Hula-hoops, CDs, the ozone layer...

What do these seemingly unrelated items have in common?  Why they all have holes in them!  If you haven't heard of EcoFont and installed it on your Mac or PC, don't get down on yourself.  EcoFont is a sans serif font type that has tiny little holes through its breadth, which does nothing on your computer screen, except appear to be austral-aboriginal.  The font's job is executed when printed, prefereably on 100% post consumer recycled paper with that ever so controversial soy-based ink.  On paper, EcoFont requires 25% less ink than your  usual typeface.

Sans Serif isn't stylish enough for you?  Soon, the company will release software that will allow the user to retrofit other font types to look like swiss cheese, so even your most favorite typeface will be that much greener. 

As of today, EcoFont is offering a discount on the software, if you give them one of your email addresses.  They will use that address to notify you of its release.  Go ahead, download the Panther-with-Spots font and try it out yourself.  There's nothing to lose, except ink and money, of course.

It should be noted that EcoFont should only be used with black and color ink.  In other words, if you are printing white text over a dark background, use another type face.  EcoFont uses more ink than other fonts when printing white on black.

Don't Let's Treat Our Homes like the Workplace...

Simply put, why would we leave the lights on when we leave the bathroom?  Or any room for that matter!  We don't do that in our homes.  Oh, I see, you're remembering those urban myths about how lights use more electricity to start-up than if left on, right?  Well, that's partially true.  Incandescent, dinosaur-age, bulbs actually have a very small start-up spike in wattage drawn compared to their in vogue counterparts, CFLs or T5/T8 Fluoro tubes.  Yesteryear's fluorescent ballasts did have an initial wattage spike with a higher peak and longer duration but with today's circuitry, digital electronic ballasts have revolutionized the lighting industry.  Ultra-Quiet and efficient, with a significant decrease in start-up surge, digital ballasts paired with modern fluoro tubes have debunked that old myth.  The same goes for CFLs, since they contain small electronic ballasts.  Moving onto business.

Let's look at some numbers based on observations of of a public restroom, here at NOCA...

Sample Time Start: 1320
Sample Time End:  1520
Total Lighting Wattage (including Ballasts):  268W
Number ins/outs (of the door):  5
Average Length of Visit:  7.45 minutes
Average ins/outs per Hour:  2.5
Average Total Occupied Time per Hour:  18.63 minutes
Average Total Unoccupied Time per Hour:  41.37 minutes

Now, let's compare operating costs of those lights for both scenarios (lights on all work day vs only when occupied).  Applying some simple arithmetic and assuming a $.10/kW-hr electiricity rate, we see that if left on for the full work day with no shutoffs when unoccupied, the lights in the restroom will run up a $7.13 tab for a 28 day month.  If only turned on when the restroom is occupied, the cost drops to a whopping $.23 for the month!

That's solely appealing to the consumer savings.  What kind of GHG emissions are being saved by simply shutting off restroom lights between visits?

**CFLs and Fluoro Tubes are most definitely recyclable.  Waste Management will not accept them.  Please keep a box designated for burnt-out bulbs in your garage, pantry, etc and when full, simply bring them to the nearest location that will properly dispose of them:

• Whatcom County HHW Facility - 3505 Airport Dr. (Bellingham) - (360) 380-4640
• Skagit County HHW Facility - 14104 Ovenell Rd. (Mt. Vernon) - (360) 424-3873
• Whatcom County HHW Facility - 3505 Airport Dr. (Bellingham) - (360) 380-4640

Technotrash

Before I purchased an iPod, my mobile media player was my car.  Inside, it more resembled an amateur, college radio station than an automobile.  There must have been 5 or 6 multi-hundred CD binders containing all of my music, in alphabetical order by genre, of course (me OCD?  No...).  Since I never put a CD directly back in the case after a listen, they were prone to excessive scratches and would eventually become unplayable.  That is why I would burn copies from original CDs.  Rather than addressing and changing my over the shoulder CD toss behavior, I would just burn more copies from the originals. [iPod endorsement Axiom #'s 1 and 2:  iPods contribute much less to landfills compared to the aformentioned method and will pay for themselves in a timely manner, compared to purchasing blank CDs, regularly.]

Floundering through multiple CD binders while driving was starting to become a serious safety concern (Axiom #3), not to mention cumbersome, hence my decision to buy the ever popular and chic iPod.  But now that I'm the cruising king of convenient consonance, what ever shall I do with over 600 CD-R's (the majority of which are unplayable)?    A co-worker here at North Cascades just happened to forward an email on the subject matter, this morning (Thanks Lise!).

Like cell phones, and other electronics, blank and used portable data storage (CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, "Floppy" Disks, 3 1/2 in Disks, etc) are all recyclable.  Here in Skagit County, the issue is crude.  Waste Management does not currently accept these items, for recycling, that is.  Here, look for yourself. There are numerous "Technotrash" recycling companies located around the country and one right here in Washington, GreenDisk.  The company not only offers technotrash pickup and recycling but also the products from recycled technotrash, completing the cycle.  To see a full listing of the materials Greendisk will and will not accept, click here.

Right now, as with most green services, there is a premium for recycling technotrash.  In an effort to make future NOCA operations run smoother, procedures streamlined and the process svelt, I will be accepting all unwanted used and abused "technotrash" at the Sedro-Woolley and Marblemount offices (conveniently in the same bins for Cell Phones) for future bulk recycling.  I will start the pile with a contribution of a few hundred albums and musical collections ranging from Beethoven's 5th to "50 Irish Pub Songs".

My hope is that the local Waste Management facility will soon become capable of handling these materials so NOCA, as well as local folks, need not pay extra for the service and moreoever, special trips need not be made on the technotrash's behalf!  Please don't misunderstand, this is not a boycott statement for companies such as GreenDisk but rather support for expanding capabilities of larger private and municipal recycling facilities, nationwide. 

An ongoing topic, this shall be, hmmm?