Blogs

IBM planning to bring solar costs to $2 per watt

Hank Green — Fri, 16 May 2008 01:02:07 PDT

IBM has just squeezed the most power ever out of the smallest area of solar panel. By focusing the sun over 2,300 times, researchers were able to pull 70 watts of usable electric power out of one square CENTIMETER of silicon photovoltaic panel.

Of course, the concentrator itself is quite large. But as the silicon photovoltaics are undoubtedly the most expensive piece of any solar installation, decreasing the amount needed dramatically reduces costs.

Recently we reported on another company, Sunrgi, working on a similar technique, with similar claims of extremely inexpensive solar power. Both of these companies have had to face the same problem, keeping the photovoltaics from frying even when exposed to the power of thousands of suns. Sunrgi uses a proprietary cooling system, but this means that they can only concentrate solar power to around 1,600 times.

IBM, which has a lot of experience cooling silicon (though generally not in the form of photovoltaics) has a more advanced system.

The IBM team used a very thin layer of a liquid metal made of a gallium and indium compound that they applied between the chip and a cooling block. Such layers, called thermal interface layers, transfer the heat from the chip to the cooling block so that the chip temperature can be kept low.Â

The really exciting thing about this story is that its coming from IBM. When we heard Sunrgi exclaiming that it was on the path to truly cheap solar, we were excited, but skeptical. That is, after all, a young company searching for funding.

But IBM has a lot more to lose in making claims that don't eventually pan out. In short, we believe IBM, and this is exciting.

Currently solar thermal projects, in which sunlight is focused in order to boil water and spin a turbine, are currently the cheapest way to get solar power. But IBM says that it thinks, if the silicon can be cooled effectively, concentrated photovoltaics could take over as the cheapest form of solar energy.

All I care about is that it gets cheaper ... and faster, and I really hope to see IBM bringing this technology to market fast.

Full press release

Automated parking saves space, fuel, and time

Peg Fong — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:04:17 PDT

This video explains the whole process, but I sugest you turn off your speakers unless you want to have the most awkward dance party ever.

Driving aimlessly is bad enough, so the only thing that could be worse is driving in circles looking for a parking spot. Then there are those drivers who deserve a special reserve space in hell for idling their cars waiting for a spot closer to the mall entrance because they can't be bothered walking a few extra feet.

A South Korean company may have a partial solution to this parking problem. There are more than enough cars on the road, but even so, there are even fewer parking spaces, especially in cities.

Automatic parking systems, which have been used for years in Europe and Asia because of space constraints, are beginning to be considered in theUnited States.

MP Systems designed the software and technology that makes parking simpler and easier by letting computers do the work. The system can fit twice as many cars in the same amount of space and eliminate hours of combined engine use every day so drivers don't have to drive around searching for that elusive space.

Drivers pull into a platform, and technology does the rest. When drivers want to retrieve their cars, each one enters a code and the car is delivered back via the platform.

There's also another bonus. With automated parking, the physical footprint of parking lots are smaller and there are cost savings in the maintenance of these facilites.

When people are out of the equation, it also eliminates the need for climate control, walkways, elevators, and lighting.

UPS makes world's largest order for hybrid trucks

Hank Green — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:35:36 PDT

UPS just announced it has ordered 200 hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) -- the largest commercial order of such trucks by any company -- in addition to another 300 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles for its U.S. delivery fleet.

The purchase of the 500 additional vehicles means the UPS alternative-fuel fleet -- already the largest such private fleet in the United States -- will grow 30 percent from 1,718 to 2,218 low-carbon vehicles.

Obviously, UPS has other reasons besides the environment to get more efficient. We expect that rising fuel prices are already cutting into their profits. Already it has been taking measures to decrease gasoline use through more quotidian measures, like favoring right turns over left turns in delivery routes.

Nonetheless, the focus on hybrid and CNG propulsion is definitely a good thing for the environment. The trucks are expected to save 176,000 gallons of fuel annually and reduce CO2 emissions by 1,786 metric tons each year.

Delivery trucks are particularly useful for both of these applications because they spend so much time driving in cities. Hybrid technology is most useful when there are lots of stops and starts, while the ultra-low emissions of CNG does a great job of reducing pollution in areas where it generally collects.

The trucks' chassis is being supplied by Freightliner Custom Chassis Corp. while the hybrid drive-train was created by Eaton. They'll look just like regular UPS trucks, but don't worry, you'll be able to tell the difference due to UPS's big blazing yellow labels on the side of each one.

