Posts Tagged ‘Recycling’
WEEE Recycling: Data Destruction is Essential
Your organissations data may no longer be of value to you once you have done what you need to do with it, but it is gold dust to your competitors. That is why any media, from paper to Flash memory cards, that contains business data must be thoroughly destroyed before disposal.
The risks of disposal of disks containing data that you may believe has been destroyed but has really just been lightly erased include putting yourself or your customers at risk for identity theft as well as making data available to unscrupulous competitors. Even recycling a computer to comply with WEEE recycling regulations does not include proper data destruction techniques.
These techniques include degaussing, in which magnetic patterns that conform to actual data are realigned so that the data is inaccessible and unrecoverable, shredding, which entails shredding media into very fine bits that cannot be reassembled, and software wiping, in which all HEX values on the entire volume of a disk are overwritten using special software. In the United kingdom, such software must meet Data protection Act standards to be considered effective for data destruction.
Laptops, including internal hard disk drives and other internal media storage devices, must be recycled according to WEEE regulations (EU). However, if data remains available on any part of the device before, during or after WEEE recycling procedures, it still poses a threat to your business security. Therefore, devices that hold data and are subject to WEEE recycling regulations must undergo a thorough process of data destruction before recycling should take place.
Hard drive destruction is absolutely imperative before WEEE recycling can start. This is because even when a disk drive is seemingly erased, the information on it can be recovered and made available without your knowledge. Ensuring that an expert with security cleared personnel destroys the hard drive by methods such as degaussing and shredding is the only way you can be sure that any data that was ever available on a drive that is slated for disposal can never be accessed again. Software wiping is recommended only for hard disk drives that will be reused after the data stored on them is fully destroyed.
Media tape drives are also easily accessible if they are not fully and professionally destroyed prior to disposal. Degaussing and shredding are the most recommended techniques for destruction of media tape drives.
Even CD’s and DVD’s which contain sensitive and confidential data should never be disposed of without making the data completely inaccessible. Complete physical destruction of the media through precision shredding that is offered by professional media disposal firms is the only way to ensure that data on a CD or DVD is fully inaccessible.
Flash memory cards, external memory sticks, and similar devices must also be subject to data destruction measures if they have ever held sensitive data. A specialist firm which handles data destruction should be consulted regarding such memory devices as their small size makes it very easy for them to end up in the wrong hands.
At Be Seen Go Green, we offer solutions for a variety of Environmental issues. Please click on the following link to contact us.
Taking Action on Waste
Glasgow recycling is all about how we need to be taking action on waste, which is essential for our continued sustainability.
We consume natural resources at an unsustainable rate and contribute unnecessarily to climate change. there are many facilities in and around Glasgow which can help you recycle your waste.
Failing to recycle means that most of our waste ends up in landfill, where biodegradable waste generates methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. And much valuable energy is used up in making new products which are later disposed of, also contributing to climate change.
That people produce waste is a fact of life we cannot change. However, we can change how much we produce, how we manage it and what we do with it. Indeed, managing waste in a sustainable way, optimising recycling and re-use, as well as limiting production, forms a core part of Government policy to protect the environment.
Recycling is a way every individual can help the environment every day – and it is easier to do than it has ever been. Indeed, the latest figures show that in general we have not only met, but exceeded, our targets for recycling and composting household waste.
Moving to more sustainable waste management requires enormous changes: new facilities, new skills, new investment and new attitudes. As such, there are immense challenges ahead for Government, local authorities, and the public.
Although waste awareness initiatives are not a new concept, engaging the public remains a high priority; only then can we hope to encourage more householders to use more recycling facilities, more of the time.
At Go Green, we offer solutions for a variety of Environmental issues. Please click on the following link to contact us.
Waste Management| Made simple
Mention waste management to most individuals and they either do not have a clue what you are talking about, or they truly are not interested! It just sounds a load of rubbish, what do you care what other individuals do with stuff they do not want? However, once you start delving into what waste management is all about, then you realise there’s a entire cycle of events going on and it is quite an interesting topic to find out about.
Waste management is essentially how rubbish and trash is disposed of without causing any harm to others or the environment. You can find numerous aspects to waste management; these consist of monitoring, collection, transportation, processing, and disposal or recycling. When carried out correctly, waste management is efficient and extremely environmentally friendly, and in today’s world is some thing each and every conscientious firm need to take responsibility for.
You can find specialized environmental firms that supply advice and services for waste collection, not only for householders, but also for industries and companies. They're experienced in all areas of waste management solutions and will remove all your waste efficiently and quickly, transporting it to be disposed of inside the correct manner, or recycled.
A few of the waste services offered to industrial clients consist of waste collection, recycling and disposal, hazardous waste management, emergency response, laboratory services, asbestos removal and re-Insulation.
