Technology

Ontario Electronic Waste Program

- Adam Clare

Starting in April 2009 people living in the Canadian province of Ontario will start paying a levy on electronic products that are costly to recycle. These added fees will go to fund the expensive recycling procedures for electronics, while also expanding the program.

The fees will go to an arm’s-length organization established by Waste Diversion Ontario and will be used to fund the collection and recycling of the products from hundreds of drop-off locations to be established across the province.

The program for TVs and computers is just the beginning of the province’s plans. Waste Diversion Ontario, which creates and runs recycling programs for the province, will today begin drafting the next phase of electronics recycling in Ontario. By next summer, the agency will put forward a plan to recycle nearly all other electronic products.

The ultimate purpose of adding recycling fees is to force manufacturers to create more environmentally friendly products.

Under the program, the fees, which are expected to total $62 million in the first year, could drop in future years if, for example, the cost to recycle the products decreases because manufacturers have removed lead or mercury components.

Things Are Good’s occasional writer, Cam Proctor, will be working on the program! Congrats to Cam!

Have Your Coffee in a Ceramic Cup

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

Using paper cups for our coffee is absolutely ridiculous, a Canadian writer proposes we use some really awesome ceramic cups.

We have some amazing technology developing here in Canada. Homegrown high-tech whiz-bang — Nobel Prize material, really.

This system is too good to be true: it can provide fuel, or be easily processed into one of our most versatile building materials; it can sequester CO2 to slow global warming; be harvested for food; increase ecosystem health and biodiversity by providing habitat for animals, birds, plants and insects; slow damaging storm-water runoff; purify water; and help remediate contaminated soils. The feedstock is free and abundant, and maintenance on the system is negligible.

Compute a Little More Green

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

I tend to use computers daily and I like the environment, so I like to be as green as possible while on the ol’ computer machine. PC World has five tips for greener computing.

There’s also global shutdown day.

5. FIND A NEW HOME FOR YOUR OLD TECH
So you’re getting ready to upgrade to a new computer, but you’ve discovered that you have no room in the closet for the old one because it’s already filled with a decade’s worth of obsolete technology. What to do? One solution is to recycle your old gadgets by bringing them somewhere where they’ll be disposed of properly. You can find a list of services in your area by checking out Earth 911’s Web site, which tells you where to dispose of everything from batteries to toner cartridges to the 386 you’ve had knocking around since the first George Bush was in office.

Linux Prevents E-Waste

- Adam Clare

Linux, that open source and free operating system (Windows replacement),continues to impress people interested in green computing. Linux is the most environmentally friendly operating system and CNN is reporting on a study that using Linux reduces e-waste.

Linux runs really well on “outdated” computers. Don’t go buy a new computer, reuse your old one!

A UK government study in late 2004 reported that there were substantial green benefits to running a Linux open source operating system (OS) on computers instead of the ubiquitous Windows OS, owned by Microsoft. The main problem with Windows users was that they had to change their computer twice as many times as Linux users, on average, thereby effectively creating twice as much computer-generated e-waste.

Internet Saves Millions of Tons of Carbon

- Adam Clare

Keyboard
The internet is quite kind for the environment, which I guess is why good news appears on this website and not on paper handed out on city streets. Ecogeek has a post about a published report on how much carbon is saved by using the internet.

E-Commerce will reduce emissions by 200 M tons
-Telecommuting will prevent 250 tons of carbon emissions from reduced driving, 30 tons from reduced office construction and 300 tons of energy savings
-Teleconferencing could prevent 200 M tons of carbon emissions (if it replaces 10% of face-to-face meetings.)
-Shifting newspaper from print to digital could save 60 M tons of carbon
-Digitally shipping other goods, such as music, movies and books would also contribute.

Coincidentally, an email arrived from a reader and wants to let people know about his new venture ensuring the internet continues to supports people who try to live green, GreenPDF:

FormRouter has declared war on paper forms and is offering free training
and educational resources to get organizations to create their own
online PDF forms.

We are doing this because paper forms are an environmental disaster. It
is estimated that 80% of all organization documents are paper forms.

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