A Word About Recycling - Jan. 24, 2010 » Columns » San Marcos Record, San Marcos, TX

Columns

January 23, 2010

A Word About Recycling - Jan. 24, 2010

By Ollie & Gloria Maier The San Marcos Record Sat Jan 23, 2010, 01:22 PM CST

In last week’s column, we mentioned our Texas State University’s students having a second e-waste (electronics) collection effort in April trying to double if not triple last year’s effort.

Don’t know if it’s related (but think it probably is), an item in the latest Resource Recycling e-newsletter caught our eye.

“The 10th year of RecycleMania, the college-based recycling competition, launched Jan. 17.

Over the next 10-weeks, participating schools will report recycling and waste data, which will be ranked according to which school collects the most recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita, or have the highest recycling rate.”

Such efforts are good in that they not only help inform the students about the advantages of recycling, but also collect a considerable amount as nationwide.

“Last year, 69.4 million pounds of recyclable material was collected in conjunction with the competition …“

Although more than just electronics is collected in the competition, it is an important part. And speaking of electronics, “Concurring with the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, with the attendant green claims by many companies, Greenpeace again called itself the final arbiter of environmental friendliness, issuing its latest Guide to Greener Electronics.”

In the Greenpeace ratings “... electronics giant Nokia took the top spot for the sixth straight time, earning praise for toxics use reduction...“

And Sony Ericsson advanced to second place as the "best performer on the toxic chemicals criteria of all the ranked brands."

Since we use an iMac to write these articles, we were happy to see “ Apple continues its upward movement through the rankings — climbing from 11th two guides ago — to fifth place, earning high marks for ‘eliminating toxic chemicals and e-waste criteria.’"

One of the reasons Sony got such high marks was because its “... new VAIO W "eco-edition" mini laptop includes more than 20-percent recycled PC and ABS, which comes from recycled CDs and DVDs.” And “The laptop's carrying case is made from recycled PET.”

And in the area of plastics, if you’re involved in the collection of it, you may want to attend “This year's 2010 Plastics Recycling Conference.” This national event will be held March 2-3, just north of us at The Hilton Austin in Austin, Texas. For more on it, go to the www.plasticsrecycling.com website.

Although glass recycling does not seem to get a high priority, an interesting item in the same e-newsletter mentioned “... 12.6 million tons of glass packaging was collected in 2008 in Europe (including such non-European Union states as Norway, Switzerland and Turkey), for an average collection recycling rate of 65 percent ... “

Till next week, do have a great one...

Gloria and Ollie are local citizens concerned with the environment and helping others. Ollie is a graduate of Leadership San Marcos and they both received higher education at TxState University and worked on staff before retiring. For questions or comments, please call 353-7432 or e-mail them to omaier@TxState.edu.

Text Only

Columns

A Word About Recycling - Jan. 22, 2012
Not-so-good news. Some of you may have seen an article on this, but we did not.

January 22, 2012
Life's Like That - Jan. 22, 2012
January 22, 2012
A Word About Recycling - Jan. 15, 2012
A few items, concerning other countries, contained in a recent Resource Recycling eNewsletter we found interesting.

January 15, 2012
Life's Like That - Jan. 15, 2012
What will Heaven be like? This age-old question has been answered in many ways. Heaven has been made the butt of thousands of jokes. These usually begin with three people approaching those pearly gates and having a conversation with Peter, the apostle and holder of the keys to the blessed land.

January 15, 2012
Life's Like That - Jan. 8, 2012
A whole week has passed since the New Year began. Hold up your hand if you have already broken one or more of your resolutions. Okay. you can put your hands down now.

January 8, 2012
A Word About Recycling - Jan. 8, 2012
As we go forth in this new year, here's a couple of items from Resource Recycling pertaining to Texas towns...

January 8, 2012
Life's Like That - Jan. 1, 2012
As I began thinking about today’s essay I sensed a presence of the ghost of New Years past. I’m at the age of “if I make it ‘til …” So, if I make it ‘til Sunday I will have been around for 80 changes of the calendar.

January 1, 2012
Life's Like That - Dec. 25, 2011
Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Geseende kersfees, Gezur Krislinjin, Bon Nadali un Bon Any Nou, Joyeux Noel these words ring out all around the world today …

December 25, 2011
A Word About Recycling - Dec. 18, 2011
With Christmas coming soon, one of the pictures we have in our minds of Santa is the one which Coca-Cola had early on in their ads. Thus this item in the Resource Recycling eNewsletter caught our eye,

December 18, 2011
Life's Like That - Dec. 18, 2011
Christmas time is a good time to give thought to the veteran next door, or he or she may be living in your house.

December 18, 2011
More Columns Headlines

Columns

Search Results

A Word About Recycling - Jan. 24, 2010

Site Map

Contact Us