Saving Energy - Saving the Environment

All this stuff has an energy equivalent of 106 barrels of oil!

BilJax’s Green Team held a free week long electronics recycling event that ended on Saturday October 17th with a community collection day. On these days the team was able to collect a total of 4,278 pounds of electronics for recycling. We would like to thank Affinity Information Management for picking up the load and helping BilJax employees and the Archbold community to recycle our electronics safely and responsibly.

BilJax has partnered with Affinity Information Management (www.aimshredding.com) of Toledo to be able to host a FREE electronic recycling event. On Saturday October 17, 2009 anyone with knowledge of the event is welcome to bring unwanted electronics to the Archbold Industrial Park in the BilJax parking lot. Volunteers will be waiting outside to assist from 9am-2pm. The AIM truck will come on Monday to pick up what we are able to collect. The entire workweek prior to the community event, BilJax employees can bring their electronics to work with the rest of their recyclables.

The following electronics will be accepted for recycling:

• Computer Mice
• Cameras
• Computers
• Laptops
• Printers
• Modems
• Hard Drives
• Cables
• Speakers
• Keyboards
• Terminals
• Radios
• Cell Phones
• Telephones
• Fax Machines
• VCR & DVD Players
• Monitors
• TV’s-$15 fee will be charged for each TV due to the high cost of Mercury disposal

USA Technologies is a company that created the line of EnergyMiser devices for vending, soda, and drink coolers. BilJax has four of the VendingMiser devices installed on its beverage machines to help curb energy consumption. The VendingMiser uses an external passive infered sensor to detect whether or not potential buyers are in the area. If the area around the machines is vacant for 15 minutes, the machine’s cooling system powers down. The cooling system will periodically kick back on to keep beverages cold. The savings attributable to these devices can vary, but the average energy savings is about 46% or $150 per year per machine. Furthermore, all of our beverage machines were replaced with Energy Star rated beverage machines to help us achieve additional energy savings. From now on, BilJax will see savings of more than 20,000 kilowatt hours annually, as a direct result of these energy saving initiatives.

If you look at the aerators on many faucets, the etching on the side reads 2.2 gpm. That literally means that for every minute the faucet is turned on, 2.2 gallons of water flow through the aerator. When it comes to hand washing much less water is required to wet the hands, work up a good lather and rinse. That is why BilJax replaced most of its 2.2 gpm aerators with 0.5 gpm aerators. In locations requiring a heavier flow of water, like the kitchen sink, a 1.0 gpm aerator may be more appropriate. Our new aerators purchased online through USA Landlord were very inexpensive, and should pay for themselves in less than 3 months. At the current level of employment we estimate an annual water savings of over 95,000 gallons of water. Saving water saves energy, and of course, important to any business, saves money.

The Glass Packaging Institute, as the trade association for the glass container industry, not only promotes the use of glass but encourages its users to recycle it as well. GPI hosts Recycle Glass Week September 21-27 as a way to promote glass recycling nationwide. While there is no shortage of sand or any of the other materials used to make glass, those materials do need to be mined and transported. Here are some interesting facts about glass and the reasons it should be recycled:

• When recycled glass is mixed with virgin glass materials, the heat required to melt the material is reduced.  Less heat means less energy is required to do the same job.
• Glass is 100% recyclable-indefinitely.
• Glass will persist in a landfill for about 1 million years. It does not break down chemically. It erodes through weathering.
• The EPA reports the U.S. national average for glass recycling in 2007 at 28%.
• 13.6 million tons of glass are put into the U.S. waste stream annually.

About 80% of all recycled glass will become another glass container, but there are some interesting secondary uses, such as:

• sand for depleted beaches
• golf courses
• fiberglass insulation
• construction aggregate
• industrial abrasives
• ceramic tiles

 Additional information about GPI and Recycle Glass Week can be found at www.gpi.org.

As of July 1st, 2009, BilJax has sent over 39,000 lbs of material to Werlor for recycling. That’s 19.5 tons of materials that would have otherwise ended up in the landfill. If it’s difficult to wrap your mind around the impact of 39,000 lbs, let us help you put it into perspective.