Inside the 1st instance the environment service is concerned with monitoring, this would be to identify the kind of waste produced and in what quantity; they can then evaluate the processes they need to put into place to reduce the amount of waste produced. Records are kept to see if methods put into place are working and, if not, strategies may be changed and re-examined to make their implementation far more efficient.
Once the waste has been monitored and assessed it's time for the collection process. Skip bins and containers need to be emptied before they become too full and prevention of overspill or produce to rot is quite crucial. Depending on the amount of waste produced will dictate the size and number of containers needed, and how often collections is going to be necessary. You can find distinct containers for each kind of waste, some of these consist of drums for hazardous liquid waste, tanks for acid or caustic waste, collection bins for e-waste and bulk bins and skip bins for construction site waste.
Next inside the cycle is organizing the transportation of all waste items collected.Specially designed waste vehicles make scheduled collections and are responsible for safely transporting it to the landfill, or treatment site where it'll be treated and then processed for Recycling. Vehicles need to meet safety standards and be licensed for this purpose, as waste may be a health hazard and even dangerous if not handled correctly, drivers and personnel connected with the transportation are needed to have the essential training and expertise to deal with any prospective danger.
Once the waste has all been collected it needs to be processed. This entails separating the waste collected, treating and then packaging the raw materials and sending the parts that may be recycled to the numerous factories that are all component of the recycling process. Materials that can’t be recycled is going to be transported to a landfill, and liquid and hazardous wastes is going to be disposed of safely.
Improvements and new practices in waste management and environmental solutions are inside the news all of the time, thanks to research and development projects that are committed to finding far more efficient and safe techniques of disposing of waste. There are many issues that are recyclable now that just a couple of years ago would have been thrown into a rising landfill, everyday items like paper, glass, newspapers and plastic bags to printer cartridges, corks, mobile phones, even fluorescent lamps may be treated and re-used.
Society has experienced a enormous learning curve inside the reality that if we do not take action now to make certain our waste is processed correctly; nature will gladly do it for us, and in techniques which may be detrimental to our environment.
New Plastic Recycling Discovery!
A new technique has been developed to recycle plastic which would normally end up in landfill.
Currently approximately 12% of plastic found in household plastic and packaging is currently processed.
Now, however, a process has been developbed by Warwick University which could mean 100% of this type is waste can be recycled.
Municipal plastic solid waste is often too time-consuming and labour intensive to separate and clean and ends up going straight to landfill rather than being recycled.
Engineers at the University have invented a process that can cope with every piece of plastic waste and can even break some polymers, such as polystyrene, back down to its original monomers.
The researchers have devised a unit which uses pyrolysis (using heat in the absence of oxygen to decompose of materials) in a ‘fluidised bed’ reactor.
Tests have shown that the researchers have been able to literally shovel in to such a reactor a wide range of mixed plastics, which can then be reduced down to useful products. Many of these products can then be retrieved by simple distillation.
The products the Warwick team have been able to reclaim from the plastic mix include: wax that can be then used a lubricant; original monomers such as styrene that can be used to make new polystyrene; terephthalic acid which can be reused in PET plastic products, methylmetacrylate that can be used to make acrylic sheets, carbon which can be used as Carbon Black in paint pigments and tyres, and even the char left at the end of some of the reactions can be sold to use as activated carbon at a value of at least £400 a tonne.
This research could have a significant impact on the budgets of local authorities and produce considerable environmental benefits.
The lead researcher on the project, University of Warwick Engineering Professor Jan Baeyens, said:
“We envisage a typical large scale plant having an average capacity of 10,000 tonnes of plastic waste per year.
“In a year tankers would take away from each plant over £5 million worth of recycled chemicals and each plant would save £500,000 a year in land fill taxes alone.
“As the expected energy costs for each large plant would only be in the region of £50,000 a year the system will be commercially very attractive and give a rapid payback on capital and running costs.”
The work will be of great interest to local authorities and waste disposal companies who could use the technology to create large scale reactor units at municipal tips which would produce tanker loads of reusable material.
At Be Seen Go Green, we offer solutions for a variety of Environmental issues. Please click on the following link to contact us.
Why Recycle?
Why Recycle?
We in the UK produced over 30.5 million tonnes of waste annually in the early part of this century, of which less than 20% was collected for recycling (source: defra.gov.uk). The figure today (2010) isn’t much better compared to some of our EU neighbours, some of which recycle well over 50% of their waste. Germany for example have 17 recycling bins, we have 3 or 4 if we are lucky!
There is still a great deal of waste which could be recycled that ends up in landfill sites which is harmful to the environment, the Zero Waste Scotland Plan aims to address this issue, it is estimated we only have 8-10 years of landfill left.
The Government intend to ban materials which can be recycled from going to landfill, also, all business, regardless of size, must have waste management records or face prosecution, and several other initiatives to help achieve their target of 5% to Landfill by 2025.