Full press release

11 great green technologies of the future

Don Willmott , Forecast Earth Correspondent — Fri, 02 May 2008 21:39:06 PDT

The current issue of Fortune has a thought-provoking roundup and slide show of 11 new green technologies that are easy to imagine being integrated into our daily lives. I enjoyed flipping through them to see what's on the horizon, and given that this is Fortune, all the concepts are deemed to be potentially successful business propositions.

For example, check out the Aptera electric tri-wheel vehicle, a Jestonsesque conveyance that will certainly turn heads on the highway. It looks like it came from another planet.

I was also fascinated by Sungevity, a solar power company whose website zooms in on a satellite image of your roof, calculates what kind of solar system would fit there, and how efficient it would be. Cool stuff. Unfortunately, it's only for Californians right now, but that makes sense since the Golden State is pretty generous with solar subsidies.

Fortune also highlights Makani Power, a somewhat mysterious startup funded in part by Google's philanthropic foundation to discover ways to harness high-altitude winds for power generation. The idea is that higher up (above 1,000 feet), the wind is more consistent that it is at ground level. How do you do the generation up there and get the power down here? Beats me, and the company isn't sharing its secrets just yet, but feel free to take a peek anyway.

X-Prize expanding

Hank Green — Thu, 01 May 2008 11:58:59 PDT

We love the X-Prize, right? It helped the private sector get into space and is now sponsoring a competition to create a commercially viable 100-mpg car.

But the competition isn't stopping there. The X-Prize Foundation has announced that it will be creating several new prizes for a variety of environmental categories with a total worth of $100 million.

Apparently, this new suite of X-Prizes includes the Automotive X-Prize and may also include (but isn't limited to):

Biofuels
Energy storage
Carbon capture
Solar
Water
Energy efficiency
Clean aviation fuel
The provision of basic utilities for developing nations

The basis for the need, says the CEO of the foundation, Peter Diamandis, is that progress is happening too slow.

Indeed, I tend to agree with him. Though the vast amount of news that we have to cover every day at EcoGeek is a testament to the fact that clean technology is developing quickly, solutions are not coming in fast enough.

The first new prize, for biofuels, will be launched later this year with others being rolled out over a two-year period.

The foundation hopes that each of the sectors in which it provides a prize has the potential to truly revolutionize the economy. And with 8% of venture capital funding in America already flowing into clean technology, it's likely that the foundation is right.

Details on the "Energy and Environment X-Prize Suite" (PDF) will continue to emerge throughout the next year. And while $10 million is a bit trivial in what could end up being a trillion dollar industry, it may be that the first $10 million is more important than the last $100 billion.

Via BusinessWeek

Is the silicon shortage ending?

Hank Green — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:47:44 PDT

For the last few years, the costs of photovoltaic panels have been overwhelmingly controlled by the price of silicon. More than half of the world's constructed silicon crystals are converted into solar panels, and since solar power's recent resurgence, demand for silicon has far outpaced supply.

Building a silicon manufacturing plant is no small (or environmentally insignificant) job. But the higher prices have lead to a huge investment in production, and it's starting to look like we might actually soon have something besides the cost of silicon defining the costs of panels.

Many solar manufacturers have taken supply issues into their own hands by building their own silicon plants. It looks like 2009 should be a turning point for the supply of silicon. The result will be a fairly significant drop in the price of solar panels, and an increase in the amount of panels being produced.

But this silicon shortage has had broader implications than short-term price hikes. The introduction of new, thin-film technologies that don't use any silicon could make silicon panels less competitive at any price. But silicon remains the true high-volume photovoltaic technology.

We'll have to wait until next year to see how the end of the shortage affects prices, and whether thin-film technology can continue wheedling away at silicon's market dominance.

Via CNet

5 ways to turn CO2 into cash

Benjamin Jones — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:34:29 PDT

These days, many experts are saying that weâre not going to be able to stop climate change just by decreasing emissions. To dig our way out of this hole, they say, weâre actually going to need to take carbon dioxide out of the air.

The first instinct has been to bury the CO2. Just pump it into the earth and try and forget how ashamed we are of these massive quantities of CO2. But a new breed of entrepreneur has sprung up, saying "If we have this CO2, why don't we do something useful with it?"

Obviously, we've got to get rid of all that carbon, but if folks can make some money and lower the cost of sequestration while they're doing it ... then that's just icing on the cake.

