Did you know this?
I think a lot and I think I’m quite good at thinking. I think about random stuff, intellectual stuff, deep stuff, mushy stuff, spiritual stuff and silly stuff but never have I thought about batteries messing up the environment. Perhaps it’s due to a lack of education?
Batteries contain various acids and heavy metals that can leak out over time and contaminate the water supply near landfills. Perhaps it doesn’t sound like a major problem to you, but if every household throws out about 10+ batteries a year it adds up and becomes a serious source of pollution over time.
Uniross provides boxes outside most Pick ‘n Pay’s into which you can drop your used batteries; just pop them in the same packet as your used CFL bulbs.
Awareness brings responsibility – now that you know you have no excuse not to do the right thing!
Reference: Going Green – 365 Ways To Change Our World by Simon Gear
Great tip! I’ve actually got a box of old batteries lying around at home… I wasn’t sure where I could take them, but now I know!
I’ve got another great green tip: when you buy new ink for your printer you should get an envelope within the packaging – in which you can put your old ink cartridge and send it back to the producer (such as HP). Postage is already paid, so all you have to do is pop it into a post box at your local post office!
Most of us are making use of a printer, thanks – nice tip! This is not about getting fanatically green, but every bit helps! It’s just about making the effort to do things the right way.
I like this! Responsibility brings awareness, yes!
On a different note – our Company is looking for ways and means of recycling paper, cartridges etc. I have tried various contacts via government website, and I have never been able to get any information of how to go about it, any info on this?
To be honest – I can’t see anybody in our company fiding the time to envelope all the cartridges and taking them to the post office (we have loads of them from all different departments), and that is just HP doing this, or the others as well?
We have started collecting all our scrap paper, sending it to the stationers and they use the paper to cut into nice A5 scrap notebooks for us, which comes in quite handy and saves money as well, and paper.
And also equipment, old cd’s, we have stacks of those as well. Old monitors, printers, keyboards. What would one do with all these things instead of just trashing it? There must be a more effective way
I don’t think any of us have time for.. well, much. We are all partaking in this thing called The Rat Race – I would personally like to turn the pace down a notch or two.
It’s all about choice and conscience, I guess. If you want to do the right thing, you simply have to choose to find a way to make it work for you. You can perhaps collect all the empty cartridges and take them to the post office once every second month. Work it, baby!
Well done on finding ways to make your scrap paper work for you – You guys are an inspiration to all of us!
One problem with greening the office environment is that because being greener is everyone’s responsibility it soon become no-one’s. Find a few like-minded souls and form a green committee. Don’t try to change the world in one day – just tackle one recycling issue at a time!
We will be posting more on greening your office environment – come back for more practical tips!
Good on ya!
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