Category: Lead

Posted on

December 2008 Site of the Month: Consumer Reports Greener Choices

It’s holiday time again, which means you’re probably going to buy at least one gift for someone, as well as items for celebrations and holiday meals. You may wish to consult Consumer Reports Greener Choices web site, which provides information to help choose more environmentally friendly products. Articles and “green ratings” are available for the following product categories: Appliances, Cars, Electronics, Food & Beverages, and Home & Garden.  Within these sections, you’ll find links to articles, information on conservation of resources (such as energy, water, fuel, etc.), resources for shopping greener, and information on recycling and disposal. The “Hot Topics & Solutions” section of the site includes the Eco-labels Center (which helps you interpret what product labels really mean), the Electronics Recycling Center, the Global Warming Solutions Center, and sections on Energy, Water, and Waste.

The “Toolkit” section includes calculators to help save energy, water, and money, as well as a Toxics Search tool to find out whether there’s a potential for exposure while using a particular product, and how that can affect your health. The “Community” section of the site includes links to Consumers Union campaigns, forums and resources for further information, as well as blogs on cars, food safety, green homes, and safety.

Posted on

IL Electronic Products Recycling and Reuse Act

On September 17, 2008, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich announced legislation requiring electronics manufacturers to collect and recycle or reuse electronics products. At no charge to consumers, the law authorizes the use of a combination of incentives and mandates to reduce the ever-increasing amount of electronic waste – televisions, printers, computer monitors, computers, laptops, printers, fax machines and MP3 players – and their toxic substances, such as lead, cadmium, copper, flame retardants, and phosphorus, from being disposed in Illinois landfills.  It also gives manufacturers flexibility in the strategies they use to meet their goals, such as partnering with retailers and local governments to sponsor collections.  Manufacturers, recyclers, refurbishers and collectors must also register annually with the Illinois EPA. Effective January 1, 2012, landfills would be prohibited from knowingly accepting any of the covered electronic devices for disposal. SB 2313 is effective immediately.

For further information on SB 2313, as well as a link to the resulting Public Act (095-0959; the Electronic Products Recycling and Reuse Act), see the Illinois General Assembly web site.

Posted on

Industrial Ecology of Metals Forum Launched

A free new tool has been launched to promote the application of industrial ecology and facilities research on material flows. The Industrial Ecology of Metals Forum maintains two web-based dynamic and interactive compendia of data: one containing the concentrations of metals found in various high-volume materials, and the other containing the flow rate information for high-volume materials. A discussion group focused on building and maintaining the compendia completes the Forum. The Forum also contains an area for comments on data quality issues. The compendia are available to the general public for viewing, but only discussion group members can make additions to or comments on data contained in the compendia. Funding for the Forum is provided by the U.S. EPA’s Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO) and by U.S. EPA Region 5. For more information on the Forum, contact Gary Miller, Assistant Director, WMRC.