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Have you been avoiding the CFL bandwagon because of the mercury content?  A while back I started switching over to CFLs and at that point I was concerned with how I would recycle them, but had faith something would come up before the bulbs burnt out.  Recently the answer has come to us.  Both Home Depot and Ace Hardware have instituted recycling programs for CFLs.  The EPA also has a site with listings of where you can go to recycle the burnt out bulbs, broken out by region.

The other thing I have heard about CFLs is, what to do if one of the bulbs break.  There was someone I used to work with that had somehow broken two CFL bulbs this past spring and he would tease that he had a mercury spill at his house.  CFLs do contain mercury, but very very little.  However, EPA has given some guidelines on how to properly cleanup from a CFL breaking.  The basic gist, don’t blow it around (including don’t vacuum it up), just pick up the pieces to throw them away and the little pieces left can be picked up by using duct tape.  If you do have a spill, check out what the EPA has to say just to be cautious.

A friend of the family, Bryan, emailed me the other day with a link to a blog post over at The Coffee House.  If you ever need inspiration or motivation on why you should be trying to manage the amount of waste you simply throw away, you definitely need to check out this post!  It really highlights how plastic waste really affects marine life, and most of that only exists as packaging of products.   And it isn’t just packaging, but also the plastic bags so many of us get at the grocery store to bring home the products we buy.  You could think of it as packaging of packaging of the products we buy.

The video talks about turning in those bags so they can be used in other products.  However, you could go another step further and use reusable bags.  I did a post about reusable bags before, but I don’t think we can say enough about it.  I said it before, if there is one thing you do to attempt green, this should be it.  The one thing that has helped me on my little trips and remembering to bring the bags into the store has been a small bag I bought at Target.  This bag zips up to be about the same size as a female’s wallet, easily fitting into a purse so I always have it with me.

Go watch the video that the Coffee House has posted, and any time you think that it just doesn’t matter, watch it again.  I’ve added it to my favorites and will likely be watching it a few more times.

So the other day we needed more ink for our printer.  Now I would typically forgo the printing all together but my husband works from home and needs to print and mail things for work, like expense reports and receipts. Before running out and buying a new ink cartridge, he asked me if there was something special he should be doing with the ink cartridge.  Things like if the cartridge is refillable or if he could/how to recycle the cartridge.  I was both surprised and please that he asked this.

Turns out we didn’t have a refillable cartridge, so he took the dried out cartridge to Staples for recycling and picked up a new one.  Now if you have a Staples card, I do believe you get a $3 coupon (to perhaps apply to the new cartridge).  Being good to the environment and saving money, you can’t beat that.  Next time you run out of ink, remember to take it with you to the store for recycling.

Next week is the start of April, and in Cuyahoga County, it is also the start of Recycle Your Computer Month.  Cuyahoga County’s Solid Waste District has claimed April for residents to “recycle” all your old computer equipment.  Now I put that in quotes because what they are doing is really cool.  They will first look at your computer equipment and see if they can refurbish it, and if they can, it will be fixed up and donated to a school.  I feel very good about that.  Additionally, it can be any kind of computer equipment, including accessories like keyboards, printers, even cell phones. 

Just before I started my blog, I replaced my old desktop with a brand new laptop.  Now this has helped me a number of ways with my new venture into the world of green, but I’ve been holding on to my old computer so that I can make sure I get rid of it properly.  This is my perfect opportunity.

If cleaning out your house for a better place to live, making someone else’s life better through donation, and saving the planet wasn’t enough, this is even considered a tax deductable donation.  You can get a receipt simply by calling the Solid Waste District.

Now I am aware that not everyone lives in Cuyahoga County.  So I did a quick check on Maricopa County (where my parents live).  Maricopa County’s Solid Waste District is not doing this, but I did find a different resource in Arizona.  It is called AZ StRUT and their 8th Annual Computer Recycle Day is April 19th.  Again, they refurbish the equipment and donate it mostly to schools.

So along with my old desktop, I’m starting a box of old computer equipment lying around the house.   On April 12th I will be going to the Parma drop-off site to recycle (donate) all my unused computer equipment.  If you can’t make it in April, many of the locations do have year round drop-off, but why wait. 

So this weekend my parents will be visiting all the family back here in Ohio, paired with my sweet little niece (4 months old), I need to charge my batteries for my camera.  I tend to use a lot of batteries with my camera (I tend to think of myself as an amateur photographer). So naturally I use rechargeables to save money on batteries.  As I pondered this, why not use rechargeable batteries for everything. I know several people that do this already.

Batteries contain a chemical called Cadmium.  While batteries are safe while in use, they are not so safe if they are just thrown away.  If this chemical leaks, it can have numerous negative effects including lung and kidney disease.  This is why batteries need to be recycled appropriately.  If you don’t know where you can recycle these, go to Earth911.org and do a search with your zip code.

Next time I need batteries, I’m going to buy the rechargeable kind for whatever size battery I need.  I really mean any kind of battery, for whatever, like the remote control, playstation (or WII) controller, flashlights, radios, alarm clock, mp3 player, handheld games, the list goes on. This should really cut back on the amount of batteries I need to buy and recycle.