So here are five of the ways in which people are hoping to make bank with the millions of tons of CO₂ that are pumped out of coal plants and into the atmosphere every day.

Feed it to algae, and then turn the algae to fuel
You may know that biofuels can be made from algae. You may also know that algae thrives on carbon dioxide. A company called GreenFuel Technologies has put two and two together, and is using captured CO₂ to grow algae, which will then be made into biofuels.

But this isn't the only company working on it. There are dozens of start-ups working to create different techniques and algal strains that will allow them to maximize carbon capture and minimize costs.

Earth2Tech recently had a writeup on 15 of the top algae biofuel startups. Of all of the techniques listed there, algae farming with CO₂ is probably the most mature technology, and the first fuel-producing plants are already going online.

And, of course, we don't have to worry about ever running out of a market for biofuels. As long as we're creating CO₂ by burning fuels, there will be a place to burn biofuels.

Turn it into plastic
Recently the American Chemical Society saw a proposal to use captured CO₂ to produce polycarbonate plastics, like those used in CDs and DVDs. The idea is to take carbon dioxide emissions, and instead of sequestering them in the ground, trap them in resilient products.

This approach makes sense because it relies largely on sequestering carbon in disposable products, like plastic forks and water bottles. So, basically, we'd be sequestering carbon every time we threw away plastic.

Landfill sequestration seems like a pretty wasteful way to go to me, but it's certainly better than the alternative. But even with the amount of disposable plastic we consume in the world, we would have plenty of CO₂ left over if all of it was turned to plastic.

Make sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)
Joe David Jones, CEO of Skyonic, has created a process that captures CO₂ as it exits power plant smokestacks and mixes it with sodium hydroxide to form baking soda. This process, called SkyMine, also removes heavy metals and dangerous pollutants and coverts the CO₂ into sodium bicarbonate.

Baking soda has a variety of uses on the commercial market, and this process could help make carbon capture more economically viable. Even if the baking soda is not sold, because it is solid it is immensely easier to store it in old mines or landfills than it would be to sequester gaseous CO₂ beneath the ground.

The real question is whether the world can produce enough sodium hydroxide to keep the process going.

Calcium carbonate
A company called Carbon Sciences has a new process called GreenCarbon, which, at the base of things, turns carbon dioxide into useful stuff. The GreenCarbon process mixes the CO₂ with crushed calcium minerals, one of the most abundant elements in the earth's crust.

The end result is calcium carbonate, an industrial chemical that's used in thousands of applications, from PVC to paper to toothpaste and, in its pure form, as wall board and chalk. Because calcium carbonate is used in just about everything, thereâs a huge market for it, and depending on the quality, it can sell for hundreds of dollars a ton.

The question remains, though ... is there enough of a market? The CEO of Carbon sciences says yes, but we're skeptical since a single coal plant could produce millions of tons of calcium carbonate per year.

Convert it directly into fuel
Sandia National Laboratories is working on creating fuel directly from CO₂ without any pesky biological intermediaries like algae. The carbon dioxide would be super-heated to around 1,200 C and mixed with water to create various hydrocarbons of the sort we're already burning in our cars. All of that heat, of course, is energetically expensive, but Sandia is hoping to use leftover heat from nuclear or utility-scale solar thermal power generating plants. The process basically reverses combustion, and is only economically viable if the energy can come from cheap, clean sources.

The good news is that it can be scaled up much more easily than algae production, which requires thousands of acres of space to soak up the CO₂ from one coal plant.

In conclusion
There's no one solution to this problem. We'll probably start out pumping most of it underground, while turning a good portion of it into fuel. But I expect that, in the next 20 years, when power producers start having to pay the true costs of releasing CO₂, techniques for creating useful products with that CO₂ will multiply.

Depending on where coal plants are and what resources they have around them, project planners will have to figure out what are the most economically viable things to do with the CO₂.

If there's a lot of calcium deposits around, they'll be creating calcium carbonate, but if there's a lot of sun and ample space, maybe algae farms will pop up around the power plant.

In any case, we'll see an entire economy spring up around actually using our societies primary waste product. And not only is that just good policy, it's a gigantic economic opportunity.

Don't save your pennies

Hank Green — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 02:31:12 PDT

I know Coinstar provides a fantastic service, having availed myself of it several times. But I bet you don't think of it as an environmentally friendly one, do you?

