April 22nd has been designated as Earth Day.  But taking care of our Earth doesn’t have to happen on only one specific date in a year.  This is our planet and Earth Day should be every day!  We must care for mother nature so that our future generations can grow and expand to a galaxy far far away. . .

Technology has grown to the point where consumer products actually require more resources to create than ever before.  But our planet has a limited supply of those resources.  And most of those rare earth minerals are situated in China.

When we were kids, we all learned the importance of recycling.  Recycling cans, bottles, and paper so that we can reuse them in other products like pens, toilet paper, etc.  But what about electronics that we don’t use any more? 

In the last 15 years, there has been a surge in recycling for electronics.  In the beginning, most consumers just dumped their used electronics in the trash which in turn was dumped in our country’s landfill.  The problem with that is those electronic components contain toxic parts which will decompose and get introduced back in to the environment.  These toxic components harm our environment and eventually the government thought of a “solution to our problem”.

The government “solved the problem” by shipping the toxic electronic components to China.  China has been booming in the last 10 years.  They are going through their industrial phase and expanding factories everywhere.  These factories need resources which we were providing as electronic components.  China then sends out its recycling workforce to disassemble and strip these electronic components to get at the plastic, metals, etc.  The problem with China’s way of recycling is that it also harms the environment and also its own people in the process.  So this in turn isn’t really a way to “solve the problem”.  Harming the environment in another country is still in fact harming the environment.  Also during this time, most places don’t offer free recycling.  Consumers actually have to pay to have their electronics recycled.  Not many consumers do that since why would you want to pay to throw something out?  So at the end most consumers just throw it out with the trash.  Problem not solved.

Now the last 5 years, many corporations are offering free recycling at their stores.  You might have noticed them at places like Best Buy where they have a few bins for you to recycle cell phones, empty ink cartridges, etc.  And some other places like Staples are offering incentives when you bring back empty ink cartridges.  So what really happens with those products being recycled?  I don’t have any concrete facts about Best Buy but I can provide some insight to what happens to those empty ink cartridges at Staples.

To a consumer, you might think that Staples ships those empty ink cartridges back to their respective manufacture to be reused or recycled.  That would be the logical thinking.  But the truth is that Staples just dumps those cartridges in their dumpsters at the end of the day.  Don’t believe me?  Take a peek inside their dumpster and you’ll see boxes of used cartridges just laying in there.  This is also verified by a Staples employee who was actually dumping those cartridges out.  Staples just uses the illusion of “recycling” and incentives to lure you in to purchasing new ink cartridges from them instead of their competitors.  Dumping these empty ink cartridges in the dumpster isn’t considered recycling and in fact will harm the environment.  Also it’s bad for corporate image.

So at this point in time, we can’t trust the government or big corporations to do it right.  In my opinion, the best recycling program is not to recycle but to reuse instead.  If you have an old computer that’s just too slow for you then don’t throw it out.  Give it to someone less fortunate than you, donate it to a church, give it to Goodwill or even just sell it on ebay for someone else to use.  Used electronics can be handed down to the next generation or given away.  You can also refill those empty ink cartridges at ink refill stores.  Even you can sell those empty cartridges on ebay for people that actually refill them.

Reuse IS recycling!

Filed in categories: Articles, Miscellaneous

Tagged: Earth Day, recycle

Earth Day and Technology originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 22, 2012 at 11:00 am.

The Re-Case is made of 100% recycled trash. The actual material is called POLLIBER and is a combination of reprocessed rice husks, a by product of rice farming and post-consumer thermo-plastics. Wow, that’s a mouthful! In addition to your phone, this case can also hold 1 credit card stored under the phone. The Re-Case is available in several colors and can be purchased for $24.95 from Amazon.

Filed in categories: iPhone, iPad, iPod related, News

Tagged: Case, iPhone, recycle

iPhone 4/4S Case Made Entirely of… Trash originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 26, 2011 at 7:45 am.

We’ve featured Geekware before on The Gadgeteer because I love the fact that Nicole Harper makes all her geek inspired gifts from recycled electronic waste. Nicole’s latest offerings are fun and quirky clocks made from items such as old Atari, Commodore and other game cartridges. They are fun gift ideas for your favorite geeks and hey, you’re helping to keep this stuff out of the land fills.

Filed in categories: News, Watches and Clocks

Tagged: geek gifts, recycle, Watches and Clocks

Cool Clocks from Recycled Geek Junk originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 15, 2010 at 8:40 pm.

