Home Office Answers

   Do paper phone books keep appearing at your door step uninvited?    I used to take mine right from the door step to the recycling bin mumbling to myself all the way.  Now there is a better way.  If you don’t want your “fingers to do the walking” sign up for this eco-friendly service and STOP receiving paper phone books. 

According to Yellowpagesgoesgreen.org over 500 Million phone directories are printed each year.

The resources needed to produce these books is tremendous

19 million trees need to be harvested 

1.6 billion pounds of paper are wasted

7.2 million barrels of oil are misspent in their processing (not including the wasted gas used for their delivery to your doorstep)

268,000 cubic yards of landfill are taken up

3.2 billion kilowatts of energy are squandered

Yellowpagesgoesgreen.org is an organization working to educate consumers and promote the green movement to eliminate the unsolicited delivery of Yellow and White Pages books. This site is aimed at starting a national movement to solicit the White/Yellow Pages industry to proactively stop the delivery of books or to begin moving legislation to mandate the stoppage of this activity. This movement should be similar to the National No-Call Registry that have stopped and/or decreased the number of unwanted solicitations telephone calls to consumers.

Make your home office eco-friendly green, save some trees and stop receiving unsolicited phone directories.

Have you seen the revolutionary new rechargeable battery - the USBCELL? This NiMH AA cell can be used like any normal battery and can be recharged simply by plugging into a USB port.  If your home office equipment is using normal AA batteries, USBcell may be a green friendly alternative. There are over 15 billion alkaline batteries made and thrown away each year, wasting resources, C02 and creating toxic Landfill -
USBCELL offers a eco-friendly option.Each one can be re-used hundreds of times as no charge adaptor or cable is needed, saving you money, hassle and waste.  

Do you use rechargeable batteries? 

If you like this product tell your friends you heard about it at Home Office Answers

  Trade-Ins’ are not just for cars anymore. 
Similar to the way you trade in your car when you are ready for a newer model it is now possible to trade in some of your used office electronics and receive gift cards in exchange at both Best Buy and Circuit City.

Of course if you have the time and inclination you can probably sell your used electronics on EBay or thru another auction venue. 

The trade-in option is convenient, quick and easy, plus you can find out up front how much your gift card will be issued for.  Unlike auctions, where if you don’t have a reserve, you may get less than you expected.

Best Buy and Circuit City offer similar programs to trade in your office electronics.

Best Buy Trade In

Circuit City Trade In

Best Buy goes a step further with older equipment that they do not accept for trade in.  You may not be able to get a gift card but if it is less than 70 pounds they may send you a free shipping pick up ticket to have the item recycled at no cost to you. 

I am excited to see the stores making it easy for us to make our home office green.  With the easy trade in and recycling programs I have reviewed I don’t think I’ll ever need to throw away an office electronic again.

Do you know of other trade in or recycling programs?  Please tell me about them.

In my mail just today are 3 return envelopes that I don’t need and 2 that I do.  If that’s the case with even half of the homes across the country think how many return envelopes are being made, using up our trees and filling up our landfills.

ecoEnvelopes, is an women-owned and operated organization with an innovative line of reusable envelopes that reduce mail costs and benefit the environment. The reusable envelopes simply zip open, allowing users to insert their response or payment and seal them up again just like a regular envelope.

ecoEnvelopes are made exclusively on certified papers from managed forests with up to 100% recycled content. USPS approved, ecoEnvelopes run seamlessly on existing equipment.

One of my goals here at Home Office Answers is to keep you updated on products and ideas that help you make your home office green and do not add any additional time to your workday. 
ecoEnvelopes seem to be an over due alternative to sending reply envelopes.

Try ecoEnvelopes for your business reply mail and let me know what you think.

 We have done the homework for you so you can recycle your ink cartridges the easy and free way.If you buy HP INK cartridges, check the inside of the box before you throw it into the cardboard recycling bin.  Inside many boxes are now prepaid envelopes to return the empty cartridge.  If your box does not have one or you already pitched it, no worries. HP has an easy on-line process to get the free shipping label.

 While Canon offers ways to recycle larger items like scanners they appear to be lagging behind on paying for ink cartridge recycling.
Come On Canon. No matter what brand of printer you use you may be able to send them back postage paid at your local post office soon.
Check your local post office lobby for ink cartridge recycling pre paid envelopes too.
Clover Technologies is testing a pilot program.  The pilot is set for 10 areas across the country, including Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles and San Diego, but could become a national program this fall if the pilot program proves successful.  If you want to reuse instead of recycle you can get your ink cartridges filled at your local Walgreens at there photo developing counter.  Details are here Walgreens Do you know another way to recycle or reuse ink cartridges?