The switch from analog to digital broadcast television is referred to as the digital TV (DTV) transition.

As of June 13, 2009, full power television stations are broadcasting digital, over-the-air signals.

An important benefit of the switch to all-digital broadcasting is that it will free up parts of the valuable broadcast spectrum for public safety communications (such as police, fire departments, and rescue squads). Also, some of the spectrum will be auctioned to companies that will be able to provide consumers with more advanced wireless services (such as wireless broadband).

Most TVs work with either a digital or analog signal. If you do not have cable or satellite service, you will need a converter box that you can purchase at most electronics stores to receive the digital signal.

Many of us have upgraded to digital TV. Please make sure that your old TV does not land up in landfills. Many municipalities do not allow TV sets to be discarded into landfills.

Older television sets contain up to eight pounds each of lead. Lead was originally used to protect viewers from radiation.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 82 percent of televisions (20.6 million units) were disposed of between 2006 and 2007 – and that occurred primarily in landfills. This means only 18%, or about 6.3 million sets, were recycled.

Certain retailers and manufacturers, including LG and Sony, offer TV recycling programs. Please visit their websites to learn more about their re-cycling program.

The Electronic Industries Alliance provides a list of non-profit organizations that accept used, working TVs.

Several local municipalities host special disposal days or drop-off locations for used TV. TV’s can be dropped off curbside. Please check with your local municipality.

Please care for your environment and make sure your old TV does not end up in landfill.

According to Food and Water Watch, that plastic requires up to 47 million gallons of oil per year to produce. And while the plastic used to bottle beverages is of high quality and in demand by recyclers, over 90 percent of plastic bottles are simply thrown away.

Tap water costs about $0.002 per gallon compared to the $0.89 to $8.26 per gallon charge for bottled water. If the water we use at home cost what even cheap bottled water costs, our monthly water bills would run $9,000!

On a weekly basis, 37,800 18-wheelers are driving around the country delivering water. Producing bottles for U.S. consumers required more than 17 million barrels of oil, not including the fuel required to transport the bottles.

San Francisco banned the use of city money to buy single-serving plastic bottles of water back in 2007, and now New York and Seattle is following suit.

It’s time for us to wake up as consumers and give up this wasteful indulgence of bottled water.

Some on you may complain about the taste of water in your city. An inexpensive carbon filters will turn most tap water sparkling fresh at a fraction of bottled water’s cost.

By drinking tap water, you can avoid the fertilizer, pharmaceuticals, disinfectants, and other chemicals that studies have found in bottled water.

Drinking tap water will help you cut down on trash and help the environment.

It can take nearly 7 times the amount of water in the bottle to actually make the bottle itself. Buy a reusable bottle that lasts for a very long time instead.

The money we, as a nation, waste on bottled water could insure every single uninsured child in America!

I hope that my readers will realize the cost of bottled water, both in terms of financial costs and costs on the environment, and start using city water for drinking purposes.

Please say no to “bottled water” and join No Bottled Water Pledge.

This earth day I want to stress the importance of an individual’s commitment to responsible, sustainable consumption. Corporations are doing their part in working towards a carbon free future.

It is rightly said that charity begins at home, so it is up to “US” to make every day as “Earth Day” by promoting recycling, conserving energy, ride sharing and so on....

I want to inform you about how turning off our computers every day when not required can save us billions of dollars. 

Leaving computers on overnight = $2.8 billion a year

An estimated $2.8 billion wasted on excess energy costs each year in the U.S. alone.

On a CO2 basis, that's 20 million tons of carbon dioxide, about the amount produced by 4 million cars on the road.

If you run a company with 1,000 PCs left on overnight, you can save about $28,000 a year if they are turned off after hours. That's not a small amount.

“For example, if all the world’s 1 billion PC’s were powered down for just one night – it would save enough energy to light up New York City’s Empire State Building – inside and out – for more than 30 years”

Download the full report here. (Scroll down to "PC Energy Report US 2009").