Did you know that:
- 1 recycled tin can would save enough energy to power a television for 3 hours.
- 1 recycled glass bottle would save enough energy to power a computer for 25 minutes.
- 1 recycled plastic bottle would save enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 3 hours.
- 70% less energy is required to recycle paper compared with making it from raw materials.
Some Interesting Facts
- Up to 60% of the rubbish that ends up in the dustbin could be recycled.
- The unreleased energy contained in the average dustbin each year could power a television for 5,000 hours.
- The largest lake in the Britain could be filled with rubbish from the UK in 8 months.
- On average, 16% of the money you spend on a product pays for the packaging, which ultimately ends up as rubbish.
- As much as 50% of waste in the average dustbin could be composted.
- Up to 80% of a vehicle can be recycled.
- 9 out of 10 people would recycle more if it were made easier.
- 24 million tonnes of aluminium is produced annually, 51,000 tonnes of which ends up as packaging in the UK.
- If all cans in the UK were recycled, we would need 14 million fewer dustbins.
- £36,000,000 worth of aluminium is thrown away each year.
- Aluminium cans can be recycled and ready to use in just 6 weeks.
- Each UK family uses an average of 500 glass bottles and jars annually.
- The largest glass furnace produces over 1 million glass bottles and jars per day.
- Glass is 100% recyclable and can be used again and again.
- Glass that is thrown away and ends up in landfills will never decompose.
- Recycled paper produces 73% less air pollution than if it was made from raw materials.
- 12.5 million tonnes of paper and cardboard are used annually in the UK.
- The average person in the UK gets through 38kg of newspapers per year.
- It takes 24 trees to make 1 ton of newspaper.
- 275,000 tonnes of plastic are used each year in the UK, that’s about 15 million bottles per day.
- Most families throw away about 40kg of plastic per year, which could otherwise be recycled.
- The use of plastic in Western Europe is growing about 4% each year.
- Plastic can take up to 500 years to decompose.
On advise regarding how to recycle, where to recycle and what to recycle, sometimes it is best to consult someone just so that you comply with the law. After all, you don’t want to be caught out and fined for recycling cardboard where you should recycle glass.
At Go Green, we offer solutions for a variety of Environmental issues. Please click on the following link to contact us.
Recycling is the Answer
Recycling is the Answer
Many things are wrought in recycling than this world ever dreamt of. Well, that’s a Shakespeare. But don’t you see the many benefits of recycling?
You’ve heard it before, you’ve read it before, many, many times – help fight climate change and global warming. How?
Recycling is one of them. How, again?
I’ve been into recycling for many years now. Seldom do I buy new appliances. Well, you can say what you want to say, but, as I’ve said, there are many benefits in recycling. And here in this article, I’m going to teach you how to recycle, in a plain and simple way.
I repair my own television set, radio-cassette recorder, electric fan, washing machine and drier, and even my grandchildren’s electronic toys. I’ve been a vocational instructor and electronic technician for years. I spent half of my life with my electronic shop. My children have finished college, two have their own families now, and I’m now grandpa. They grew up with the sweat of my shop.
By the way, I’m now retired and now into copywriting. Here I’m going to share with you how you can be a television technician in just a short span of time. One article at a time, but a follow-up article will depend on the response of you readers. I assure you, nevertheless, that you will learn how to troubleshoot a television set. That’s a guarantee.
Yes you can be a technician or repairman or woman of your own home appliances even without having gone formally to a vocational or technical school. This article will act as your vocational instructor. You don’t need to spend thousands of money to go to a school to know the basics and the intricacies of really repairing or troubleshooting your appliances at home.
If you have the will, you can do it. Then we will turn that negative trait inside – from someone who scratches his/her head, puzzled over how the home appliance malfunctioned – to a real master of the house able to tame your appliances like pets. Don’t just throw that television set, or other appliances that you might be planning to replace with a brand new one.
With simple recycling and repair, you can help fight climate change and global warming. Well, literally, we can’t fight climate change. We can reduce it.
Handle simple tools like multi-tester, Philip screw driver, cutter, pliers, long-nose pliers, flat screw driver, etc. That’s our first lesson.
If you are interested in repair, I believe you know how to handle, or at least you’ve come across the tools mentioned above. A multi-tester is not so difficult to handle. It’s called multi-tester because it is used for testing or measuring DC and AC voltages, milli- and micro-Amperes, and resistance in resistors.
This is the first that you should master as a technician. You should know how to handle the multi-tester, whether an analog or digital tester. For a beginner like you, you can handle first an analog multi-tester. The digital one is too sensitive to handle that if you are not too careful, you could easily damage.
