Category Archives: Environmentally Friendly

Going Down to 1 Car?

My poor old Saturn is dying. It’s the transmission, and I don’t think it’s going to hold out much longer.

I’ve told my husband I’d rather not replace it right away. We can’t afford the kind of vehicle we want, and quite honestly my personal need for a car is quite minimal. Most of my errands can be done in his car after he’s home from work. It’s maybe every couple weeks that I HAVE to have a car to take the kids to a doctor appointment or such.

So I’ve told him that I don’t want to replace it right away. Yes, I do want to replace it eventually, as he has to have a car for his job as he has to go to customer’s homes sometimes, but I would rather do it when we can buy the kind of vehicle I want.

You probably know what I mean… low emissions, great gas mileage. Continue reading →

Batteries in the Trash

As a stay at home mom with two young children, I see my family go through a lot of batteries. You know how children’s toys are these days.

I may not be much on gadgets, but there is one that’s high on my list for as soon as the budget permits… a good battery charger. I loathe buying batteries. I don’t care that rechargeable costs more off the bat, I like that I don’t have to keep throwing them away, or as things stand now, finding a place to recycle them. I’ve been checking out the products over at Responsible Energy Corporation.

Here in California, you’re not supposed to throw batteries in the trash anymore. It’s a good law, I think, but not well implemented. I only heard about it from my mother, and I do pay moderate attention to the news. Imagine how many people have no idea that they’re supposed to be recycling them now.

For battery recycling to be successful, I think much more needs to be done. More work on public awareness in particular. More work on helping people to know where they can recycle batteries. More places to recycle batteries. Continue reading →

Thoughts on Making the Proper Disposal of Electronics Simpler for Consumers

One of the terrible things I see people doing these days is treating their electronics as disposable. They buy new computers often, just throwing the old in the trash. Same for televisions, cell phones and so forth. Recycling often isn’t on their minds and certainly isn’t all that convenient.

My mother and I had a discussion about this recently. We are much of the same mind on many environmental issues. On this topic, we agreed that the consumer level source of the problem could be a part of the solution.

Just imagine if there were a recycling surcharge on new electronics. Yes, it would raise the price, so maybe people will stop treating them as so disposable. That might just be a good thing.

If the customer brings in their old equipment for recycling, however, they could get a partial rebate. It then becomes the store’s problem to transport the old electronics for repair or recycling. Considering how empty the trucks leaving the stores after deliveries must be, it shouldn’t be all that impossible. Continue reading →