recycling

How To Expose 520 Million People To Smart Sustainability

June 24, 2013 by jclements

This interview is with Adam Wilmes, who is a LEED AP BD+C credentialed Architect with Populous and a member USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council). We cover the topics of LEED building practices, personal environmental stewardship and global impact of smart sustainability.

Enjoy.

Total Reading Time: Less than 7 minutes.

1. What are a few things that you have changed in your personal life that make you more green?

Adam: I’ve always been dedicated to living a sustainable life – architecture has certainly encouraged that. From a personal standpoint, I believe it’s the little details that lead to living ‘green’ – from recycling, to using less water, to turning the light off when I leave a room (that is, if it doesn’t have an automatic sensor!).

2. In your opinion, what are three things that anyone can do at home to help our environment?

Adam: Recycle, use less water, and turn off the lights when you leave a room…

3. In Kansas City, there are numerous tools to help all of us be better at recycling. Deffenbaugh (our local waste and recycling company) makes it easy for us to sort our trash from recyclables;and Ripple Glass has hundreds of containers throughout the city making it easier for everyone to recycle glass. What is your favorite local recycling resource that makes it easier for you to be better at recycling? Continue Reading

Tom Coffman formerly with Deffenbaugh Industries Answers 15 Questions: Recycling, Sustainability, and Green

April 1, 2013 by jclements

This interview with Tom Coffman, former Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships with Deffenbaugh Industries, covers the topics of sustainability, recycling, green ideas, and the services that Deffenbaugh Industries and Deffenbaugh Recycling provide to the Midwest.

Total Reading time: 5:00 minutes.

1. What are 4 things that anyone can do, right now, to be better at recycling?
Tom: Eliminate plastic bags, eliminate plastic bags, eliminate plastic bags, and eliminate plastic bags from recycling containers. Plastic bags are a menace when they get to the recycling facility. They gum up our systems and they blow all over the place. Most grocery stores have containers for recyclable plastic bags.

2. What is exciting to you in the area of sustainability?
Tom: I think the growing awareness, support and public interest around sustainability issues has been very heartening. Whether it is the food people eat, the homes they build and maintain or the way they handle their yard waste, you can see behaviors continue to move toward greater sustainability.

3. What is your favorite innovation that you have been a part of at Deffenbaugh Indsutries?
Tom: There are three innovations I’ve seen in the past 20 years at Deffenbaugh Industries that I think are particularly cool. The move toward automated collection for residential trash and recycling has been a great step forward, as has the implementation of a single-stream recycling system. And the fact that we collect and process approximately 15 million cubic feet of landfill gas per day, which is used to serve the equivalent of 5,000 homes daily, always impresses me. Continue Reading

Thank you to everyone at UMB Banks for recycling with Cells for Cells

February 25, 2013 by jclements

I picked up two very cool DIY boxes from UMB today.

Remember that Cells for Cells does not provide collection boxes for cell phone drives. We encourage everyone to reuse any old box…just like UMB has done.

20130225_103100

Additional Resources:

Link to the Battle Cancer Poster

Link to the Freighquote.com DIY Cell Phone Box Video

Scrap Metal Recycling: Best Scrap Metal Prices in Kansas City

November 28, 2011 by jclements

Ever wonder where your old cell phone chargers and power cords went

when you recycled them with Cells for Cells? Each and every old charger, cord and wire that we receive through our cell phone recycling program goes to North Kansas City Iron & Metal L.L.C in North Kansas City, Missouri.

If you are looking to recycle some of your personal scrap metal,

I would not hesitate to take a trip to their facility. They are fair and honest – a quality that sometimes can be difficult to find when dealing with recyclers. And I believe, they pay some of the best prices in the area.

One idea to consider when taking your metals to NKC Iron & Metal:

Make your recycling neat and tidy. At Cells for Cells, we trim both ends off of all the cords we receive. It allows NCK Iron & Metal to sort and sell it quickly and easily. And Cells for Cells benefits with a little bit better pricing for it.

Some of the materials that NKC Iron & Metal will PAY you for your recycling efforts:

Aluminum
Aluminum cans
Batteries
Brass
Catalytic converters
Copper
Electrical & Communication Wiring
Heater Cores
Iron
Lead
Radiators
Steel
Stainless Steel
Wheels
Appliances (see prep)
And more!!!

For a full list of items they will accept and items that thy will not accept, visit North Kansas City Iron & Metal’s website for their recycling guide.

