Living Like Ed (19 page)

But when something finally craps out—a cell phone, a printer, a computer that can’t be fixed—that’s considered e-waste, electronic waste. And there are places that will take it.

There’s a very good e-waste bill that passed in California, which was the first state to adopt this sort of approach. There’s a premium, a deposit, that you pay for every monitor, every printer that you buy in California. It’s a small sum, like $5 for a monitor. And that deposit pays for the program. Basically, that stuff is taken back and the mercury is taken out, the lead is taken out, and then it’s recycled.

These old electronics items used to be shipped over to Asia to be refurbished and resold. But now it’s more cost effective to fully recycle the e-waste here in California.

Now I take my e-waste to SoCal Computer Recyclers in Harbor City. They have a big recycling facility, where I can drop off my e-waste. Also, they’ve got a lot of corporate accounts, so when some big company decides to replace thousands of PCs, all that e-waste can be recycled. Even companies outside California are having their e-waste shipped to this company to make sure everything gets recycled properly. SoCal also holds events at schools and parks, places throughout the community, so people can drop off e-waste close to home. And they don’t just recycle this e-waste. They also make sure to remove any proprietary data—on a computer’s hard drive or on a cell phone or on a BlackBerry or what have you. They make sure your data is safely and properly destroyed.

So the bottom line is, if it runs on batteries or gets plugged into the wall, they can recycle it in a way that’s good for the environment and good for your privacy, good for things like preventing identity theft.

Reusing: The Easiest Form of Recycling

You know, recycling doesn’t always have to mean taking stuff apart and melting it down.
Reusing
things is the easiest form of recycling. I like to give stuff away to Goodwill, and Rachelle likes to sell stuff at a garage sale. She likes the cash.

There’s another kind of curbside recycling that a lot of people do every day, and it’s great. They put stuff they don’t want anymore out on the curb with a sign that says FREE. It’s like Recycling 101. Let someone else, instead of a landfill, have it.

That is what we did with Hayden’s old plastic playhouse that she had outgrown. There was no way I was going to send it to a landfill. Somebody with little kids would love to have it. Especially for free.

Donating stuff to a charity is another great way to make sure it gets reused, and you get a tax deduction at the same time. All kinds of charities operate thrift shops—stores where they sell the stuff you donate—and then they use that money to benefit the charity’s cause. You can donate stuff to thrift shops that benefit the American Cancer Society, Habitat for Humanity, a local hospital, a homeless shelter, a church, a no-kill pet shelter. Groups like the Salvation Army and Goodwill also have thrift shops, plus they have training and rehabilitation programs, so they may take stuff like an old lamp that needs rewiring or a couch that needs reupholstering.

There are other options, too, besides donating stuff to a charity or leaving it out on the curb or having a garage sale. Freecycle, for example, is a living like worldwide nonprofit that connects people who want to give stuff away with people who want to get stuff for free. You go on the
freecycle.org
website and find a group in your area. Then you just post something, and it goes out to this list. You just go, “I’ve got an old TV stand that’s gotten ratty, but it still works. It just needs a new paint job.” Someone will probably come and pick that up and be very happy to have it. They have the time to paint it or what-ever. If you’ve got an old lawn mower that’s broken or an old TV that doesn’t work anymore, you know there’s someone out there who knows how to fix it and then can use it or sell it. There’s a place for just about anything through
freecycle.org
.

         You can find other ways to help people with your old stuff, too, like prescription glasses. Charities collect them and then they distribute them to people in need, here in the United States and all over the world. You just drop off your old glasses at a store like LensCrafters or Sunglass Hut or a Pearle Vision center. The store collects them and then gives them to a charity like Give the Gift of Sight.

You can do the same kind of thing with an old cell phone. It’s kind of ironic, but it’s actually cheaper to provide cell service than it is to build all the infrastructure for old-fashioned landline telephones in some underdeveloped countries. So if you donate an old cell phone that’s just junk to you—it’s just cluttering up your closet—you literally can provide a lifeline for someone in another country.

Buy Recycled

Now, everything we’ve discussed so far is really important. But it’s not enough just to recycle or to find someone who can reuse your old stuff. Unless you’re
buying
recycled products, you’re not really recycling.

