recycling

The City of San Francisco won't be buying Apple computers anymore because the company pulled its products from a green-electronics certification registry, the Wall Street Journal reported today.

City officials told the Journal that employees of the city's 50 agencies won't be able to use city funds to buy Apple laptops or desktops because Apple removed those products from a voluntary registry of green electronics called EPEAT.

San Francisco's chief information officer, Jon Walton, told CNET that the change is due to an established policy requires the city purchase only EPEAT-certified desktops, laptops, and monitors. While … Read more

Apple has decided to stop participating in a major program devoted to the production of environmentally friendly products, reportedly saying that its design direction is no longer in line with the program's requirements.

Late last month, Apple told the nonprofit EPEAT group that the company would no longer submit its products for green certification from EPEAT and that it was pulling its currently certified products from the group's registry.

According to The Wall Street Journal's CIO Journal site, 39 of Apple's products had received EPEAT's green stamp of approval, including laptops such as the MacBook … Read more

More and more these days, we're picking up drink bottles and plastic utensils crafted from corn rather than regular plastic. So, how about products made from agricultural waste and food scraps? Glad you asked. The Biobased Kidshouse from Dutch consortium BE-Basic is made entirely from natural materials such as agri-waste, tree bark, and potato peels.

The panels are made from compressed straw. The roof is waterproofed with vegetable oils. The electric sockets are where the potato peel bioplastic comes in. … Read more

The Denver Zoo is rolling out a motorized rickshaw that has been converted to run on animal droppings. It might help save a bundle.

Imported from Thailand, the tuk-tuk is about 20 years old, but it has been given a new lease on life from engineers at the zoo.

The electric three-wheeler runs on gasified pellets made from animal poop, as well as trash produced by zoo visitors and staff.

A heater on the back of the prototype vehicle turns the pellets into syngas, which is used to generate electricity to power the tuk-tuk. … Read more

What if instead of recycling old printouts, you could simply "unprint" them and re-use the paper?

Researchers at the University of Cambridge say it's possible--and that ultimately, widespread adoption of the practice could not only save trees but significantly reduce climate-change emissions from paper manufacturing and recycling as well.

The university reported yesterday that Julian Allwood, leader of the Low Carbon Materials Processing Group at Cambridge, and doctoral student David Leal-Ayala had successfully used lasers to remove toner from paper without significantly damaging the paper.… Read more

With the prevalence of iPods and MP3 players, CDs are starting to go the way of vinyl as people shun physical media in favor of digital downloads. Some people are simply throwing their CD collection in the trash, while others are using the discs as coasters. One artist, however, has found a way to let the CDs play on in a completely different form.

Sean Avery, a children's book writer and illustrator from Perth, Australia, takes old CDs, as well as used circuit boards, and turns them into beautiful animal sculptures. Avery, who now lives in Ottawa, Canada, has been sculpting for nine years and finds old tech to be a great medium.

"I just think that old tech looks cool," Avery told Crave. "There's also a ton of it around, and I think it's great that I can turn unrecyclable crap into something interesting." … Read more

Apple has once again reached out to the greener side of our sympathies, this time by implementing its recycling program for iPads and iPhones in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.

The recycling program, extended to iPads and iPhones in the United States this summer, allows customers with older-model iOS devices to send them in to Apple and receive an Apple gift card in return for the remaining value of the device.

In Germany, France, and the U.K., customers will get a direct deposit into their bank accounts for the value as opposed to a gift card, according to … Read more

The conveyor belt of new mobile phone releases has created a stream of revenue for eRecyclingCorps.

The Irving, Texas-based startup today raised $35 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to expand its phone buyback services.

eRecyclingCorps, which is now used by at 3,000 Sprint and 500 Verizon outlets, lets consumers check the value of a phone they no longer want from a Web site and get a credit while in the store. A consumer can also use the application from home and mail the phone for a credit, although the company considers an instant rebate more appealing to … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--A holiday "tree" lot here at Levi Strauss & Company's headquarters is offering up a green alternative to live trees.

Antlre Creative, a San Francisco-based eco-conscious design company, created 100 percent recycled cardboard trees, which grew into a forest in Levi's buidling lobby (shown above).

The large trees sell for $35, and small ones for $25. Proceeds from the fundraiser go to Friends of the Urban Forest. These "greener" trees are produced and manufactured entirely with solar energy and are inspired by recycling.

And while we're in the holiday spirit, here's … Read more