Go Electronic Green
Do you ever wonder how much electricity is used by those blinking lights on all of your unused electronics devices – let alone when they're on?
The Consumer Electronics Association has expanded its “green” website, with new tools, including an interactive electronics energy consumption calculator and nearly 1,500 electronics recycling programs searchable by ZIP code. CEA says the listing of recycling programs is the most extensive online.
I went through the calculator, and, using conservative estimates for use, found that even electronic devices used only an hour or two a day can cost about $10 a month just from being asleep, idle or recharging. Use these devices more heavily, and your costs will go up.
The site also includes tips for extending a product’s lifespan with proper care, a repair versus replace decision tree and a database of corporate recycling programs and reuse options.
Bonus tip: If you want to find out which electronics companies make the “greenest” products, check out this newly updated report from Greenpeace.
Comments
The pressures to go green always seem to be counter to reality. Saw an Opra show where a lady was encouraging everyone in the audience to use one less napkin per day to help save trees. It happened that same day I received 4 different phone books over 1.5 inches thick. It happens that 2 of the 4 went straight to the recycle bin. The one napkin a day seems like pepper in the fly droppings to me even if everyone did it.