Ideas for Change - Because the right idea can change the world » Clean Energy

Computer recyclers – a scam

taboring — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 01:54:01 +0000

So called computer recyclers have been scamming the American business, educational, governmental and individual publics for years. The glut of unwanted and discarded electronics equipment (televisions, computers, monitors/other peripherals, printers, phones) is overwhelming and growing every year. Beleaguerd IT and maintenance departments had this problem dumped into their responsiblities starting early in this century, as it became known that such discards were potentially hazardous waste and questionable for disposal in US landfills.
Because there are little regulations in developing nations (India, China, Nigeria, Ghana, Vietnam), a disgusting pollution engendering scrap industry developed. A CRT monitor, fresh from your donation to a charity but still unwanted, can be sold for several dollars, packaged into a 40′ seagoing container with 999 others, and exported to India. There, it is dumped anywhere accessible. Laborers, earning $2 a day if they are lucky, will dismantle it with crude hand tools. They will take the copper yoke and the low grade circuit board from it. The remainder will be left where it lays. That punctured tube contains 4-8 lbs of lead dust (from a coating that absorbs the heat while it was sitting on your desk). This dust will enter the local atmosphere and cause birth defects and respiratory illnesses. Some lead will seep into the ground as it rains, entering and ruining the water table. There is ample evidence of this all over the Web (see www.ban.org for example).
As this problem has been publicized, it has become a topic to discuss as decision makers, those who have to decide how to dispose of their unwanted scrap, try to weigh the options. Unethical compnies, willing to be vague, spin and outright lie, have convinced the great majority of decision makers that they are ‘recyclers’, that they do not export scrap to developing nations, that they do not landfill it, that they do not use US prison labor to process it. The scam has matured such that these charlatans will issue Certificates to these effects. Most decision makers are more conscious of the bottom line than spoiling to investigate the ‘recyclers’. So, if a company tells the decision maker a good tale, offers low cost or no cost solutions and issues a Certificate, that company earns the business over a legitimate recycler, who must pay to process the equipment in the US, thus driving up the costs. The legitimate recycler will word a proper Certificate to warrant that there was no export of landfilling PERIOD, and will list the serial numbers of the disposed equipment to clarify that the company did indeed handle certain equipment properly, if somewhat more costly.
Recent exposes have publicized the polluters; one on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” and a situation in Pittsburgh PA concerning an identified scammer, EarthECycle, documented the scam where the polluters brazenly tell a customer a sales pitch, promising not to export or landfill, then violate that agreement at will. The legitimate recycler, had no chance to get the contract, because he had real costs to incorporate into the sale price.
After a long period of these scenarios playing out, more and more decision makers were demanding rigorous documentation and legitmate recyclers, particularly those called ‘e stewards’, affiliated with the Basel Action Network, were in place to legitimately earn the business of these coscientious decision makers. To that end, BAN e stewards began the organization of a rigorous certification process to establish their legitimacy even further. Thsi process is being developed and will bear fruit in the next 6 months.
Faced with the loss of billions of dollars in potential profits, the group of companies that has long depended on shady, unverified procedures, struck back. They organized. They formed a new organization, an outgrowth of several older organizations, entitled the “World Reuse, Repair and Recycle Association” or “WR3A” for short. In the not so old days, one of the scammers precepts that melded nicely into the ‘sales pitch’ was the use of a reference to the ‘reuse’ component of recycling. Any legitimate recycler agrees that reuse is the most desirable way to recyucle. It reduces costs as the equipment is less expensive and thus available to lower income potential users. It removes the need to use new materials. When donated to non profit agencies, there can be positive tax advantages. Reuse is great!
The polluters have woven reuse into the sales pitch, with a touch of charity often the glue. There is a woman in the e waste disposal industry who has for years solicited the equipment from corporations by telling them that it was going to be used in a far eastern nation to train orphans as technicians, and teach them to refurb CRT monitors for resale. Sounds great!
But, the sad truth is that there is such a glut of CRTs that there is no market for them in any real quantity anywhere in the world, even if they still work and need no repair. It is safe to say that they can usually NOT even be given away in any quantity. So, if a company takes them from a client, either for free or a little charge, how can they process them? Who would pay to ship them to the Far East? How about testing them, storing them, arranging for their distribution IF there was an outlet? And, what about the CRTs that do not work? In India, who will verifiably contract to keep them out of the waste stream? (By the way, this problem includes other electronic discards like computers themselves, CRTs are the best example)
Nevertheless, this new organization WR3A, will attempt to create the appearance of legitimacy with a logo, websites, public relations media. Those of us who know better must work to educate the consuming public to the facts that this is simply an attempt at ‘business as usual’, taking US waste, prolonging the squeezing of a profit from it under the ‘reuse’ battle cry that will continue to result in despicable pollution. Beleaguered decision makers will have WR3A literature to stick in the file to play CYA. However, the result will be the same as it has been. Those of us e stewards who have elected to attempt a business model that does not damage the environment will continue to attempt to educate the public

