If you haven’t seen it, please take a look at our story about America Recycles Day. Find out just how much energy we can save by recycling, a no-brainer if ever there was one.

Last year, a Harris poll found that 91 percent of Americans reported that they recycled. But that figure seemed really high, given the low recycling rates in some cities, like Houston, Dallas, Detroit and Indianapolis. Those were some of the slackers revealed in a study of municipal recycling in 2008 that showed major US cities varied wildly in the amount of recyclables they collected, from San Francisco’s near 70 percent to Houston’s under 3 percent.

Plastie bottle spewing

Given that, and other signs of a lack of  effort in this area that we see around us, we suspect that this 91 percent self-reported recycling figure was a wee bit inflated. People tend to put their best face forward when asked about such things point blank; in fact, they might even lie about it.

So we’ll charitably conclude that most Americans are recycling something — but probably not everything they could. True, they’re not getting the help they need from some cities.  But in many places, people can strip down their trash by separating out their papers, and  glass and aluminum and plastic containers for recycling.

Thanks to private enterprise, like Recycle Bank’s program which is moving in to fill recycling gaps, some smaller towns and cities are moving ahead of large US cities that seem asleep on this issue.

Cities not only need to get on board,  parks and recreation departments, and schools and businesses can do more. Is your city offering to collect organic waste and recycle it into compost? Some are, and they’re generating cash on the side by selling that compost, but most likely the answer to that question is no. What about those parks departments? Do you see two or three different collection bins when you’re out walking the dog or meeting for tennis? We didn’t when we recently saw this mess (see photo) at a large suburban park that shall not be named.

Is your school collecting plastic bottles for recycling? Are local businesses selling their vegetable oil for biofuel use? No and no? Become an advocate.

Americans consume a huge volume of resources. Recycling is the least we can do.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

It’s taking some time, but the health care industry is slowly figuring out how to tamp down the paperwork that’s choking doctor’s offices and irritating patients across the nation. Increasingly physicians are emailing in prescriptions and we in the public are getting our rejections for medical treatment via online records. (Hey, at least we don’t have to wait for the bad news!)

Humana Inc., the health insurer based in Louisville, Kty., has taken one small step for forest-kind, with a new program under which customers can opt for email communications. For every person who chooses this eco-friendly, paperless mode of business, Humana will donate $1 to the Arbor Day Foundation to plant trees.

Humana, which provides health insurance to employers and individuals, asks clients to make the switch by clicking on the “My Profile” link at the Humana website.

Needless to say, the U.S. can use the greenery this might generate.

Recent record or near-record forest fires have claimed more than a million acres that the U.S. Forest Service says need replanting, according to a press release on the Humana/Arbor Day initiative.

Of course the need for trees is ongoing, global-warming induced forest fires, or not.

“Trees help protect waterways and soil, restore habitat for wildlife, and help preserve the Earth’s vital forests for generations to come,” said John Rosenow, chief executive of the Arbor Day Foundation, in the joint release. “Humana should be commended for its commitment to the environment.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Pretenders bandleader Chrissie Hynde has been visible for years as a vegetarian and PETA supporter, but her latest album nods to the well-being of the plant world as well.

The first copies of the band’s new album Break up the Concrete come wrapped in a half-sleeve made of handmade paper with tiny seeds molded into it. Listeners can soak the paper in water and plant it in hopes of growing some flowers.

Such paper has been appearing here and there, from product packaging to stationery for home use. Often, it’s used in places where a piece of normal paper would otherwise be used — a batch of Universal Music CDs earlier this year used seed paper for an insert with codes for free digital downloads — but in the Pretenders’ case it’s there for its own sake: the “J Card” doesn’t even serve the purpose such inserts usually do, which is to print the artist and album name on the package’s top spine for easy reading on record-store racks.

Other parts of the Pretenders’ package are green-minded as well, as a Forest Stewardship Council logo on the back cover attests. Unfortunately, the entire package is still wrapped in shrinkwrap — it appears that even the indomitable Chrissie Hynde can’t convince retailers to stock products without that bit of unnecessary packaging.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

We all know the drill: “Paper or plastic?” But when it comes to receipts there hasn’t been a choice — until now. allEtronic, a Fullerton, Calif., company knows that paper receipts are a nuisance and wants to rid the retail experience of those paper tag-a-longs that billow out of your purse, bulge inside your wallet, and languish in Rubbermaid containers in your closet.

