Here’s an excerpt from my new book, Saving The World At Work:

Every day at work, you are surrounded by waste that could be easily converted into social nutrition for your community. Have you ever counted all the broken or outdated computers, monitors, printers, phones, desks, and chairs gathering dust?

Many innovators are turning their trash into food by partnering with nonprofit groups with expertise in preparing used items for community distribution. Electro-Motive, a LaGrange, Illinois–based manufacturer of electric-diesel locomotives, took a novel approach to a recent company-wide upgrade of its computers. Instead of throwing out 700 old computer workstations, the company donated them to Chicago’s Computers for Schools, a nonprofit that refurbishes computers for local school systems. And when executives discovered that the recycling program was popular with employees, they organized a three-day recycling drive. Employee enthusiasm was so high that organizers created a follow-up event for the general public at Chicago’s United Center. Between the two events, more than 80,000 pounds of computer and office equipment were collected.

Don’t stop at computers. In Lynchburg, Virginia, the local nonprofit Crayons to Computers works with dozens of local businesses to redistribute unused or discarded office supplies, equipment, and furniture to community area schools. Similarly, Maryland farmer Rod Parker lets the Washington Area Gleaning Network, a local nonprofit that feeds the needy, pick over his farm after the annual harvest.  As a farmer, he’s committed to feeding people, and he derives satisfaction from knowing his unpicked items are being put to good use.  Larry’s Markets in Seattle donates expired or dented canned goods to local food banks. Fletcher Allen Healthcare, a medical center in Vermont, donates unused produce from its cafeteria to local nonprofits that feed the homeless.

Your company meetings and events may provide you with an opportunity to give back to your local community as well. I’ve attended hundreds of them over the last few years as a public speaker, and I’m always amazed how much food is wasted. In the fall of 2007, the socially minded rock band Phish, along with event vendors, donated all the edible leftover food from its concert in Limestone, Maine, to Catholic Charities Maine. The results were not trivial: Volunteers collected more than $5,000 worth of frozen, dry, and canned food.

Read more from Tim at SandersSays.

Old computers do not have to end up in the landfill and in Texas, they won’t. Thanks to new legislation (House Bill 2714) that took effect Sept. 1, all computer makers are now responsible for recycling their products.

Texas is the fourth state to have such a law, says Jeff Jacoby, staff director with the nonprofit Texas Campaign for the Environment (TCE), which was one of the bill’s main advocates. The other states are Minnesota, Maine and Washington.

Companies such as Dell, Hewlett Packard and Apple, as well as mom-and-pop operations, are required to provide free and convenient recycling to their customers, or they will not be able to sell computers to anyone in Texas, under the law.

This is good news for Texas municipalities which will no longer be responsible for paying for computer recycling. Instead, Jacoby points out, these towns can spend their money on libraries, streets and police and/or fire departments. The law is the result of five years of discussion among state government, the computer companies, retailers and recycling groups.

With this law in place, environmentalists say computer makers will have an incentive to “design out” the toxic components of their products, making them easier to recycle.

Electronic waste not only builds up in landfills but it contains toxic metals such as lead and mercury, says Jacoby. “Electronic waste accounts for 40 percent of the lead and 70 percent of the heavy metal now found in U.S. landfills,” he says.

The EPA acknowledges that electronic waste is a major problem in this country where only 18 percent of all discarded computers and monitors gets recycled. According to an EPA report, “Recycling 1 million desktop computers prevents the release of greenhouse gases equivalent to the annual emissions of over 17,000 passenger cars.”

Since a 2002 debate with environmentalists over its recycling practices, Dell has now become a leader in computer recycling. In 2004, the Round Rock, Texas-based company, began partnering with Goodwill Industries to allow consumers to take their old computers to Goodwill, which then recycles and resells what they can. Dell also provides an online service that allows customers to request an at-home pickup for their old computer. In addition, they give consumers an option to donate old computers, again with an at-home pickup, to the National Cristina Foundation to assist economically disadvantaged families in the community.

Once computer waste is on the right track, the next step is analog TVs which are expected to become obsolete early next year. TCE’s Jacoby estimates that about 12 percent of American households still have the antenna TVs. Keeping them out of the landfill is another challenge for environmentalists.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Website Greener Computing reports today that three U.S. departments — NASA, the Department of Defense, and the General Services Administration — have announced plans to limit future computer purchases to models that meet the environmental standards of EPEAT.

EPEAT, a program based in Portland, Oregon, is designed to help computer buyers find the most environmentally responsible electronics available and to give manufacturers a straightforward, hype-free area to categorize their offerings according to how well they meet EPEAT’s public standard. That standard evaluates 51 specific criteria, including: the type of materials used in making the device and the way they are labeled for eventual disposal; sensible packaging and available take-back service; and, of course, energy efficiency. In the interest of getting the most use out of computers before they’re discarded, one of the criteria even insists on models’ being “upgradeable with common tools.”

One of the longest categories of criteria deals with “Reduction/elimination of environmentally sensitive materials,” a hot topic in the electronics industry, given how much e-waste enters landfills: there are bullet points regarding “elimination of intentionally added” cadmium, mercury, lead, PVC, and hexavalent chromium, although EPEAT’s “bronze” certification doesn’t require meeting this part of the standard.

A product registry lets users search through which devices meet one of three levels of certification (bronze, silver, and gold); while manufacturers list products on the registry themselves (in the interest of eliminating any time-consuming test/approval period in this notoriously fast-paced industry). Each entry is subject to verification by EPEAT.

Since the federal bureaucracy buys computers on such an enormous scale — Greener Computing quotes a figure of 2.2 million new systems a year, and one would assume NASA and the Defense Department are responsible for a sizable chunk of that number — manufacturers are bound to take notice of the new requirement. If past experience with the Energy Star program is any indication, the eventual result will likely be more efficient and eco-conscious computing products for ordinary consumers, as well.