The billions of coins sitting idle in American households right now represent a squandered resource, according to Coinstar's recent "Change For Our Earth" marketing campaign. The U.S. Mint prints coins from non-renewable resources to replace the coins that hide in our mason jars and couch cushions.

Putting those billions of coins back into circulation would substantially decrease mining, refining, and shipping. Coinstar even launched a calculator at "ChangeForOurEarth.com" to determine how much you can help the Earth by cashing in.

We know greenwashing when we see it, but this is ingenious. Coinstar hasn't changed anything about what it does ... just the message.

Still, I hope this will get people to turn their old money into usable money, and put change back into the system. Apparently it could have some fairly significant impacts.

Coinstar estimates that $10 billion in coins sit idle in American homes. If 15% of those coins were re-entered into circulation (preferably via Coinstar's automated counters, which will pinch a few pennies for themselves), this would save 82 million showers' worth of water and 12,000 cars' worth of CO₂ emissions.

Donating your earnings to Coinstar partner World Wildlife Fund will make you feel all the greener.

So go turn that change back into money. For the earth, for yourself, and for Coinstar.

GE sold $12 bil of wind turbines that it doesn't have

Hank Green — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:55:30 PDT

Adding to the financial difficulties of General Electric, whose stock dropped 15% last week on poorer-than-expected revenues, apparently they're having a heck of a time actually delivering the turbines they sell. The turbines aren't technically late, but as the waiting lists get longer and longer, wind projects might be postponed as folks wait to see who can deliver first.

Wind turbines are not a simple thing to construct, and as technology (and subsidies) have advanced, wind power has suddenly become a very attractive option for a lot of utilities. This is, of course, fantastic for the environment. But much-increased demand combined with no simple way to produce more has resulted in a big lot of deep pockets waiting in long waits for their turbines.

Looks like GE is going to have to start holding back on taking orders as the waiting list grows. It's apparently a lower margin business than GE is used to, but that doesn't mean the company is getting out of it any time soon. GE's wind turbine business has grown 40% in the last year. This quarter, it delivered 569 wind turbines to buyers, mostly in Europe.

So far, wind power is the only renewable energy source that can (in certain areas) actually be cheaper than fossil fuels. So let's keep hoping GE and its competitors, who have also been having trouble keeping up with demand, can ramp up production soon.

Via CNet

Big green meet 'n' greet

Trystan L. Bass — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:31:53 PDT

Folks looking for eco-fun are converging in Seattle, Washington, this weekend for the first Green Festival of the year.

This project of the Global Exchange and Co-Op America features environmental speakers and businesses. Attendees can learn more about issues, shop for new products, enjoy great food, and generally get down with their green selves.

The next ones are in Chicago in May, in Washington DC in November, and in San Francisco in November. Check the website for details.

Seattle this weekend will feature speakers like Amory Lovins from the Rocky Mountain Institute (we hope to get a first-hand report from RMI next week) and Annie Leonard, creator of the short film, The Story of Stuff.

Some of the vendors to watch for include:

Better World Club - The nation's only environmentally friendly auto club.
ChicoBag - Ultra-compact reusable bags.
Planet - Certified biodegradable household cleaning products.
Honest Tea - Organic ready-to-drink teas.
gDiapers - Eco-friendly diapers.

I went to last year's Green Fest in San Francisco, and it was a blast. I talked to the CEO of the GreenOptions blog site, plus I heard about Discovery Networks' upcoming Planet Green TV channel. The organic, sustainable food was delicious, and I received a bunch of free samples of fair-trade chocolate! Can't wait for the next fest.

Even if the event isn't coming to your town, take a look at the website to learn about earth-friendly businesses you might not have heard about.

Wind turbine manufacturers can't meet demand

Hank Green — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:59:42 PDT

Creating a lightweight, completely smooth, extremely strong, perfectly formed piece of fiberglass that's longer than the wingspan of a 747 isn't easy. And, once it's made, it's not easy to ship it and two of its twins, out to the folks who want it either.

Capturing energy from wind has become increasingly economical as turbines have increased in size. But it's also become much more complicated. And that falling price combined with complicated logistics is a recipe for delays.

If you want a wind farm today, and have the billions of bucks it takes to get one, you'll have to wait up to two years before you get your turbines. Planned wind farms are being delayed even after they've been approved and secured financing.

The bad news is that this means slower growth in wind energy production in the near-term. The good news is that investors see the shortage as an obvious sign that they should be dumping billions of dollars into helping manufacturers grow.

