Channel 9 - Entries tagged with recycling

Ping 98: Kinect Calorie Challenge, Office 365, Startup America Partnership, and more

Laura Foy, Paul Mestemaker, Tina — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 00:45:16 GMT

This is another installment of Boys without Foys! Adam and Paul bring you some of the hottest stories that Microsofites are pinging each other about... and have some good time poking fun at each other in the process. Check out this episode for these fun stories and more!

Try Out Office 365

Startup America Partnership

Microsoft saves the trees!

Kinect Sports: Calorie Challenge

Become a fan of Ping! on Facebook

... we are a mere 2 episdoes away from reaching 100! Leave a comment or send mail to Ping@microsoft.com if there is anything special you'd like to see for the 100th episode.

What Happens When You Send Your Printer Cartridge For Recycling?

Terry Walsh — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 19:12:09 GMT

When you buy a new ink cartridge for your printer, have you ever noticed the little envelope in the pack for recycling your old cartridge? Good! Now, do you use them? Even better! If you have a HP printer, that cartridge has joined over 320 million others which have been returned and recycled in the company’s Planet Partners programme since 1991.

But what actually happens in the recycling process? You may assume they’d end up back at a printer cartridge factory, cleaned up, refilled and sent out once again as new – good for the planet, and great for manufacturing costs! The truth is a little different, as this video from HP shows.

Each printer cartridge recycled is shredded, melted down, blended to improve the quality of the resin, reprocessed, heated up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit and extruded into plastic strands. Those strands are then cooled, cut into pellets and sent off to be melted down again and manufactured into new printer cartridges.

HP have now manufactured more than 1 billion printer cartridges with recycled materials. That’s a lot of landfill saved. So, next time you spot one of those little envelopes, make sure you join in the efforts to keep your ink green.

Recycle Your Old Gadgets & Get Paid

Larry Larsen — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:19:00 GMT

Let me guess, somewhere you have a box of gadgets you consider worthless enough to sit in a box but valuable enough that you can't bare to throw away. eBay is an option but really, do you want to go to the trouble of selling each thing individually and then sending out to different places?

One option is Gazelle.com. Gazelle will make you an offer on your gadgets, depending on condition and what packaging/accessories you have left, and then send you a box to put it all in. Wrap it up and collect your check. They promise to remove personal information from devices, but that's never a job you should put on someone else in my opinion.

They have options to contribute to charities or put a link on your blog, email sig, site, that allows you to get a kickback on the gear your friends recycle. I was surprised to see Gazelle's offer to be within 10-15% of eBay. They say they sell the electronics through "a variety of retail and wholesale outlets." If you know of a retail store that sells used satellite radios or GPS', let me know in the comments, I can't say I've seen that.

I will say I'm a little disappointed Gazelle doesn't just sell the gadgets they collect. Since they silo them into model they should even be able to offer a warranty for a replacement if you get a bad gadget. Either way, better someone benefit from the hardware while they can rather than it sit in a box.

5 Ways to Practice Green Computing

Sarah Perez — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 21:23:00 GMT

There is a lot of interest in environmental responsibility these days: debates on global warming, hybrid cars, recycling, buying environmentally friendly products, conserving energy, reducing waste, etc., etc. Additionally, there has been a growing area of discussion on the subject of "green computing." What exactly is green computing? Mostly, it's the practice of using computing resources efficiently. With today's powerful systems, not to mention the myriads of peripheral devices, the home office is an area of the house where energy is wasted and lost. If you're interested in ways to reduce your power consumption, here are ways you can go "green" at home:

1. Buy "Energy Star" labeled monitors, desktops, laptops, and printers . The "Energy Star" devices can be programmed to "power-down" to a low power state when they are not in use, helping you save energy and run cooler which helps them last even longer. The Energy Star specification for computers was revised on October 20, 2006 and goes into effect July 20, 2007. The specification includes new performance requirements to qualify for the Energy Star rating for desktop and notebook computers, workstations, integrated computers, desktop-derived servers and game consoles. Now you can feel good about that upgrade!

2. Put laptops in "sleep" mode when not in use. The EPA has estimated that this reduces their energy use by 60 to 70 percent – and ultimately could save enough electricity each year to power Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, cut electric bills by $2 billion, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by the equivalent of 5 million cars.

3. Even better, turn OFF computers and other equipment when not in use. Despite the debate over whether it's better for your computer to be left on or shut off, the fact is it's better for the environment to shut it off. Trust me, your computer can handle it just fine; in fact, computers were designed to be turned off and back on!

4. E-cycle used computer equipment. Find a recycler in your area. Also, Staples, the office supply retailer, has now started a recycling program. They will accept any brands of used desktop and notebook computers, monitors, printers, fax machines and all-in-one devices with a fee of $10. Smaller items like keyboards, mice and speakers are free to drop off.

5. Buy the new "Smart Strip" power strip. The Smart Strip actually senses how much power your computer peripherals use. And when the Smart Strip senses that you've turned your computer off, it automatically shuts off your peripherals, too, preventing them from drawing an idle current, which is the current drawn even after equipment is shut off.

Speaking of going green, yesterday was the huge Live Earth event, a series of worldwide concerts to raise awareness about the global climate crisis. You can catch up on what you missed over at the Live Earth website, where they feature streaming videos from the concerts, photos, news, and more information about going green.