Why? Because recycling programs only work when there’s a
demand
for recycled products. If people don’t buy recycled products, companies won’t make them. Then things that
can
be recycled wind up going unused. They wind up in a landfill simply because there’s no need for them.

So buy every envelope, every sheet of paper, everything you can that’s recycled. The products are out there. You just have to go online to a search engine and type “recycled envelopes,” “recycled paper,” “recycled fences,” “recycled lawn furniture.” Buy it. It’s out there.

All the paper that I use in my printer—and in every way—is 100 percent postconsumer recycled paper. That’s great.

And that’s an important point:
Recycled paper
can mean different things. It can be called 100 percent recycled paper and still be from the paper mill. It’s just the end of the roll and the stuff they chop off. So yes, it’s recycled, but it’s just what’s left over when they make paper. They didn’t have 8 by 11-inch pieces, so they put those scraps in their recycling bin.

And that’s fine; it’s still reusing their waste. It’s not a bad thing. But it’s not as good as
post-consumer
recycled paper. That’s made from the stuff you and I and businesses all across the country have put into recycling bins.

One hundred percent post-consumer recycled paper is now available—and it has been for some time—even with the Staples logo on it. It used to be that you had to buy some off brand, some earth-friendly paper, and maybe it was 50 percent postconsumer waste, and it was a lot of money per ream. They didn’t make much of it. But now they’ve got it down, making recycled paper, and they’re doing it in an environmentally sound way.

And we’re not just talking about paper for your printer or copy machine. We’re talking about all different kinds of recycled paper.

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council:

•
If every household in the U.S. bought just one box of 100 percent recycled tissue (175 sheets) instead of one box of virgin-fiber facial tissue, we could save 163,000 trees.

•
If every household bought just one roll of 100 percent recycled toilet paper (500 sheets) instead of one roll of virgin-fiber toilet paper, we could save another 423,900 trees.

•
If every household bought just one roll of 100 percent recycled paper towels (70 sheets) instead of virgin-fiber, we could save another 544,000 trees.

•
And if every household bought just one package of 100 percent recycled paper napkins (250 count) instead of virgin-fiber, we could save another one million trees.

Suffice to say those little choices at the grocery store really add up to a huge difference when we’re talking about natural resources being saved.

So what else can you buy that’s recycled? All kinds of things.

I line the trash can in my kitchen with Seventh Generation recycled plastic trash bags. I’ve done it the other way. I’ve had a trash can with no bag. But then, living in L.A., where water comes at such an environmental cost, you’re having to regularly use a lot of water and soap and effort to clean out a trash can. You really need to have some sort of a bag, so I buy these recycled Seventh Generation bags and put my trash in them.

You know, for many years, the problem with plastic was that it would never break down. You’d put it in a landfill and it would be there forever, in-tact. Well, now companies are making things from recycled plastic that you don’t
want
to break down. So that’s no longer a problem. Now that’s an asset. A good example is our white picket fence made from recycled milk jugs. That’s a good thing for the environment, to get those milk jugs out of the waste stream. But also, this fence never needs to be painted. It never has any bug, like termites, that attacks it. Water never damages it. It’s like a hundred-year fence. So where the problem with plastic was that it never breaks down, now the good thing about plastic is that it never breaks down.

The same goes for a deck or an outdoor staircase that’s made from 100 percent postconsumer recycled plastic lumber. It never has to be painted. It never has to be stained. And it never breaks down.

So buying recycled isn’t just good for the environment, it’s good for your lifestyle. You don’t have to waste time or money stripping your picket fence or your deck and refinishing it every couple of years.

Natural and Recycled Furniture

You can also find different kinds of recycled furniture. First off, there’s used furniture. When you buy a piece that already exists, you cut down on the amount of furniture being made, which cuts down on energy use. It cuts down on trees being felled and then turned into lumber. It cuts down on the energy used to truck that lumber to a manufacturing facility. And it cuts down on the energy used to truck that finished furniture to a warehouse and then to a store. Who knew antiquing could be so good for the earth, right?

         When I decorate my home, I try to make it personal and not look like it came straight out of a furniture catalog. It doesn’t take a lot of money to add your own personal touches. In fact, I like shopping at flea markets to find unique items. And I’m recycling at the same time.