Recycling Reminder

I want to remind everybody about what we can recycle here in Commerce. Each Division should have a paper recycling bin. In addition, there are boxes/bins marked for plastics and cans. The smaller bins are for your convenience and everybody is invited to take part in emptying the bins into the bigger containers that are then collected by Columbus Shredding.

Locations for the blue containers for plastics recycling:

-DOPL break room (4^th floor)

-Next to 4^th floor vending machines

- Corporations (2^nd floor)

-Lunch room (2^nd floor)

**Please remove and save coke product lids for the charity program (My Coke Rewards)

Large bins for can recycling:

-Next to 4^th floor vending machines

-2^nd floor kitchen area by the service elevator

-Corporations (2^nd floor)

**Please remove and save tabs for Ronald McDonald House

Cardboard Recycling bins:

-Corporations (2^nd floor)

-DOPL (4^th floor)

-DPU (4^th floor)

There is also a smaller Gray container in Administration for batteries, small electronics, and powerstrips.

Please ask Mia Larson or Masuda Medcalf if you have any questions.

If your Division’s “recycling center” needs new signs, please feel free to use the attached posters and hang them near your bins.

Don’t forget to check out the E-Team blog for some fun videos about recycling:

http://utahcommerce.blogspot.com/2012/08/recycling.html

It is also time for another CONTEST! And you don’t have to be an Olympic qualifier to be able to participate. For a chance to win some cool prizes you can either send me a list of the words you find in the attached word search puzzle or bring me your puzzle and you will be entered into a drawing! We will have the drawing on August 20^th.  Also, please feel free to share your ideas of how to make our recycling program better.

Thanks for all of your help making our office GREEN!

Mia & the Commerce E-Team

Recycling Fact - How Much Tree Goes Into a Ream of Paper?

Thanks to Jeff Henrie from DOPL for providing us this information. We have often heard that we are saving trees by recycling paper, but what are the actual numbers involved? It depends on the type of paper and on whether the paper is coated (see full article at http://conservatree.org/learn/EnviroIssues/TreeStats.shtml); here are some numbers:

SOME TYPICAL CALCULATIONS

1 ton of uncoated virgin (non-recycled) printing and office paper uses 24 trees

1 ton of 100% virgin (non-recycled) newsprint uses 12 trees

A "pallet" of copier paper (20-lb. sheet weight, or 20#) contains 40 cartons and weighs 1 ton. Therefore,

1 carton (10 reams) of 100% virgin copier paper uses .6 trees

1 tree makes 16.67 reams of copy paper or 8,333.3 sheets

1 ream (500 sheets) uses 6% of a tree (and those add up quickly!)

1 ton of coated, higher-end virgin magazine paper (used for magazines like National Geographic and many others) uses a little more than 15 trees (15.36)

1 ton of coated, lower-end virgin magazine paper (used for newsmagazines and most catalogs) uses nearly 8 trees (7.68)

How do you calculate how many trees are saved by using recycled paper?

(1) Multiply the number of trees needed to make a ton of the kind of paper you're talking about (groundwood or freesheet), then

(2) multiply by the percent recycled content in the paper.

For example,

1 ton (40 cartons) of 30% postconsumer content copier paper saves 7.2 trees

1 ton of 50% postconsumer content copier paper saves 12 trees.

So what about E-readers like iPad and Kindle- are they saving trees? Here are couple of articles about their environmental impact:

Should You Ditch Your Books for an E-reader?
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/the_green_lantern/2010/08/should_you_ditch_your_books_for_an_ereader.html
How Green is My iPad?
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/04/04/opinion/04opchart.html