Your PC will function better if you restart it regularly, and nightly shutdowns can help you avoid having to suddenly reboot in the middle of the day when you'd otherwise be productive. So even though this little laptop, by my math, eats up only about a quarter's worth of power overnight, maybe it's a smart idea -- and ultimately a time-saver, too -- to shut it down after hours.

This earth day, make a resolution to turn off your PC / laptop every night after use whether you are at home or work.

1,672 cities, towns and municipalities in 80 countries have already committed to VOTE EARTH for Earth Hour 2009, as part of the worlds first global election between Earth and global warming.

In 2009, Earth Hour is being taken to the next level, with the goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote. Unlike any election in history, it is not about what country you’re from, but instead, what planet you’re from. VOTE EARTH is a global call to action for every individual, every business, and every community. A call to stand up and take control over the future of our planet. Over 74 countries and territories have pledged their support to VOTE EARTH during Earth Hour 2009, and this number is growing everyday.

Earth Hour began in 2007 as 2.2 million people turned out their lights in Sydney, Australia in a stand against climate change. From the famed Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge to skyscrapers and individual homes, Sydney went dark.

During Earth Hour 2008, the event grew as more than 50 million people in 400 cities on all seven continents turned off their lights and major icons also went dark, including the Coliseum in Rome, Stockholm’s Royal Castle, the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Google turned its homepage black for an entire day in tribute.

In 2009, lot of cities in USA will officially support Earth Hour as tens of millions of people from all corners of the world unite in a call for global action on climate change.

City residents are encouraged to turn off their lights for the event.

Please observe Earth Hour this year and turn your life greener.

When recycled responsibly, the metals can be put back into circulation, decreasing the need for new metal mining. Most of the phones and accessories received can be refurbished, reset, and reused. If a phone is broken, its working parts are removed. "New" phones are eventually assembled from the usable parts of different phones.

Nine of every 10 consumers have at least one old, unused mobile phone and there are more than 500 million used cell phones in the U.S. sitting in people's drawers or in our landfills.

There are about 270 million cell phone users in the United States. Every year more than 140 million cell phones are discarded in the country, most of them going to landfills or incinerators. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for every one million phones recycled, enough energy could be saved to provide electricity to 2,000 U.S. homes a year.

Sadly, less than 2% of old cell phones are being recycled today. Cell phone recycling and wireless recycling programs keep valuable materials out of landfills, including an estimated $630,000 of precious metals from circuit boards, and enough copper from phone chargers to recover the Statue of Liberty, twice.

Corporate America is playing its role to promote cell phone recycling. In 2008, Sprint collected more than 3 million phones--about 34% of its sales. In 2007, its percentage of collections to sales was 22%.

You can make a difference with cell phone recycling. Help our environment and the planet.

So the holidays are over and all the shopping frenzy seems to disappear. You must have removed holiday lights and decoration.

What you did with your Christmas tree? Did you throw it in your local trash?

Well, there are several ways you can recycle your Christmas tree. The main thing is to keep from having a mountain of trees being buried in landfills across the country where it will take many years for the tree mass to be broken down into humus. Moreover, the rich organic matter that will finally develop doesn't do most plants any good since it is buried so deep in the ground.

Several cities take the tree for free and recycle them. Trees should be placed in designated areas where special collection bins are located, with all tree stands, lights and ornaments removed. Please check with you local city authorities and find the details on where the trees can be accepted for recycling.

Real Christmas Trees are biodegradable, which means they can be easily reused or recycled for mulch and other purposes. Chipping trees, whether with a home chipper/shredder or at a local facility, reduces the waste volume dramatically and provides a product that can be used as mulch immediately or can be added to a compost pile. The mulch works perfectly on pathways since it is mostly wood chips and will take longer to break down. Putting this down in the walkways of a vegetable garden is a great way to use it. If you want to put it around plants, add some additional nitrogen next spring to help the microorganisms break down the wood chips into humus.

You probably already have your recycling plan in mind, but just in case you want to recycle your tree and are not sure how: check out Earth911 for tips on the tree recycling options nearest to you.

Another option is to submerge your tree in a local pond or reservoir to provide fish habitat or structure. This is very common around our larger lakes and reservoirs and these submerged trees provide a valuable resource for the fish ecosystem.

