At this week’s Fortune Brainstorm Green conference, I had a chance to talk briefly with David Edmondson who is founder and CEO of a company called eRecyclingCorps. It’s a company the average consumer may have never heard of, but it’s quite likely that if you’ve ever returned an old cell phone to your service provider, [...]

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SJF Ventures and Citi Community Capital, Citigroup’s community lending and investment group, announced the closing of SJF Ventures III LP, the first nationally focused Impact Investment SBIC fund. Licensed by the US Small Business Investment Corp. (SBIC) under its new Impact Investment Initiative, the SFJ Ventures III fund will make equity investments in growth-stage cleantech and “positive impact” companies.

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According to the U.S. EPA, Americans generate approximately 2.5 million tons of e-waste each year and only 25 percent of that is recycled. That’s a problem considering select electronics contain environmentally sensitive materials that can pose health risks if not disposed of properly.

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By Amanda Kidd For a company that has a fifth of the total consumer electronics market under its belt in the United States, Best Buy has surprisingly placed sustainable and environment-friendly business practices over thoughtless growth. The largest retailer of electronic products in the US has taken this bold step by announcing its commitment to [...]

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Do you have an old desktop or notebook just lying in the house? You’re not alone – there are estimated 68 million computers stockpiled in homes and offices across America. Apple aims to rectify the problem. Last week Apple announced it is expanding its reuse and recycling options to computers from any manufacture. According to [...]

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This post is part of a series on Stakeholder Engagement sponsored by Jurat Software. By Mike Watson
, Director of Dell Take Back Programs If consumers and organizations have been reluctant to recycle their outdated computers in the past, we can hardly blame them. Data destruction is a critical issue, and until now the only standards [...]

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Last week Sprint announced a long term plan on how the cell phone carrier will handle the handsets it sells from product design to the end of their use.

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Celebrate Earth Day by purging your home, office, and classroom of broken electronics, and make money off of that ewaste. eBay is offering up to $150 for broken iPads and less for phones and MP3 players. Tack on to that free shipping, “responsible recycling,”* and even a $5 gift card and matching donation to Global [...]

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When I say Dell, what comes to mind? If you’re like most people, not much. Perhaps a vague recollection that it’s a custom computer building company. Maybe that it has some sustainability measures. I’m betting you’re painfully short on specifics, and it’s been a while since Dell’s been actively on your radar. You’re not alone. [...]

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Last week Apple unveiled the iPad 2, which immediately became the center of a heated debate. No, I’m not talking about how amazing or totally disappointing its specs are; the debate centered around how green the iPad 2 really is. Some argue that this version is thinner and lighter and therefore it’s not only a [...]

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Last week ecoATM received US$14.4 million in a Series A preferred stock offering, led by Coinstar, Inc. and the venture capital firm Claremont Creek Ventures. That same day the company won a National Science Foundation grant, and rounded out its day of success with the securing of its first patent.

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The constant evolution of technology has been breathtaking to behold, but it does have some dark sides. Not the least of these is the mind numbing frustration generated by having dozens of types of incompatible power cords for various mobile devices. For years it seems, even within the same brand or product family, cord types [...]

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By Connie Kwan Electronics are here to stay.  Unfortunately, so is E-waste, and it’s only going to increase in the coming years. The separation of E-waste into useful materials continues to be a challenge.  The best way to reduce is, of course, is to put less into electronics to begin with.  The following interview from [...]

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TechTurn is an industry leader in technology recovery, refurbishing and remarketing. BusinessEarth talked to TechTurn founder and CEO, Jeff Zeigler, about starting and scaling a responsible company and opportunities in the reuse industry. In 1999, Jeff Zeigler discovered a problem and a business opportunity. “As Y2k approached, I saw a huge event about to happen. [...]

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By Tamanna Mohapatra As an active Sierra Club member and a passionate technologist, I am well aware of the environmental concerns posed by the proliferation of e-waste in our society. As we grow more technology dependent, we are using up more natural resources in the production of new devices which constantly need to be exchanged [...]

