This weekend, for the very first time in my life, I deliberately took a huge pile of papers to a recycling bin :-)
Sure, some of you might be thinking "What, just now?" Hey, most of my friends aren't doing anything of that, you know?
Sure, some of you might be thinking "What for?" Well, I really don't know, because I don't have the big picture, but it sure felt good :-)
Sure, some of you might be thinking "What, just now?"
I have to confess that *was* what I was thinking. I have been recycling for over 15 years. When I started working at GEC, back in 1987, they already had a policy to recycle computer paper and documents. However, they produced so much they had a financial incentive to do so. A 7.5 ton truck use to collect it each week.
Since then I've always made an effort to recycle. Many companies in the UK now have recycle bins, and if they don't there are departments in local governments who will arrange for them to be dropped off and collected. Our local refuse collection service now collects all the recycleable materials from the house, starting from this week, as opposed to me filling up the car every few weeks and taking it to the recycling yard. I even send off my old ink cartridges off for recycling, and a few of my old computers have found there way to schools or as home network firewalls. I'm even trying to find my old 5.25inch floppy discs so that NASA can use them
Sure, some of you might be thinking "What for?"
This is fairly easy to understand. Our world is not full to the brim of materials we can use. There has been a fair amount of research (and statistics) into how long our current oil resources will last, and most expectations seem to point to them drying up within the next century. If we cut down trees and never replenished supplies, we would soon run out of paper. If we don't make an effort to reuse metals, plastics, and similar items, our landfills will be considerable reduce the amount of space we can use for growing crops, building homes or setting aside for peaceful country views. Hopefully it will also give us enough breathing space to come up with new sources of energy too.
A few handy links:
Re:Green is good
cog on 2004-11-03T13:17:33
I'm even trying to find my old 5.25inch floppy discs so that NASA can use themWhat is NASA doing with 5.25inch floppy discs?
:-) Re:Green is good
barbie on 2004-11-03T14:52:10
NASA don't generally trust new technology. As such they still have many computers (and accessories) from 20 years ago still being used. I can't find the link now, but there is a site that details the server farm that was used in the Mars Rover missions, and they were only 400MHz machines.A friend recently mentioned that because the 5.25inch discs are now hard to come by, NASA were looking for donations of discs to help replenish their stock.
