Recycling and general eco-friendliness

[pete]

We're applying for Eco-schools status - http://www.eco-schools.org/ (warning: use of Comic Sans) - here and I've got involved.

 

We already recycle toner / cartridges, donate old machines to charity, ensure the client machines shut down at night to save power, use efficient air-con units, recycle abandoned printouts and are looking at finding good (i.e non-jamming) recycled paper for printers.

 

What eco-friendly IT things are other people doing?

[webman]

Get rid of printers all together would be a good idea :twisted: Save toner, save electricity, save paper, save time fixing jams and save ruining your newest shirt by not turning it a nice shade of cyan

 

Our computers do turn themselves off between 6pm and 7pm, but I think they're wanting monitors (CRTs, TFTs draw a lot less power) to be actually turned off rather than the standby mode they go into when the computers go off. Energy-saving lighting can have a positive effect as well.

[indie]

Luckily when this building was being planned I was consulted on what I wanted in it, all our rooms have a mains shutoff switch so I can power down all the sockets that feed the machines. Once the machines are shutdown it's very handy to be able to completly shutdown the machines and minitors so they use zero power.

[indiegirl]

Ours are looking at using fairtrade tea, coffee and sugar, whether that slots into eco-schools I'm not sure but should fit into a generally 'green' status.

 

In Milton Keynes we have a recycling scheme that's available to households as well as schools and we collect paper, cardboard (even the cardboard boxes that the paper comes in gets recycled), and glasses/cans from around the school.

 

However, we're nowhere near 'green' enough for my liking...

[Chrispy]

We're moving into a new building in January which will have solar powered air-con units. Fairly essential as the outside air temperature regularly gets into the 40's in June.

All defunct machines are cannibalised to salvage useable parts and then stripped down into different materials before being disposed of.

Low wattage lighting is throughout and all monitors are TFT.

Haven't yet found a good source of recycled paper, would like to hear about it if anyone does.

What more could I be doing?

[pete]

We're moving into a new building in January which will have solar powered air-con units.

 

I assume they're initially more expensive? Do they switch over to mains if there's not enough light?

[Chrispy]

I've not been invloved with the costing aspect of them and lack of sunlight isn't a thing we often suffer from here, but I will try to find all the relevant info if you want it.

Chris

[CyberNerd]

Thin Clients are a good strategy for general eco-friendlyness.

As you will be aware modern desktop computer power consumption is high (300-400W PSU)

With thin clients a powerfull server is required that does eat electricity, however this can service 20-30 thin clients.

The eco benefits of thin clients is that old hardware can be re-used (generally lower power consumption) and new thin clients have very low power consumption (ours are 18W but I understand Sun thinclients are as low as 4W).

tft screens also help

 

Haven't yet found a good source of recycled paper, would like to hear about it if anyone does.

 

General rant about recycling paper:

I agree with recycling most things however i dissagree with recycling paper.

Most writing paper comes from managed and sustainable forests, this is good for the environment as it is carbon neutral. Provided the waste paper is disposed of sensibly (high temp incineration - not landfill). Using recycled paper could risk those sustainable foresty businessess.

The process of recycling paper is far from environmentally sound. For example the paper has to be transported by truck long distances and requires more processing (more energy costs). It also requires more chemical treatment (bleaches) than producing non-recycled paper, recycle-paper mills can be big polluters for this reason.

[Simcfc73]

I recycle my cartridges with Office green.

 

Used to give the money they give back to charity but now get M & S vouchers and buy myself new shirts with it.

 

I justify this to myself by saying I ruined more shirts messing around with cabling that its okay but I still think i may be going to hell.

[webman]

Somebody in my family is involved with fundraising for the North East Air Ambulance so I take old toners home where they eventually get recycled for them

[pete]

I recycle my cartridges with Office green.

 

Used to give the money they give back to charity but now get M & S vouchers and buy myself new shirts with it.

 

I justify this to myself by saying I ruined more shirts messing around with cabling that its okay but I still think i may be going to hell.

 

Yeah, we get money for ours as well (collect4schools.co.uk). I have an unofficial agreement with SMT - they don't mind us wearing t-shirts and jeans when doing cabling / install type jobs and we don't give them expense claims for new shirts / trousers.

[MkII]

We had a company take our old toner carts but they said last year it was no longer worth it, only for inkjet carts.

[indiegirl]

We use Recycool (http://www.recycool.org), they take old inkjets as well as toners, so far we've made £147 back on our recycling this year thus far (well, it pays for a couple of toners, at least)...

[Simcfc73]

Do you use them because they have Mel C on the front?

 

Is there one with Baby Spice on? I prefer her

[indiegirl]

Mel who? Baby who?

Way after my time... methinks...

[Sylv3r]

http://www.lasertech.co.uk are the company we use, have made over £300 pound in credit for them recycling our toners. Also a donation is giving to your chosen charity. Also if you decide to use their refilled toners they guarantee your printer if there toner damages it i.e. they will fund an identical printer. Not had any fail on me yet though.

[Ric_]

Thin Clients are a good strategy for general eco-friendlyness.

As you will be aware modern desktop computer power consumption is high (300-400W PSU)

With thin clients a powerfull server is required that does eat electricity, however this can service 20-30 thin clients.

The eco benefits of thin clients is that old hardware can be re-used (generally lower power consumption) and new thin clients have very low power consumption (ours are 18W but I understand Sun thinclients are as low as 4W).

tft screens also help

 

You failed to mention that you can do away with air con in rooms that contain thin clients. I have a room of 30 HP thin clients and Neovo TFTs and it regularly gets cold in there without air con!

 

The increased lifetime of a thin client device is also very eco-friendly since it means energy need not be expended to make new computers and there is less being chucked out.