“HOPE – the Obama Musical Story” World Premiere

HOPE-Musical — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:43:27 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

“HOPE - the Obama musical story” celebrates its world premiere on 17 January 2010!The venue Jahrhunderthalle in Frankfurt will experience a sound it has never heard before: formed to a huge percussion ensemble, the audience accompanies US president Barack Obama on his successful way into the White House. The event organizer MOVE GmbH promises a double world premiere: at the premiere of “HOPE – the Obama Musical Story” on Sunday, 17 January at 8:00 pm, the audience will rhythmically participate on specially developed percussion chairs – for the first time ever worldwide. “Hope is the first interactive musical of a new generation”, says musical producer Roberto Emmanuele, CEO and creative director of Move GmbH based in Bad Soden. “This is an enormous sound and a great musical experience for the audience.”

The musical stages two moving and exciting stories in parallel plots. The audience looks behind the scenes of the presidential election in 2008 and follows the career of the present US president Barack Obama. The main character is presented less on a political level, but rather as an emotional person who fights for a new, more forgiving and peaceful world and a better future. At the same time, the viewer experiences the societal events from the point of view of a multi-cultural apartment-sharing community in Chicago. Caused by the prevailing tight political and economic situation, societal and social frictions and emotions arise. The people are given new hope by the new spirit of the age.

Author and composer Randall Hutchins works with the best Afro-American singers and actors of the German musical scene. He produces inter alia for “The very Best of Black Gospel”, “Musical the Gift” and he participated in “Starlight Express” as a musician. In “HOPE”, he combines an affectionately arranged mix regarding taste and aesthetics of different music styles in the field of Pop, Soul, Gospel, HipHop and Rock. The diversified mixture of catchy melodies electrifies the audience right from the beginning. Undoubtedly, the songs have what it takes to become hits.

For “HOPE”, 30 world-class artists, singers, dancers and actors perform on stage. They participate in the production with great enthusiasm and dedication. “The spirit of the show is carried by the spirit of the entire team”, praises the producer Roberto Emmanuele. Della Miles and Jimmie Wilson, known as the dream duo of the Michael Jackson musical “Sisterella”, as well as Dynelle Rhodes, the original lead singer of the Weather Girls, join the cast as soloists. They are supported by well-known performers who are leads in “Cats”, “The Lion King” and “We will rock you”. The rehearsals took place inter alia at mediaArt FORUM in Bad Soden.

The production is realized in German and English, so that the story line can be followed by everyone.

On percussion: the audience sitting on specially developed musical chairsIn the course of the musical, the audience develops to co-musicians. For they sit on a musical instrument with an astoundingly high sound quality. Approximately 1200 of the 2000 available seats in the domed hall of the venue Jahrhunderthalle will be equipped with design chairs which house the smallest set of drums worldwide. The special construction of this musical furniture allows for a distinctive bass and snare sound. The people play while sitting, drumming with their hands on the percussion surface. Inspired by this characteristic sound, Roberto Emmanuele and his partner Patrick Strese call the innovation “BAFF musical furniture”. The other musical spectators do not sit quietly on their chairs either. They are handed out rattles, so that the sound of “HOPE” will fill the entire hall. The producers want all people to have access to music as a strong medium.