I hope you will take the opportunity to recycle your Christmas tree and mark the New Year with a goal to turn your life greener and more responsible to the environment.

Why use CFL?

CFLs are a good deal. Shoppers have gotten used to seeing their curly shape on store shelves, and adoption rates have really taken off. About 100 million were sold in the United States last year.

Lighting accounts for close to 20 percent of the average home’s electric bill. ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs use up to 75 percent less energy (electricity) than incandescent light bulbs, last up to 10 times longer, cost little up front, and provide a quick return on investment.

Electricity use is the main source of mercury emissions in the U.S.  CFLs use less electricity than incandescent lights, meaning CFLs reduce the amount of mercury into the environment. A 13-watt, 8,000-rated-hour-life CFL (60-watt equivalent; a common light bulb type) will save 376 kWh over its lifetime, thus avoiding 4.5 mg of mercury.

According to the federal government, if every American home replaced just one light bulb with an Energy Star approved compact fluorescent bulb (CFL), the United States would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars.

Energy Star qualified CFLs use at least two-thirds less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer (average lifespan of a CFL is five years).

CFLs save $30 or more in energy costs over each bulb's lifetime.
CFLs generate 70 percent less heat, making them safer to operate.

CFLs also help to reduce greenhouse gasses, other pollutants associated with electricity production, and landfill waste (because the bulbs last longer); they are clearly the environmental winner when compared to traditional incandescent light bulbs.

Problems with CFL

The problem with the bulbs is that they can break before they get to the landfill. They can break in containers, or they can break in a dumpster or they can break in the trucks. Workers may be exposed to very high levels of mercury when that happens.  When bulbs break near homes, they can contaminate the soil.

Some states, cities and counties have outlawed putting CFL bulbs in the trash, but in most states the practice is legal.

Recycling Options

If your CFL bulb burns out, please contact your local municipal solid waste agency directly, or go to www.epa.gov/bulbrecycling  or www.earth911.org  to identify local recycling options.

If your ENERGY STAR qualified CFL product burns out before it should, look at the CFL base to find the manufacturer’s name. Visit the manufacturer’s web site to find the customer service contact information to inquire about a refund or replacement. Manufacturers producing ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs are required to offer at least a two-year limited warranty (covering manufacturer defects) for CFLs used at home. In the future, save your receipts to document the date of purchase.

Home Depot has become the largest U.S. retailer to launch a general CFL recycling program. Almost 2,000 Home Depot locations will now accept any type of CFL for recycling without charge to the consumer.

Ikea will take back all the burnt CFL bulbs purchased from their stores.

Be responsible; don’t throw your CFL bulbs in local garbage.

95% of Americans own at least one type of cordless product powered by rechargeable batteries. Americans use an average of five cordless products in their daily lives.

Below are the different types of batteries which touch our lives almost daily.

Lead-Acid Batteries
Nickel-Metal Hydride Batteries (Ni-MH)
Lithium Ion Batteries
Lithium Ion Polymer Batteries
Nickel-Cadmium Batteries (Ni-CAD)

Any type of batteries should never be disposed in your trash. Every effort must be made to recycle all types of batteries.

Careless disposal of nickel-cadmium is hazardous to the environment. If used in landfills, the cadmium will eventually dissolve itself and the toxic substance can seep into the water supply, causing serious health problems.

The lead-acid battery has led the way in recycling. The automotive industry should be given credit in organizing ways to dispose of spent car batteries. In the USA, 98% of all lead-acid batteries are recycled.

Lithium (metal) batteries contain no toxic metals; however, there is the possibility of fire if the metallic lithium is exposed to moisture while the cells are corroding. Most lithium batteries are non-rechargeable and are used in cameras, hearing aids and defense applications. For proper disposal, the batteries must first be fully discharged to consume the metallic lithium content. Lithium-ion batteries used for cell phones and laptops do not contain metallic lithium and the disposal problem does not exist.

Corporate America is doing its part to create awareness about recycling batteries.

Office Depot is now collecting used phones and rechargeable batteries for recycling at all 960 Office Depot locations in the U.S. and Canada.

