globalbriefs
disassembly and landfill operations. companies that solicit their green ideas.
Co-op America reports that a single Still, while 93 percent of employed
TV cathode-ray tube can contain eight respondents turn off electrical devices
Disaster Relief pounds of lead, plus hundreds of other at home to conserve energy, only 50
Stop the E-Waste Nightmare highly toxic chemicals, including mer- percent do so at work. And while 77
cury, brominated-flame retardants and percent of employees recycle at home,
Millions of televisions are set to be- PVC plastics. only 49 percent do so on the job. To-
come obsolete, due to a new Federal The FCC set this nightmare in mo- gether, we can do better.
Communications Commission (FCC) tion. Now they must fix it.
rule requiring that all broadcast sta- For a converter box store coupon,
tions switch to a visit
DTV2009.gov. For nearby responsi- Fill ’er Up
digital signal by ble recycling drop-off locations, e-waste $ave by Reusing Printer
February 2009. laws in 16 states and more, visit Cartridges
Overnight, old
ComputerTakeBack.com.
analog sets will
become ob-
solete, unless Consistency Counts
consumers in- Workers Still Greener at Home
stall a converter than on the Job
box (generous
federal coupons Across the
are avail- country,
able). Many employ-
will choose to ers are
upgrade to a newer model, and must scrambling
decide whether to ditch or recycle their to send an
old set. important Consider the fact that each year, 300
Currently, only 12 percent of message to million printer cartridges end up in
e-waste is recycled, because too few workers, America’s landfills. Although 90 percent
convenient options exist. Recycling customers, of all cartridges sold are recyclable,
must be free and easy to use for people vendors only 20 percent are currently reused.
to follow through. and the A typical U.S. household consumes six
An early fall grassroots letter-writing public: Green matters. Part of that is to 10 cartridges a year; a school, 350; a
campaign (CoopAmerica.org/takeac- a response to a bottom-up push. In a mid-sized business, 900 to 1,600.
tion/fcc) has joined the call to convince 2008 survey by Randstad and Harris The resulting mountainous waste of
the FCC to create recycling programs Interactive, 87 percent of employees af- petroleum-based plastic can pollute our
nationwide and ensure that all manufac- firm it is at least “somewhat important” water supplies by leaking leftover ink.
turers take back their old TVs, as well as that their employers offer green-friendly But, it’s an easy problem to fix, and one
other electronics. Sony and LG Electron- programs at work. that can save consumers big bucks.
ics were the first to agree. People want to work for companies The answer is to buy recycled,
This preempts sham recyclers that have strong values and care about refilled toner and ink cartridges and
from profiting through unregulated sustainability. They also want to work for return defunct units to the store’s drop-
off spot on the same trip. PlanetGreen.
Discovery.com reports that, while
do-it-yourself ink refill kits are avail-
able online, it’s easy to patronize refill
stations at participating retailers, such
as Cartridge orld, OfficeMax and W
Walgreens—and be good to go for a
fraction of the cost of a new unit. Some
also sell pre-refilled cartridges, and will
change the computer chip that manu-
facturers often install to monitor toner
level and protect their profits.
For brand-compatible cartridge
D D ( / ' / 0
models, visit
PlanetGreenInkJets.com,
or ask a local dealer.
24 Broward County
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