Business news Blog

Recycling of paper proves to be a blessing in disguise:

2010-02-05T15:46:00.001+05:30

It takes 17 full grown trees to make one tonne of paper. The awareness of this one fact can encourage people to take serious steps towards recycling of paper. Recycling is a process driven by the goodwill to save the environment from running out of its precious and valuable resources. It is the collection of used articles subjected to further processing that utilizes minimum energy in the re-manufacture of the same product with most of its properties retained.

Paper is one of the most exhaustively consumed product in our daily routine. It is an integral part of every home, business, educational institution, hospitals, courts, offices and various other establishments. It occupies the major portion of the wastes disposed off everyday making it the topmost material that is used and disposed. By recycling just one morning newspaper we can save cutting down of 41,000 trees and greatly reduce the total amount of greenhouse gases emitted due to process carried out during waste disposals also concisely known as carbon footprint (a measure of carbon dioxide released). While the manufacturing process of paper involves chopping up or burning the trees leading to humongous loss of energy and fuel, the recycling process uses 60% lesser energy for the same.

Papers that can be easily recycled are newspapers, shredded paper, phonebooks, cardboard, magazines, envelopes, calendars etc. and these can be refurbished to form new products like egg cartons, paper towels, tissue, toilet paper, newspaper, paper bags, notebooks, stamps and so on. The best part of paper recycling is that there is minimal usage of chemicals like bleaches which in turn is safer for the environment.

Some of the major benefits of recycling paper are reduction in the amount of landfill space occupied, considerable reduction in the number of trees being used up for its production, the resulting reduction in deforestation that would otherwise lead to increased erosion of soil, disruption of water cycle, loss of biodiversity, flooding and drought, climate changes, recycling of paper also reduces emission of sulfur dioxide, minimizes use of fossil fuels and finally saves immeasurable amount of energy.

The steps towards recycling of paper can be carried out on a personal basis,smaller or larger scale. As an initial step that an individual can contribute towards successful recycling of paper is to sort out paper from other materials in trash, and categorize them according to their type. You may then take your collection of used paper to a local recycling center or recycling bin. These huge chunks of used paper are then transported to a paper mill where the paper is stored in warehouses and used up as required. Paper is grouped according to their various grades of quality. These are then passed on to large conveyors into a pulping machine wherein the pulpier chops the paper in a mixture of water and some chemicals, into small pieces. The mixture is then heated and tiny cellulose strands are formed following its breakdown. The mixture is then screened and filtered to remove unwanted impurities, is cleaned, deinked- a process undertaken to eliminate inks off the printed parts of the paper, refined, bleached and stripped off color. This product is sent into final processing which gives out sheets of white paper ready to be used yet again.

Procedures involved in metal recycling:

2010-02-05T15:01:00.000+05:30

Recycling is generally known as the process of obtaining new products from the renewal of used articles that efficiently reduces factors like the consumption of fresh raw materials, energy consumption, various types of environmental pollution and production of greenhouse gases. It is essential to conserve natural raw materials so that we are not drained off our valuable resources and preserve the ecological balance of nature.

Metals form an integral part of our day to day lives. The various products we use on a regular basis include goods like household appliances, cutlery, aluminum beverage cans, steel cans, various types of pins and needles, some disposable medical products and so on. It is believed that the metals like aluminuim and steel have high scrap metal recycling value, so the more we recycle them the more is the energy and money saved. Recycling metals is so efficient such that it uses 95% less energy consumed in the manufacturing of the same. Other metals like copper, brass, bronze, zinc, magnesium, tin and lead are also conveniently recycled.

The most significant advantage of recycling of metals is that no matter how many times you recycle them they retain their properties and are ready to be used all over again with the same efficiency, unlike some other articles like plastic. The most commonly used metals in domestic environments are aluminum and steel. Aluminium is an ore naturally occurring in nature as a mineral combined with oxygen. Manufacture of aluminum involves inducing huge amounts of electrical energy to separate the oxygen from the aluminuim. It is then melted and shaped into various products. Similarly, steel is created in an hot blast furnace involving a chemical reaction, during which iron ore, that is the raw material used in the process, is separated from its oxygen content. Both these metal production processes consumes enormous amounts of energy. On the contrary, their recycling process only uses about 4% of this total energy, which has many positive implications including reduction of energy consumption and emission of greenhouse gases.

For recycling metals, they are first sorted out into two major categories. One is ferrous metals, these are made up of steel and iron while the other is non-ferrous metals, such as aluminuim, copper, nickel, brass, titanium, lead, chromium, etc. Non ferrous metals are easily recycled as compared to the ferrous metals. Household metal scraps are sorted based on the above categories. Steel cans are melted down and impurities are separated and thus the recycled product obtained is widely used in the construction industry. The other by products are used to make more cans and other similar products. On the other hand, aluminum cans are compressed and melted down followed by removal of impurities and are then rolled into sheets that find numerous applications again. This process is far more faster and the recycled product are back into the market in no time.

So inorder to inculcate smart living in this rapidly depleting natural resource environment, it is important to recycle your metal goods that helps save a lot of energy and a lot of other resources like water, reduces emissions of carbon dioxide like gases thus decreasing air pollution, increases the landfill space and also reduces the need to mine more and more raw materials at a faster rate thus helping in their preservation.