Here’s where they are located:

View Larger Map

Recycling Failure: 1.211 Billion Plastic Baggies Every Year

August 31, 2010 by jclements

According to Gartner, world-wide cell phone handset sales were 1.211 Billion in 2009. And, the number of cell phone subscriptions are now 4.6 Billion.

Can we assume, that included inside of each of those 1.211 Billion new cell phone boxes, is a recycling baggie just like the ones pictured above?

Warning – Math Problem Ahead – 1,000,000,000 is a Big Number

Now, consider that the percentage of cell phones being recycled today, fall somewhere between 1% and 10%.

If we generously assume that all 10% of cell phones recycled are done so through the baggie program, then we are left with well over 1 Billion plastic baggies that will probably end up discarded in our landfills or our waterways and oceans.

This well-intentioned baggie recycling program is a complete environmental failure. Creating more waste, in the name of environmental good, is a shame.

Cells for Cells is Part of The Solution

When we first launched Cells for Cells in 2007, we provided a simple cardboard collection box to all of the companies that wanted to recycle with us. We distributed hundreds of boxes throughout Kansas City and received back very few. Even though cardboard is easily recycled, we realized that we were creating a lot of cardboard waste. So, we changed our process, and now Cells for Cells encourages everyone to re-use a cardboard box when you ship your devices to be recycled. The cardboard, in turn, will be re-used or recycled.

Cells for Cells partner, Freightquote.com took a standard office paper ream box and created this work of art:

Yes, You Can Recycle Plastic Bags or Baggies

Although most curbside recycling programs do not allow for any sort of plastic bag recycling, there are solutions. I have seen plastic bag recycling containers in some of our local grocery stores. I think that Wal-mart might have plastic bag receptacles, too.

Here is plasticbagrecycling.org. They have a state-by-state locator to help you find out where you can recycle your plastic bags.

Yes, You Can Recycle More Than Just One Cell Phone

I have an opinion that the baggie program teaches the public to only recycle one or two devices at a time.

Why not try to fill a box with old cell phones from family, friends, neighbors and co-workers? No matter what program or charity your cell phone recycling program supports, you still have the option to do more than just recycle. Become an advocate. Make it your mission to have your entire office recycle 2 or 4 or 10 devices per person. Re-use a cardboard box and make a difference in the environment and in the program you support.

Funny Recycling Bag

Additional Reading

8 Tips for Making Mobile Phone Recycling Easier

Plastic Bags are Killing Us – Salon 2007

Capt. Charles Moore on the Sea of Plastic

Sorting My Trash: How to Overcome Recycling Apathy

August 27, 2010 by jclements

I do not want to admit it; but I will. I have not been very good at recycling at home. In fact, I have been downright terrible. I hardly ever use my recycling container.

How can I run one of the largest cell phone recycling programs of its kind and still possess a high degree of Recycling Apathy at my house? This must change!

My catchy phrase that I have used as an excuse for years is: “I care; but I just don’t care enough” to recycle. What is most interesting, as I look inside myself, is that I really never even tried to recycle at home. I always felt like it was a hassle to sort out my trash. I even got on my high horse and thought to myself, “I help to recycle thousands and thousands of cell phones – I am doing my part!” But, you know what? I have discovered that recycling at home is just as easy as taking out the trash. Yes, that is my personal recycling at the end of my driveway from this week.

How to make recycling at home a permanent habit

1. Find one thing to recycle today and put it in your recycling container. Make it easy – like a newspaper or a plastic water bottle or milk jug or an aluminum can(s). For me, just getting started was easy enough to help me make this a new habit in my life.

2. Make it a fun, family project to look in your fridge and see what numbers are on your plastic bottles. In our community recycling program – Deffenbaugh’s Curbside Recycling, we can recycle plastics numbered 1 through 7. [What do those plastic recycling codes mean?]

3. Locate your most convenient recycling resources. Everyone lives near a school or church that has either a paper, glass, or multi-recycling container. Our glass recycler is a huge Ripple Glass purple container that is only 6/10 of a mile from my house. It takes me 1 minute to get there. Here is the Ripple Glass locator map to see where you can recycle your glass.

4. You might already be paying for it; so put it to use. I am charged a mandatory recycling fee of $5.10 on my trash invoice for three months of unlimited curbside recycling. I feel like I have a personal recycling butler come to my house once a week, take away all the stuff that can be recycled, and I only have to pay him 42 cents per week.

5. Educate yourself on everything that can be recycled in your community. Here is the list, in pdf format, of everything that Deffenbaugh Recycling accepts in their curbside recycling program.

6. Do it again next week…and the next…and the next…