Through HopeLine's recycling efforts, more than 200 tons of electronics waste and batteries have been kept out of landfills. Since October of 2001 when Verizon Wireless launched its national recycling program:

There are several websites which can help you calculate your carbon footprint. You can calculate the carbon footprint of your last flight to Chicago or your most recent car rental. You can measure your carbon footprint by clicking here.

The national average carbon footprint is 7.5 tons of CO2 per year.

It is very encouraging to see that leading corporations across the world are committing to reduce their carbon footprint, and have made it a part of their corporate sustainability programs. There is substantial effort going on to bring together Fortune 1000 corporations, international and domestic companies, and small- and medium-sized businesses interested in reducing their organizations carbon footprint.

P&G has a goal to reduce its carbon footprint 40% by 2012. P&G's liquid laundry detergents, which are now half the size they were two years ago, do the same number of washloads.

Wal-Mart, a multi-billion dollar corporation and the largest retailer in the world, pledged to reduce its carbon footprint by removing products from its shelves that contribute to global warming.

What are carbon offsets?

Carbon offsets are one of the many ways by which one can reduce his carbon footprint. Many websites which offer to calculate your carbon footprint will allow you to buy carbon offsets to help reduce your impact on the environment.

The purchase of carbon offsets is another way to reduce a carbon footprint. One carbon offset represents the reduction of one ton of CO₂-eq. Companies who sell carbon offsets invest in projects such as renewable energy research, agricultural and landfill gas capture, and tree-planting.

Click here to see impact of your daily activities and buy carbon offsets.

Buying carbon offsets is a great way to offset your carbon footprint. Please research the companies in detail prior to buying the carbon offsets.

In my next post I will talk about ways to reduce your individual carbon footprint. In the mean time, readers please see how much your carbon footprint is by clicking here and let us know.

Well, you are at a leading grocery store and you are asked: “Do you want paper or plastic bags for your groceries”? Since you have adopted all green initiatives this year, you choose paper bags thinking that paper is a natural product and bio-degradable.

Did you make a right choice? Does this help you go greener and save our environment? Well, let’s take a look.

Paper bags come from trees while plastic is a petroleum product - it comes from oil.

Plastic bags are much more resource efficient. Plastic bags require much less energy than paper bags to manufacture.

ENERGY TO PRODUCE BAG ORIGINALLY (BTUs)
Safeway Plastic Bags: 594 BTUs
Safeway Paper Bags: 2511 BTUs

Plastic bags are much thinner and lighter than paper bags; it would take seven 45 foot trucks to transport the same amount of paper bags as one 45 foot truck of plastic bags.

Paper bag production produces 70% more air pollution and 50 times more water pollution than plastic bag production.

On average, 10 billion paper grocery bags are used by Americans every year. Increased paper bag production leads to global warming, as trees have to be cut down which are a major absorber of green-house gases.

Disposing of paper bags is also inferior to plastic bags. The amount of waste by weight is 400% higher with paper than plastic, and the amount of waste by volume is higher by more than 250%.

Paper, when thrown away, can either be recycled or end up in the landfill. If it ends up in the landfill, over time (and usually many,many years) it will break down. Plastic does not break down - your Starbucks plastic coffee container will always be in the landfill.

ENERGY TO RECYCLE PACKAGE ONCE (BTUs)
Safeway Plastic Bags: 17 BTUs
Safeway Paper Bags: 1444 BTUs

Thought for the readers:

Both paper and plastic bags consume large amounts of natural resources and the majority will eventually end up in the landfill. Both bags can be recycled to some extent. What do you do? My suggestion is:

Using reusable shopping bags is the way to go! Almost all major grocery stores are offering reusable shopping bags.

How may of you are using them??

Ø       Should we stop driving? No, we can never.

Ø       Should we car-pool? Yes, if possible.

Ø       Get your air filter changed? Yes!

Ø       Get your engine tuned? Yes!!

These are some of the suggestions we hear all the time.

