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U.S.
Recycling Buzz
This section is devoted to the buzz about recycling news
on a national scale.
New Recycling Standard for Latex Paint
Dell Now Offers Free Recycling
Wal-Mart Awards Schools for Plastic Bag Recycling
e-waste, May 2007
“E-waste is a general
category for electronic products facing displacement or replacement that
are hazardous due to the toxic metals present with their internal
materials, coatings and glass. E-waste contains metals and other
materials that can be hazardous to human health and the environment if
they are not properly managed. According to an EPA study, 40% of the lead
in U.S. landfills is from discarded electrical and electronic products.
E-waste may include personal computers, monitors, televisions, keyboards,
printers, telephones, typewriters, calculators, copiers, fax machines and
audio equipment.” To continue reading about e-waste in Tennessee go to: http://state.tn.us/environment/swm/ewaste/
Learn more about the EPA’s
efforts to recycle electronic waste and their partners: Plug-in To
eCycling: http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/conserve/plugin/index.htm
Donating is a good way to
reuse computers. Here are a few sites from the EPA’s website. Some are
organizations that are focused on helping locally. Visit the EPA’s
website for more options than are listed here.
EPA: http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/recycle/ecycling/donate.htm
Rethink Initiative: http://rethink.ebay.com/odcs/custom.htm?template=donate
Earth911: http://www.earth911.org/master.asp?s=lib&a=electronics/elec_reuse.asp
Technology for Success (Knoxville based):http://www.discoveret.org/tfs/index.html
National Cristina
Foundation: http://www.cristina.org/
When purchasing a new
computer from Dell or Apple, ask them about their free recycling: http://www.apple.com/environment/recycling/
, http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/dell_recycling?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs
When you bring your
electronics to Knoxville’s Solid Waste Facility, it is taken to 5R
Processors for refurbishing or recycling. To learn more visit: http://www.5rprocessors.com/default.asp
For obsolete computer recycling in the Knoxville and Maryville area- Technology
Solutions of Tennessee: http://www.tsot.net/
New Recycling Standard for Latex Paint
August 2006
Green Seal Inc. and the Product Stewardship Institute developed new
recycling standards for latex paint. This standard will ensure that paints that meet this
standard will be up to par with standard paint in terms of quality and
durability. The goal of this
new standard is to allow consumers to feel confident in buying recycling
paint and to retain the many gallons of unused paint available every year
in the U.S. To learn more
about this standard visit Waste News.
Dell Now Offers Free Recycling
July 2006
The electronics company, Dell Inc., is now offering to recycle all Dell
products for free. Through
this new program, people owning used Dell products will register their
product online, schedule a home pick-up, and box up their Dell product to
be sent back to Dell. At
this point, Dell will work with various organizations and agencies in
finding the best ways to recycle or reuse the parts of the used
electronics. Dell’s new
initiative will help divert tons of electronics from entering the
landfill, which will prevent toxic substances found in electronics from
harming the environment.
Check out Dell’s
article for more information.
Wal-Mart Awards Schools for Plastic Bag Recycling
July 2006
Wal-Mart is sponsoring an initiative in 12 states to encourage the
collection of plastic bag recycling. Wal-Mart’s Kids Recycling Challenge is designed to
reward elementary schools for the amount of plastic retail and grocery bags
that they collect for recycling.
Wal-Mart will donate $5 per bag to the participating schools as
well as offer a cash award for the schools that finish in the top 10 in
their region. Check out Wal-Mart’s
article for more information on this story.
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