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Nokia is the clear winner in Greenpeace’s 2010 Guide to Greener Electronics. Its score even increased to 7.5, up from last year. One of the reasons Nokia holds the top spot is for phasing out brominated flame retardants (BFRs), chlorinated flame retardants, and antimony trioxide in all new models of phones. Nokia’s CEO also issued [...]

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Procter and Gamble has recently announced a new program that bears a slight resemblance to what we used to call a treasure hunt, but the results P&G is seeing and the savings it’s achieved are no game. The new GARP program, which stands for Global Asset Recovery Purchases, is a quest to find someone, somewhere, [...]

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While technology has become more affordable and readily available, discarded electronic waste, commonly referred to as e-waste, has become a great big problem.  That shiny new gadget you buy today will probably be obsolete tomorrow.  So what happens to all that electronic waste? According to a 60 Minutes segment, an estimated 130,000 computers are thrown [...]

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As electronic devices like cell phones, computer monitors and television sets become increasingly available – thus becoming one of the fastest growing components of the global waste stream – government and business leaders must find solutions for best managing these e-waste materials. This week, leading experts in the fields of electronics manufacturing, recycling and waste [...]

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What do you do with your old electronics when you’re done? For most, they get stored in some back corner of your house, doing a great job gathering dust. Ecycling is a step beyond that, and has become part of the broader consciousness, with major office supply stores now collecting devices. But ecycling comes with [...]

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In response to the ever-expanding challenge of electronic waste (e-waste), most developed countries have enacted legislation that mandates the responsible disposal and safe handling of discarded electronics within their own borders. (Thankfully, the US is catching up with the rest of the developed world, state by state.) But what happens to your old TV, computer [...]

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Greenpeace has started a war of sorts. Ironic? Not really, considering its adversary, Hewlett Packard (HP), and the two organizations’ history of contempt. The eco activist network has taken on HP, which Greenpeace claims is producing hazardous chemicals and not making sufficient efforts to change its ways. It all began in 2007, when HP promised [...]

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In its 2008 Corporate Sustainability Report released earlier this week, UPS announced plans to cut emissions from its aircraft operations 20% by 2020. UPS Airlines is the ninth largest airline in the world, and account for 53% of its total emissions. In 2008, UPS became the first shipping company to join the Environmental Protection Agency’s [...]

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Computer recycling has never been convenient. While just about every major manufacturer offers an end-of-life take back program, finding and printing the right labels, weighing materials, and shipping the package off isn’t always easy. Even then, some manufacturers will only collect their brand materials meaning you have to do the same process all over again [...]

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Recycling e-waste could be a lot easier if producers created smart materials that disassemble automatically at the end of the gadget’s life.

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Greenpeace’s quarterly ranking of the greenest electronics producers focuses on e-waste.

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Intel further detailed plans for its Atom processor at this year’s Computex. The company is expecting the processor to create a whole new set of computers dubbed “netbooks” and “nettops,” low-power systems that are primarily used for internet and other basic functions such as listening to music and word processing. “Netbooks” will be much smaller [...]

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Green certification programs such as the Green Council’s EPEAT are an effective means of getting past organizational greenwash…Even more importantly, they’re making an increasing, positive impact on electronics recycling volumes and practices. Individual consumers need to help shoulder the burden, however, and OEMs can do more to make it easier to recycle and reuse products and parts.

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The amount of electronic waste and scrap people toss into the waste stream is growing much faster than nascent efforts to deal with what is a complex and global problem. The UN StEP program is a step in the right direction, but closing the product lifecycle loop to include recovery, reuse and recycling is going to require a major change in consumers’ mindset and behavior.

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Shareholder activism is a primary reason why several large companies are eliminating harmful toxins from their plastic products. In a recent investigative series launched by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, reporters found that lax governmental regulation of Bisphenol-A and PVC plastic has led to their proliferation in a wide range on consumer products – including baby [...]

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