• 5,318 lbs of paper and 23,058 lbs of cardboard require about 241 trees to produce.
• 340 lbs of aluminum is appoximately 11,631 empty 12oz soda cans.
• Recycling 4,738 lbs of plastic saves about 39 barrels of oil. It is also equal, in weight, to 77,355 empty 20oz Coke bottles.
• 5,565 lbs of  recycled glass saves over 3 tons of raw material used to make the glass, such as sand, soda ash, limestone, and feldspar. Additional energy is saved in the melting process, as the raw materials must be heated to a higher temperature.
• Cumulatively, these items would have required 163 cubic yards of landfill space.
• Additionally, almost 275,000 lbs of scrap steel, aluminum, and other metals have been recycled so far this year. Almost half is steel, which means we have avoided the need for the 126 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone necessary to produce an equivalent amount of steel from virgin material. 

Keep on, keepin’ on recyclers.

BilJax’s Green Team served a hot dog lunch, in which the proceeds were used to purchase food that was later donated to two Fulton County food banks. Nu-Arch Lanes, a local bowling alley, procured and prepared the hot dogs for the lunch. The Green Team would like to thank Nu-Arch Lanes and all of the BilJax employees who were able to contribute donations and/or time. Donating to the local food bank is a good way to help out families in your local community, and it’s as easy as buying an extra bag of rice or a jar of peanut butter.

Photo credits: Dan Stever

My husband and I started recycling because we felt passionate about reducing the amount of waste we sent out to the curb every week.  We started with the usual suspects, aluminum cans, newspapers, and PET bottles.  The recycling list is a little longer now, and we also added a compost pile about a year ago. A wonderful byproduct of recycling and composting materials that I once paid to have removed, is that now I don’t.  I was paying $252 per year to have a 90 gallon trash bin picked up every week. It usually contained two bags of trash from a 32 gallon kitchen trash can. The 90 gallon trash bin is gone and now we set 1 bag out on the curb about twice a month. We only have to attach a prepaid sticker ($1.50 each) on the trashbag, for a grand total of $36 per year.

BilJax has recycling bins set up every Tuesday for its employees to use to bring in their recyclables from home. This is a very useful service for those employees whose trash services do not include curbside recycling and it’s free. I would like to encourage BilJax employees to take advantage of this service and reap all the rewards that come from being a good steward.

This post is in response to David’s comments on my (Cari) decision to stop using dryer sheets. I too love the way dryer sheets form a static free force field around my clothes.  And the heavenly smell that answers the age old question, “Are these underwear clean?” Here’s where it gets interesting. I have apparently been using Arm & Hammer dryer sheets from the Essentials product line. These sheets use plant-based oils, biodegradable softening agents and the box is 100% recycled and 30% post consumer waste. Its one downfall is that the sheet itself is not biodegradable. Here’s what most other dryer sheets contain:

• Benzyl acetate: Linked to pancreatic cancer.
• Benzyl Alcohol: Upper respiratory tract irritant.
• Ethanol: On the EPA’s Hazardous Waste list and can cause central nervous system disorders.
• Limonene: Suspected Gastrointestinal or Liver Toxicant, Immunotoxicant, Kidney Toxicant, Neurotoxicant, Respiratory Toxicant, and Skin or Sense Organ Toxicant.
• A-Terpineol: Can cause respiratory problems, including fatal edema, and central nervous system damage.
• Ethyl Acetate: A narcotic on the EPA’s Hazardous Waste list.
• Camphor: Causes central nervous system disorders.
• Chloroform: Neurotoxic, anesthetic and carcinogenic.
• Linalool: A narcotic that causes central nervous system disorders.
• Pentane: A chemical known to be harmful if inhaled.

My new goal is to use the rest of the dryer sheets in the box, while looking to procure a vile of essential oil. Essential oil is a concentrated aroma compound derived from plants. A dab of the oil can be placed on a small cloth and tossed into the dryer with your cloths. If softness is an issue, add 1/2 cup or so of white vinegar to the wash. If, for some reason, these alternative techniques do not work for me, I will have to look for non-toxic dryer sheets that biodegrade (they do exist). In a pinch I would be willing to use the Arm & Hammer Essentials dryer sheets without feeling too guilty.