Ideally, this investment will not only end the supply shortages, but significantly increase the amount of new wind projects installed per year.

Via CNet GreenTech

Dell's HQ is now 100% renewably powered

Hank Green — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 18:31:41 PDT

About a year ago, Dell promised that it would soon be a 100% carbon-neutral company. Now it's making good on that promise and going about it in the right way.

Instead of buying carbon credits that would theoretically offset the power that it uses at the corporate campus in Austin, Dell is actually buying renewable power from companies making it available in the Austin area.

Waste Management's nearby Austin landfill is producing natural gas that is powering 40% of the 2.1 million square-foot campus where over 10,000 people go to work every day. The remaining 60% of the power is coming from wind energy produced by TXU Energy.

Dell continues to develop plans to take its other facilities to carbon neutrality and to decrease energy use through efficiency measures.

Full press release

Talk about green

Trystan L. Bass — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:11:41 PDT

Want to hear the real deal about recycled paper? Hear it from Office Depot. Looking for the inside scoop on water conservation? Find out from Delta Faucets. Wondering about organic food standards? Learn the details from the Organic Consumers Association.

Listen to these interviews and more on the weekly GreenTalk Radio. Host Sean Daily, co-founder of GreenLivingIdeas.com, talks to people who are on the forefront of green and ecology-oriented business.

Subscribe on iTunes or stream individual episodes on the website, and you'll get a comprehensive view into products and services that aim to help the environment.

How much will it cost to save the world?

Tony Kreindler — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:45:38 PDT

This post is by Tony Kreindler, Media Director for the National Climate Campaign at Environmental Defense Fund.

Last week, two reports came out that look at how much it will cost to drastically reduce the pollution that causes global warming. Both used economic models to project how the growth rate would change. One used a realistic set of assumptions, and the other stacked the deck with extreme assumptions.

But both of them look at only one half of the real question. They ask "How much will it cost?" (Answer: Surprisingly little). But we also have to ask, "What do we get in return for that investment?"

The first report was put out by the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Council for Capital Formation. Their numbers show some scary costs because of the assumptions they plugged in. As I said in this Miami Herald article, they figured in small use of renewable energy and other artificial constraints.

A more realistic analysis came out Friday from the EPA. The Wall Street Journal sums it up this way (subscription required, free version from Dow Jones news service):

The leading congressional proposal to control greenhouse-gas emissions could be implemented without significantly harming the nationâs economic growth over the next two decades, according to an analysis published Friday by the Bush administration.

So the investment is manageable. But what do we get for it? A more stable climate, for one. Lisa Moore discussed this most recently in her post about Earth systems that could be pushed past critical tipping points if we do nothing.

Or, put another way, if we donât make this investment, what will we end up paying? We reviewed studies that looked at the price of climate disruptions in an earlier post, "Most Expensive Solution: Do Nothing."

To summarize: If we invest in reducing pollution, we get cleaner air, more diverse sources of energy and lower risk of catastrophic climate changes -- all at a price we can handle. We should jump at a bargain when we see one.

Finding the green job of your dreams

Trystan L. Bass — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:53:30 PST

The times they are a changin'. The U.S. economy isn't what it used to be, and old jobs are becoming old hat. But new technologies and shifting priorities are creating opportunities for job-seekers, especially if you want to make a living while leaving a lighter footprint on the planet.

Our own HotJobs points out several top recession-proof fields right now. The areas of education, energy, health care, and the environment itself are all good bets. And greenies will be glad to know that these overlap with E: The Environmental Magazine's list of booming eco-friendly job sectors.

Other hot fields include environmental law, information technology, government planning and land use, and waste management and recycling. Plus, jobs such as accounting, human resources, and project management continue to be needed within environmental organizations of all types.

So where do you start your green job search? We've collected some of the best websites for job listings and other resources for a new earth-focused career.

Sustainable Business Green Dream Jobs: Large list of positions at all levels with environmentally conscious employers. From solar water heating system installer to web producer, from human resources assistant to fish campaign organizer, you're bound to find something intriguing here.

Idealist.org Job Search: Openings at nonprofits; search on "environmental & ecology" or "energy conservation & green living" for unique listings such as organic farm manager in Southwest Florida and video editor for the Clinton Foundation.

Green Jobs: This site is all about the burgeoning area of renewable energy. If you're interested in solar, wind, or biofuels, whether installing, engineering, or selling, check this one out.