As early as in September, the musical company enthused about 45,000 viewers with a first musical foretaste during a successful performance at Commerzbank Arena next to stars like Bob Geldorf and Samy Deluxe. After only a short period of time, the entire stadium swung and clapped along to songs never heard before like “Rock the Vote”. Experts of the German music scene praised the high level of the American Pop music and certified the sound to have “Earth Wind and Fire quality”. The most important concert organizer worldwide, Fritz Rau, says: “Respect and two thumbs up for this musical”. According to the slogan “Yes we can”, the musical is to tour in Germany after having premiered in Frankfurt.

Tickets for the premiere can be purchased via the ticket seller EVENTIM within the price scope of 40 to 149 Euros in several seat categories. Following the premiere, a VIP premiere party will take place, at which special culinary refreshments will be served to the guests and the musical performers can be experienced up close in an “unplugged performance”. The VIP tickets can be bought for 99 Euros directly from the HOPE production.

Important note from the HOPE production team:
The “HOPE musical production” does not pursue any political interests with their production. Being artists, we merely stage a piece of attitude to life of the “historic year 2008″ with topics still prevailing today as well as good entertainment and music!

Tillsammans för klimatet – vi kan alla bidra!

Daniel Daboczy - Editor in chief — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:57:20 +0000

Den 13:e december anordnade PostkodLotteriet seminariet “Fighting Deforestation” under klimatförhandlingarna i Köpenhamn. Enligt FN:s klimatpanel IPCC står den tropiska avskogningen för en femtedel av de globala koldioxidutsläppen. Syftet med seminariet var att öka kunskapen om avskogningen och visa att det finns lösningar som kan leda till ett stopp av exploateringen av regnskogarna.

Här kan du se vad Tony Blair, Mattias Klum, Maria Wetterstrand och andra deltagare i seminariet tänker göra för att bidra till att stoppa avskogningen av världens skogar. Vi måste alla bidra för att få ett stopp på klimatförändringarna – låt dig inspireras av filmen och fundera över vad du kan göra.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Saturday, December 5th: Climate Walk and Dance

Tcktcktck — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 07:24:49 +0000

This might be the last chance for us tho show the policy makers that we want a real deal in Copenhagen.

On Saturday, December 5th, the global climate campaign TckTckTck together with other organizations will arrange manifestations all over the world.

In Sweden, we call for a BRA meeting (=Bindande/legally binding, Rättvist/fair, Ambitiöst/ambitious.)

Manifestations will be held at Götaplatsen i Gothenburg, Mimerskolan in Umeå, Mynttorget i Stockholm and many other places. Take a look at the schedule and join us!

www.tcktcktck.se

On Dec 12 let’s show the World Wants a Real Deal!

Tcktcktck — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:37:06 +0000

On the weekend of December 12, TckTckTck and our partners will gather citizens in every corner of the world for our next massive global day of action. Our message is clear: at the Copenhagen climate summit, the world wants a real deal!

At very middle of the Copenhagen negotiations, people like you around the world will organize thousands of candlelight vigils, as well as marches, “signature walls”, and other positive events over the entire weekend.

TckTckTck and our partners, including the Elders, will present this global movement via photos, videos, pledges, and stories at a special vigil, happening right outside the summit building. Our partners Avaaz, 350.org, Greenpeace, WWF, Oxfam and others are all working to promote turnout worldwide to ensure that negotiators get the message loud and clear.

In the spirit of our September 21 Global Wake Up Call and 350.org’s International Day of Climate Action on Oct 24, this next and perhaps most important global day of action will bring together a diverse range of groups and individuals, from religious groups, university and grade school students, indigenous peoples, clean energy and technology enthusiasts, environmentalists, economists, politicians and everyone in between who wants strong action to safeguard the climate for generations to come.