Don’t freak out, we’re not going to start reviewing earrings on The Gadgeteer. These earrings from CD Jewelry Art.Com are just so unique that I had to share them with all our  girly geek readers. They are made from re-purposed / recycled audio CDs. More than 9 billion CDs are produced annually and the ones that end up in a landfill take over 450 years to decompose. This company actually invites you to send them your unwanted CDs so that they can create earrings, pendants, barrettes and ornaments from them.

Filed in categories: Miscellaneous, News

Tagged: Jewelry, recycle, Spotlight Gadgets

CD Jewelry Brings Music to Your Ears originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 18, 2009 at 11:42 am.

Do you feel guilty when you put old electronic devices and AC adapters in the trash can? You won’t need to feel guilty any longer if you let iGo Recycles help you recycle them. The website lists local depots where customers can go to recycle electronic devices. It also features a search feature for customers to find local electronic device recyclers in their zip code. Customers can also create shipping labels (you pay the postage) on the iGo website to send their old chargers back to iGo to be recycled.

iGo is also coming out with a new green product line later this year that features the first green laptop charger, an eight outlet surge protector and a wall outlet. iGo Green Technology products automatically use 80% less standby power than standard power products.

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Gear Diary, recycle

Just say no to trashing your old devices and AC adapters originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 8, 2009 at 1:09 pm.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m really big into recycling. I hate throwing things away and will try to repurpose or give items to someone else before I send them to the landfill. That’s why I was happy to learn that Better Energy Systems Ltd. (the same company that brings us Solio solar chargers) are creating cases from the discarded tires of South American Trucks. Tread cases use these tires that would otherwise be burnt or thrown in landfills.

Made in Columbia, Tread makes cases for laptops, cellphones, MP3 players, cameras and even the Solio solar charger.

I was sent their Sportster Universal Smartphone case in Black. Now I know that at first glance that this case isn’t exactly gorgeous, but let’s give it a chance…

The case is basically one long strip of the tire material, that has stretchy elastic sides, a metal snap cover, elastic belt loop and carbiner clip.

As someone used to the wonderful aroma of Vaja leather cases, I have to tell you that the Tread case smell isn’t anywhere near as yummy. It has a sharp rubber smell, but so far I can only smell it when I actually put my nose up against it

The interior of the case is lined in a smooth Black material that feels like Neoprene. I’m not sure exactly what it is though. The Tread site refers to the lining as “nubuck style”.

The Sportster case can comfortably accommodate a phone that is no more than 4.5 inches long, 2.5 inches wide and .70 inches thick. I tried this case with several phones that I had on hand. The first phone I tried was the iPhone.

The elastic sides allow the iPhone to be inserted and removed easily from the Sportster case. I didn’t find any problem opening or closing the snap while the iPhone was in the case either.

I also tested this case with the HTC S620 and the Palm Centro. The S620 was a pretty tight fit and once when I was removing the phone from the case, the battery cover came off in the process. The Centro though thicker than the iPhone and S620 works fine with this case. I didn’t have any problems with the case pressing the keyboard buttons during insertion or removal.

As far as protection, this case feels robust enough to protect your phone from everyday abuse.

Tread cases are available in lots of different styles and colors. The construction is decent, but I did notice some scraggly edges on the thinner strip of ‘decorative’ material that is sewn on the outside of the case. If you are an environmentally conscience gadgeteer or someone that does not use leather products, these cases from Tread might be right up your alley. Or highway

Manufacture: Tread

Price: $29.95

Pros:
Uses recycled materials (tires)
Universal case can hold a variety of cellphones

Cons:
Some ragged edges in construction

Filed in categories: Gear, iPhone, iPad, iPod related

Tagged: Case, recycle, Smartphone

Tread Sportster Universal Smartphone Case Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 28, 2008 at 3:47 pm.

I don’t know about all of you, but I’m big into recycling these days. I break down all the cardboard boxes that show up at my house. I save newspapers, magazines, mail and other paper. I even collect bottles, cans and plastic containers. Every so often, I drop off this stuff at the local recycle center or various bins located around my town.  It makes me feel like I am doing something good for the planet. I also like to take sacks of reviewed items that I no longer use to my co-workers at my day job. I get a real kick from of spreading stuff out on a table and watching everyone walk up and grab something (hey guys, I have 4 sacks of stuff ready to bring to work after the holidays). That’s why, when I learned about a site that would let you swap books, dvds, cds and video games with other people all just for the price of postage, I wanted to learn more. Swaptree let’s you trade your stuff you know longer want, for stuff that you do. It’s a very cool concept. I haven’t tried to do an actual trade yet, but from browsing around on the site, I’ve found a few items that I wouldn’t mind having. Anyone else tried this service?

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Gear Diary, recycle

Don’t throw away your old stuff, swap it! originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 18, 2008 at 9:26 am.