The process of printing a receipt for every purchase depletes more resources than we consumers care to imagine. “Our technology will completely eliminate the production of receipt paper, which as we know is having a damaging effect on our environment,” says Isaac Lay, co-founder and CEO of allEtronic.

The company shares an office with its parent as a unit of Cyndigo Corporation, which has been in operation since late 2004 and develops and markets point-of-sale (POS) systems as part of its business.
allEtronic is a service developed from its POS division that soon could be available at a store near you.

The company has compiled the data: In one month, a single big-box retailer will print enough receipts to wrap around the circumference of the Earth – twice, it says. Printing receipts burns through 9 million trees each year, allEtronic claims. And for each ton of paper that’s manufactured, it takes 390 gallons of oil and more than 19,000 gallons of water, while producing enough CO2 emissions a year to equal that of 13 million cars.

allEtronic has built a business that addresses this environmental problem and boasts advantages for consumers and retailers alike. Its service is designed for digital cash registers that run point of purchase applications. When allEtronic’s software recognizes the customer, it blocks the receipt from being printed and redirects the receipt to be printed digitally on its servers. The company is working with a top Major League Baseball stadium and a college, among others, and it’s scheduled to appear at several trade shows, including the National Retail Federation’s BIG Show held in New York at the Jacob K. Javits Center in January 2009.

Customers who shop at retailers supported by allEtronic receive a paperless receipt by setting up a free allEtronic account that links to accounts for their credit or debit cards. Businesses that enlist the allEtronic service reduce the cost of providing printed receipts or coupons at checkout while also helping the environment. Behemoth retailers the likes of Wal-Mart would stand to save substantial operational costs if they participated and their customers choose the paperless receipts option.

U.S. Consumers eventually throw away enough receipts in a year to fill more than 2 million garbage trucks, according to allEtronic. For those of us who accumulate a hefty stack of credit card receipts and those mile-long grocery store versions with the colorful ads on the back, here’s a green solution that could free up space in the glove box.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Worried about the stacks of duplicated reports and reprinted Power Points that get passed around at meetings? Maybe you are, maybe you aren’t. But as companies assess the carbon impact of their activities, the paper-choked meeting is becoming an issue, and a UK company is in the wings with the solution: an electronic device called MeetingPod.

Synanto claims its new gadget can reduce the carbon imprint of a meeting of 10 people by more than 80 percent – that’s assuming the overhead projector gets turned off, lap tops stay closed and no paper copies make the rounds. Instead, each participant views the meeting info and presentations on their personal low-watt MeetingPod, which later emails a record of the event to attendees when the meeting’s over.

Thusly, the meeting is less paper-intensive and more efficient, from an energy-standpoint and for those involved, says Synanto’s sales director David Wickett. How MeetingPod works is further explained in fun fashion in Synanto’s video on the concept.

For those who subscribe to the view that most 10-person meetings are a huge time drain, the promise of efficiency will be alluring. The hardened office dissident may even see this new “meeting system” as presaging the day when he or she could simply send an electronic surrogate to the meeting altogether, thus relieving the pressure to personally stay awake during the event.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

More and more corporate emails these days end with text blurbs urging the recipient not to print messages out unless absolutely necessary. Hard copies of documents are a must in some instances, of course, but they’re becoming less and less necessary thanks to some efforts to finally make good on the computer era’s promise of a “paperless” world.

Count Fidelity Investments among those companies trying to cut down on paper use — and save themselves a bit of money in the process. The firm has just announced that it will partner with DocuSign to use the latter’s “e-signature” technology, allowing staff and clients “to electronically sign all documents, including Fidelity and advisor-specific forms, required to establish and fund a brokerage account.”

While the amount of paper saved with this move may be trivial compared to that wasted in printing the average financial report, the change does of course cut down on the time, expense and fossil fuels required to send hand-signed documents back and forth via courier and for customers to make trips to their new financial advisor’s office.

Not incidentally, all this automation will shift funds to Fidelity more quickly and save its independent advisors money. Whether these efficiencies and savings get passed on to consumers remains to be seen.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media