Join the global day of action this December 12*. Sign up to organize or attend an event near you. Or visit our partners’ sign-up pages: Avaaz, 350.org.

www.tcktcktck.org

www.tcktcktck.se

Make A Promise To Save The Environment In Your Own Way And Get 500GB File Hosting Account For Free

Daniel Daboczy - Editor in chief — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:41:56 +0000

Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. If we do nothing to stop it, climate change will cause severe water shortages, rising sea levels will swallow cities, and pest outbreaks will sicken people and kill crops. One of the early signs we are already experiencing is an increase in extreme weather events such as destructive storms, drought and floods.

SmashingApps and FileBanker are teaming up to do their part for the environment. Average American consumes more than 700 pounds of paper per year, highest compared to anywhere else in the world. Hundreds of thousands of trees are cut down per day to support the consumption of paper that can be easily avoided.

SmashingApps believes that we can change that by helping people save and share their documents electronically instead of printing them out each time. We do not want you to print so much so they are offering 500 GB file hosting accounts for free at FileBanker. You will need to enter “smashingapps” in the promo code field. You can use these accounts to share all your documents without ever having to print anything.

Going for Good Carbon Offset – Driving Sustainability Innovation

anders.abrahamsson — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:02:48 +0000

When we adress the problem of climate change, one method that usually gets mentioned, is ”carbon offset”. The basic thinking is that you compensate for your action results of CO2 emission by buying different kinds of compensating efforts – to go ”carbon neutral”. There is a strong difference in offset methods, though, and this needs to be prominently addresses. In one end it could just maintain ”business as usual”, investing in methods such as planting trees to absorb CO2 or take the greenhouse gases into the mountains. This does not affect the original source of the emissions – it is ”end of pipe” solutions. What we need is to focus ”beginning of pipe” innovations – and if the offset program focuses on the necessary technology shift towards sustainable distributed energy and mobility scaling, then it is of the better. In fact, then it becomes a main driver and (investment) forces to support this shift, in demand of disruptive sustainability innovation.

I would like to adress three areas – solar energy for developing countries, aeroplanes and cars.

Developing countries - solar energy

Shifting kerosene and charcoal as energy sources in developing economies, and increasing access to electricity is crucial for developement. Modern applications of renewable energy sources emerging from “clean tech” can literally (em)power the people! Extending the homework hours for the kids and some extra job hours at home can be made possible through Solar Home Systems, at the same time as the health damaging effects from kerosene lamps are gone. Micro hydro is also an efficient small-scale solution as opposed to the big water dams. Power at family and community level means power to the people, community up, not top down.

Solar energy and other forms of sustainable distributed small-scale infrastructure organized energy forms are financed through E+Co. There you can directly calculate how much an investment in small-scale renewable energy solutions providers mean in CO2 displacement, oil barrels and numbers of people helped to get a solar home system. Here, in this context, Grameen Shakti is worth mentioning, using micro finance as a model to provide villagers with renewable energy. Grameen Shakti have won the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’: The Right Livelihood Award.

Aeroplanes

One of the strongest emission sources is aeroplanes. There is no tendencies that we decrease our travel through flights, with the latest Airbus now swallowing beyond 600 persons and additional tracks are added to airports. What we need is a shift of the means of driving these planes, an area that Virgin Green Fund and Sir Richard Branson has addressed in the billion dollar investment portfolio.

Cars

The technology holding the promise in relative short term to provide a technology shift of cars is the “plug in hybrid”, where you use both electricity with recharging aside fuels such as ethanol, and further along the road maybe a hundred percent electrical car, such as the one developed by Tesla Motors – the Tesla Roadster.

Go Sustainable in Carbon Offset – choose the right program

Looking for carbon offset providers that focus renewable energy and energy efficiency improvement method development is far more sustainable, and generates a change engine empowering the so much needed shift towards a sustainable emission vision of getting to 350 parts per million of CO2 concentration in the biosphere.

/Anders Abrahamsson

Anders is a serial sustainopreneur and has been the driving force in the conceptual development of Sustainopreneurship, and published its Wikipedia article in 2008. He has published a number of publications on this topic, and is currently authoring a popular book on subject, one blog post at a time. Founder of SLICE Services and Publishing.

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Note: A guide with evaluation of different carbon offset vendors have been published by David Suzuki foundation.