How about driving “SLOWER”

In a typical family sedan, every 10 miles per hour you drive over 60 is equivalent to gasoline going up about 54 cents a gallon. That figure will be even higher for less fuel-efficient vehicles that go fewer miles on a gallon to start with. This is based on a $3.25 price per gallon. The faster you drive your car, greater is the force of air. The increase in wind resistance is exponential, which means it rises much faster when you are driving between 70-80mph than 50-60mph.

Let’s do a little math: Distance = Speed X Time

If you drive 30 miles for your office commute in the morning, driving at 60mph will get you there in 30 minutes. If your drive at 75mph, you will reach your destination in 24 minutes. You save 6 minutes. What are these six minutes worth? You can figure out how much more you are paying for gas.

Your six minutes will save our precious non-renewable source of energy – GAS.

It will reduce our dependency on oil imports.

It will reduce our import bill.

It will help save our environment.

It will help you “Go GREEN”.

Remember, in 1973 due to the oil crisis, the government reduced the highway speed limit to 55mph. I think government should step in again and reduce the speed to 55mph.

Let’s talk about another value called “mpd” – What is MPD?

It reflects how many miles your car will drive for 1 dollar – miles per dollar

If your car gives 21mpg; let’s assume gas is $3.00 per gallon, this implies you are driving 7 miles per dollar. That’s how far your dollar stretches.

Think if you are driving at 70mph, your cost of driving is mind-blowing at $10 per hour in fuel.

Imagine you have a 400HP Mercedes Benz AMG, which give 12mpg, and gas is still $3 per gallon, your mpd drops to 4!

Water bottles aren’t the only household plastics that can be recycled.  From detergent bottles to food storage containers, many plastics can go on to become other useful products.  I’ve outlined these types by their resin codes, which can usually be found on the bottom of each bottle/container.

Code 1. PET – Polyethylene Terephthalate: This includes bottles for water and juice, food jars and containers.

Recycled afterlife: fleece jackets, filling for comforters and pillows, tote bags

Code 2. HDPE – High Density Polyethylene (Clear and Colored): These bottles are used for milk, cosmetics, household cleaners, and grocery bags.

Recycled afterlife: bottles for nonfood items, plastic lumber, pipes, floor tiles

Code 4. LDPE – Low Density Polyethylene: This material is used for dry cleaning bags, frozen food bags, squeezable bottles and loose leaf binders.

Recycled afterlife: Garbage can liners, furniture, shipping envelopes, paneling

Code 5. PP – Polypropylene: This plastic is used for yogurt containers, takeout containers, bottle caps and closures

Recycled afterlife: Car battery cases, signal lights, ice scrapers, garden rakes

Code 6. PS – Polystyrene: This makes up food service items, packing peanuts, cd cases.

Recycled afterlife: Thermal insulation, camera casings, light switch panels

Remember, one person’s water bottle is another person’s fleece jacket so start recycling!

Products like Polyethylene and Polypropylene, also known as Polyolefin’s, need an ink receptive coating and reinforcement to make them remotely viable for printing, which makes them undesirable to recycle. In addition, The Association of Plastic Manufacturers of Europe, known to be more aggressive than the EPA, states that Polyolefin’s use more non-renewable energy to make (petroleum) and emit more greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide) in production than PVC. PVC is not without its problems, and as far as we are concerned, none of the vinyl products available in the market today offer acceptable sustainability solutions.

We are meeting this issue head on. We have met with our vendors to develop alternatives and are researching natural plastics derived from organic matter. We participate in various trade associations to help drive discussion and seek best practices. We have analyzed the life cycle of all our products, and have been aggressively recycling all post-consumables, including packing materials, office and industrial supplies and have reduced our use of vinyl by 38%, switching to lighter weight substrates. In addition, we support our communities with various public service campaigns; Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation, St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, The Children’s Bureau and the American Cancer Society. We also support the arts with the creation of our Outdoor and the Arts program, giving local artists a voice through visual communication.

MMT will not slap “Eco” on a product, and then proceed with the same operational practices. We are changing from within by reducing consumption and seeking long term sustainable alternatives. To design a recycling program that best fits your needs or to offer suggestions and comments, send us an email at react@mmt.com.