The first thing in mind as a repairman or serviceman of appliances is safety, i.e. being careful of every move that you’re going to do, be it you’re repairing or troubleshooting. One false move and you’re adding injury to the appliance you’re repairing or to your tools and equipment. Worst, you may hurt yourself.
One last reminder, any brand of multi-tester has instructions and precautions for use. Read it like you read any prescription or instruction of any product.
This is an introduction of future articles on appliance repair. For lack of space, we can continue on the next article.
By reducing the production of appliances and electronic materials, we can help fight climate change and too much coal gas emission. Manufacturers and makers of these appliances should not be encouraged to store surplus inventories. When there are too much in their warehouses, they go for the bargain, so they can produce more. What happens is that we also produce surplus garbage in our homes and backyard.
5 Steps to Effective Waste Management
5 Steps to Efficient Waste Management
What is efficient waste management?
There is more to waste management than collecting rubbish and dumping it at landfill. Although this is a vital step in the process, there is a lot more to it!
Efficient Waste Management is a system : Monitoring, Collection, Transportation, Processing, Disposal / Recycle. Through these steps a company can effectively and responsibly manage waste output and their positive effect they have on the environment. Not to mention the potential to save/make money from waste sources.
Monitoring is identifying the waste management needs, identifying recycling opportunities and ways to minimize waste output, and reviewing how waste minimization is progressing. Through keeping records of the different waste streams, a customer can see the results of their efforts in becoming more environmentally friendly, and a more efficient business.
Collection involves the logistical organization to guarantee that bin containers will not overfill and waste sit time does not become too long. The correct bin container size and service frequency is a must to prevent overspill or excessive smell. The correct bins for different wastes must be available with sticker and bin colour identification. Locks, chains, lids and bars prevent public access and non-trained personnel putting rubbish in the incorrect bins.
Cooperation between the waste company and customer is vital. Bins must be accessible to the truck driver at the agreed times. Access to work premises outside work hours will cause an issue if unaddressed. Bin wheels can allow customers to move bins from convenient areas to serviceable locations.
Transportation is the organizing of waste transport vehicles with the authorization and ability to transport the specified wastes from a customer’s work residence to landfill or processing plant. A waste must be transported by the vehicle designed for it. For example, general waste requires a vehicle with thicker compacter walls, to that of a cardboard and paper waste transporting vehicle. Therefore, a customer may require a series of vehicles to meet their waste management needs.
Vehicles, drivers, and companies need licenses and approval to transport waste. EPA standards need to be upheld as well as General Public Safety. Safety standards are vital to the transportation of clinical and hazardous wastes. Drivers must undergo training for emergency circumstances that may arise.
Processing involves the separation of recyclables for treatment, and then after treatment are packaged as raw materials. These raw materials are sent to factories for production. Non-recyclable wastes by-pass this step and are delivered straight to landfill or processing plants. Liquid and hazardous wastes are delivered to treatment plants to become less hazardous to the public and environment.
Disposal / Recycling is the disposal of non recyclables into landfill. Landfill sites must be approved by legal authorities. Legal authorities guarantee that specific wastes are buried at the correct depth to avoid hazardous chemicals entering the soil, water tables, water systems, air, and pipe systems.
In this step the raw materials made from recyclables are produced and sold as products on the market. Companies can purchase such products to further sustain the environment and natural resources.
In conclusion, waste management is a science that addresses the logistics, environmental impact, social responsibility, and cost of an organization’s waste disposal. It is a detailed process that involves human resources, vehicles, government bodies, and natural resources.
Learn more about waste management by contacting Be Seen Go Green.
Why Recycle My Computer?
Electronic rubbish, and computer equipment in particular, is a rapidly expanding stream of UK waste. Low prices allow consumers to replace “gadgets” often, and rapid technological change means there are always newer, better, more powerful products on the market. The result is a burgeoning computer waste mountain. For example up to 30 million “obsolete” PCs are discarded annually in the USA alone.
Why is it important to recycle computer equipment?
Also known as e-waste, discarded computer equipment comprises monitors, printers, hard drives and circuit boards. Such items should on no account be thrown out with your household rubbish because they contain toxic substances, and are effectively hazardous waste. E-waste often ends up in the developing world, and the UN’s Environment Programme is alarmed by the amount of electronic goods which is improperly disposed of overseas. There is increasing concern about the pollution caused by hazardous chemicals and heavy metals in Africa, Asia and South America.
| What’s in my PC? | |
| Material | Proportion |
| Plastic Ferrous metals Non-ferrous metals Electronic boards Glass |
23% 32% 18% 12% 15% |
A single computer can contain up to 2kg of lead, and the complex mixture of materials make PCs very difficult to recycle.
This is why the WEEE regulations came in to being, imagine what would happen if we continued to send
the above to landfill?
At Go Green, we offer solutions for a variety of Environmental issues. Please click on the following link to contact us.