Yes/No'

Fred Grimm's very funny column highlights the ridiculous position the county has taken in supporting developers who want to move the boundary. The opposition's expert witnesses were all county employees!

The Great Backyard Bird Count

It's this weekend and it's a great excuse to get into the yard. Get the kids involved, too. You don't have to be an expert birder, either. Learn more here.

Lennar to build outside the UDB?

The Tropical Audubon Society is asking birders and other wildlife enthusiasts to tell their commissioners to veto Lennar's proposed development in West Kendall outside the Urban Development Boundary. Most helpfully, each commissioner's phone number is listed.

More info here.

FIU launches a weekly farmer's market

This just in:

WHAT:  The Farmer’s Market will feature locally grown, organic fruits and vegetables. Much of the produce will come from Three Sisters Farm, a five-acre organic farm in Homestead owned by FIU alumna Rachael Middleton and her family. Additional fruits and vegetables will be available from other small, local, organic farms as will some highly requested produce from other parts of Florida.

WHO: Sponsored by FIU’s Stempel Public Health Association and the Wellness Center. The Farmer’s Marker was organized as a graduate school project by public health student Nancy Maidique.

WHEN: Wednesday, Dec. 3 at noon. Beginning January 2009, The Farmer’s Market will be held every Wednesday afternoon when classes are in session.

WHERE: The central fountain at Florida International University – University Park, 11200 SW 8th Street in Miami.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Call 305-348-2401 ext. 5

Logging: A gift from a departing administration

Further to the post below, The Wilderness Society is urgently asking people to sign a petition to stop the Bureau of Land Management opening up ancient forests in Oregon to logging. It says:

The federal Bureau of Land Management has just proposed opening thousands of acres of forests in western Oregon to logging. It's a handoff to the timber industry, a huge loss to endangered species, and to the American public.

But there's still time to object! Your voice is absolutely critical in showing that the public cares about what happens to these forests. The BLM needs to know that Americans will not stand for degrading our streams and rivers, or the sale of some of our last ancient forests to the timber industry.

Info and the petition can be found on the society's website.

Avoiding toxic household cleaners

If you want to avoid potentially harmful chemicals in household cleaning products, Women's Voices for the Earth tells you how to make your own. The recipes use everyday products that have been used forever and their dangers, such as they are, are well known.

WVE, a national nonprofit, has just released a report card that grades five leading cleaning product manufacturers (Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., Sunshine Makers, Inc./Simple Green and The Clorox Company) on toxic chemical and consumer right-to-know issues.

Extracts from the press release:

The companies were graded on several subjects, including toxic chemicals in products, responsiveness to consumer concerns, their toxic chemicals screening process and how well companies inform consumers of ingredients contained in their products. All companies were given an opportunity to review their grades and provide feedback prior to the release of the report card.

The U.S. does not require household cleaning product companies to disclose all ingredients on their labels, and currently none of the five companies WVE reviewed include this information on all of their cleaning products. Sunshine Makers, Inc./Simple Green and The Clorox Company label ingredients on their “green” line of products but do not include complete ingredient lists on their more extensive, “traditional” product lines.

Procter & Gamble received an F for having the most toxic chemicals in products.
Simple Green received an F for lack of responsiveness to consumer concerns.
The Clorox Company received an F for poor ingredient disclosure.

Details are on the website, but in Clorox's defense, I like its new GreenWorks line of products - and they have the Sierra Club's backing.

Green cleaning

A while back, I tried Seventh Generation's dishwasher detergent and, I have to say, was not overly impressed. While the dishes were clean, the coffee stains remained in the mugs and needed scrubbing to remove them. Perhaps dishwasher detergents need bleach to kill the stains.

I'm trying Method's dish detergent and Green Works all purpose cleaner, both seem to work very well - except for Method's irritatingly difficult cap, but I'm leery of trying another dishwasher detergent.

Grist is now testing household products, in an admittedly unscientific way, but it's a good place to start if you want to try some yourself. Please let me know if you've found any good, green cleaning products out there.

Whatever happened to FPL's green electricity program?

Action Line answers.