EnvironmentalCareer.com: Lists hundreds of jobs, especially in environmental sciences and energy fields. Also has opportunities to transfer existing skills into green businesses -- for example, a senior billing coordinator position for environmental consultants.

Business for Social Responsibility Jobs Board: Worldwide positions at companies that value people, communities, and the environment. Includes big names such as the Walt Disney Company.

Grist Job Board: Environmental groups from around the country post their jobs here. Also, Grist's Kevin Doyle has a series of articles about the green job market.

TreeHugger Job Board: Dozens of green business and organizations list their openings here. Subscribe to the RSS feed for the latest updates.

Jobs With the National Park Service: Love the great outdoors? You could work anywhere from Hawaii's volcanoes to Yellowstone's geysers. The park service has 16,000 permanent employees and another 10,000 seasonal employees each year.

World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms: If you're interested in the fast-growing field of organic food (no pun intended), you could volunteer on a farm to get experience. This site connects volunteers with farms around the planet.

Another green tip: Many companies encourage applying online these days, so you can email your resume. But if you have to print it, look for high-quality paper made with recycled fibers. No point killing trees when you're applying for an earth-friendly job!

Clothing for the examined life

Kastle Waserman — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:16:45 PST

Oh Patagonia, how do we love thee? Let us count the ways...

Not only does this company make comfortable, rugged outdoor wear, Patagonia's devotion to the environment is one of the strongest in the industry.

When you buy new garb, know that the company commits at least 1% of sales or 10% of pre-tax profits -- whichever is more -- to grassroots environmental groups. Since the Environmental Grants Program began in 1985 (long before being green was fashionable), Patagonia has given over $29 million to more than 1,000 organizations.

But that's not all. Through Patagonia's Common Threads recycling program, you can return worn out fleece jumpers, Capilene Baselayers, and cotton T-shirts for recycling into new Patagonia garments.

And Patagonia's employees personally give back into their company's initiatives. Over 50 employees have voluntarily journeyed to the place that gave the brand its name to help with the creation of Patagonia National Park. They've offered up manual labor to work with ConservaciÃ³n PatagÃ³nica in Argentina (created by former Patagonia CEO Kris Tompkins) and the Patagonian Foundation (not affiliated with the store) to remove fences and restore habitat in one of the world's last great landscapes that lies between Chile and Argentina.

Through an environmental internship program, Patagonia employees can leave their jobs for up to two months to work full-time for an environmental group of their choice and continue to receive salaries and benefits while they're gone. The environmental group gets the workers for free.

Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard is also cofounder of 1% for the Planet, a movement that has brought together over 700 companies to donate 1% of their sales to a network of environmental groups worldwide. They work together with the understanding that it's good business to protect the natural resources that keep you in business.

We could go on, but it's enough to know that while Patagonia's clothes can be worn by the most extreme outdoor adventurer, they're also stylish enough for city dwellers (like me) who want to do the right thing -- right down to their sleeves.

Recycle, re-ink

Trystan L. Bass — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:56:18 PST

Want to save a few bucks while keeping some plastic out of the garbage? Recycle the cartridges from your printer, and buy refilled cartridges instead of brand new ones.

Almost eight printer cartridges are junked every second in the U.S., according to Cartridge World, one of many businesses that take old inkjet and laser cartridges, clean 'em up, and refill them to work like new in printers.

Office Depot notes that remanufacturing one laser toner cartridge can save a half-gallon of oil, plus keep two and a half pounds of plastic out of landfills.

Refilled (also called remanufactured) printer cartridges cost 15% to a third less than the original price, and I've found positive reports online.

I've been using refilled inkjet cartridges in my Epson printer at home with no problems, and the same goes for my husband's business which does a lot of color graphics printing. Likewise, the laser printers here in Yahoo!'s HQ use many remanufactured cartridges that are recycled after each use.

You can take your empty cartridges in and buy refilled ones at places like Cartridge World, many stores online, or big chains like Staples, Office Max, Office Depot, and Walgreens.

Check the store's website or call ahead to see what kind of discount you get for bringing the old ones -- sometimes you'll get a direct discount, and some stores simply sell the refilled cartridges at a low price regardless of what you bring in.

Also, some brands of laser cartridges (such as Hewlett-Packard) have the original packaging designed so it can be re-closed, and you can mail the empty cartridge back to the manufacturer for recycling. Makes it easy not to toss it in the garbage.

But whatever you do, I don't recommend refilling inkjet cartridges yourself. The results aren't pretty.