Plastic recycling: A Know-How

2010-02-05T14:30:00.001+05:30

Plastics is one of the most extensively used products of the modern generation. It is widely seen used as a packaging product of almost everything that you can think of, in the making of toys, household goods, making of all kind of cards like credit cards, sim cards, shopping cards, identity cards and so on. Although the use of plastic has many positive influences in our day to day lives they are also known to have a substantial number of health and environmental hazards. There are categories of plastic that can be recycled and that cannot. It is manufactured by the combination of petroleum or natural gas with oxygen or chlorine. This process requires the burning of huge amounts of oil. So more the petroleum we burn to make new plastic products, the more greenhouse gases we release into the air. Plastic takes up of about 10% of the total waste products disposed away into the landfills and only 5% of these are actually renewable.

To curb this alarming rate of growing environmental hazard it is important to create awareness about recycling of plastics with a few contributions to the society on our part. Recycling plastics can save a lot of energy in the form of reduction in oil and petroleum consumption and save a considerable amount of space in our landfills. Plastics require a more complicated processing for its recycling as compared to glass and metals. They are made up of higher molecular weight polymer chains for which application of heat itself is not sufficient. There are two major hindrances in efficient plastic recycling. One is that, when different plastics are melted together, due to their variable compositions, they tend to separate like oil and water and renewing them into a new plastic only results in the yield of structurally weak polymer blends with a lot of limitations in their application. The other is that, certain additives used in the manufacture of plastics like dyes, filters and so on are too difficult to be separated or removed and proves to be a costly affair.

The most easily degradable plastics are soda and water bottles, medicine containers, milk and oil containers and so on. The most toughest ones are plastics containing polyvinyl chloride like plastic pipes, shower curtains, medical tubing, grocery bags, plastic used in Tupperware and so on. Plastic articles are numbered according to its feasibility to be recycled with numbers ranging from 1,2 and so on known as the plastic identification code. Thus we as concerned citizens of a threat prone environment should make efforts to categorize the plastics accordingly from the collection of junk in our houses. Call the local recycling facilities in your area or search for the same on the internet. Remove miscellaneous attachments to your plastic products like a metal top for bottles or labels on the bottles that might not be of the same rank of viability to recycling with the plastics that you sort out. Crush plastic containers to save space in your recycling bins.

In some countries like Israel, recycling of films obtained from mixed municipal wastes is successfully practiced resulting into its re-manufacture into useful household articles like buckets. Many clothing industries have also come up with applications of recycled plastics into creating a blend with certain fabrics and other materials to produce polyester fabrics that are used to make durable and strong products like jackets, coats, shoes, bags, hats and other accessories.

e-waste recycling:

2010-02-05T13:47:00.002+05:30

Recycling can be described as the assembling, developing, promoting or buying of products which are prepared from waste products. Recycling process is majorly practiced in all parts of the world owing to the depletion of naturally occurring raw materials and increase in energy consumption, decreasing landfill space and ultimately its adverse effects caused on the environment.

Recycling comes into picture for those commodities that are used extensively by almost everyone in the world. It is important to reduce the wastage and increase the re-usage of such items to maintain a good balance in the environment. One such commodity that has found increasing usage in the past decade is the computer. Computers are largely in demand in all walks of life, be it for personal use or for other businesses. Although, since these gadgets get outdated pretty soon and require replacing every now and then, it poses a problem in increasing the disposal of such electronic waste, also known as e-waste, into our landfills. e-waste recycling is a method of retaining operable parts and components from unusable electronic devices and having systems dismantled in a way that allows for safe extraction of certain constituents from the original to be reused in other products.

Computers contain toxic and carcinogenic chemicals such as lead oxide, mercury, nickel, zinc, cadmium, dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), chromium and radioactive isotopes which are extremely perilous to human health and the environment. Some of these materials like tin, silicon, iron, aluminum and a variety of plastics can be reused in the construction of new systems thus curbing the costs of manufacture of fresh raw materials. They may also contain valuable components like lead, copper and gold that can be retained successfully. Although this comes with a drawback. The lead that is contained in the lead glass of the cathode ray tube and the lead contained in the circuit boards in the form of lead-solders have the tendency to leach into groundwater or create air pollution through incineration. Another drawback is when retaining the valuable metals via incinerations and acid treatments, they may release and synthesize further toxic by products.

So the best possible way to reduce accumulation of e-wastes is to donate used computers to schools and non-profit organizations or you can send it to a recycling facility that recycles metals, glass and plastic like articles. The parts of the computers that can be recycled are the glass monitor, keyboard, CD Rom drive, plastic case, cathode ray tube, cables, copper in power cord, metals from the circuit board, printer cartridges and batteries. You can also take a step ahead while ordering new computers by cross checking if the manufacturers offer recycling services. Most major brands and companies offer some form of recycling. Certain manufactures also offer a free replacement service while purchasing a new computer of a specific brand. They take back the old computers, refurbish them and re-sell them in the market. There are also online auction sites like eBay where one can resell their computers for a reasonable price.

The only thing to be taken under consideration for secure recycling is that the private data on the hard drive is destroyed because we do not want to encourage illegal activities like identity thefts that can cause major businesses to lose more than just money.

IDENTITY DECEPTION:

2010-02-04T10:00:00.001+05:30

Common countries participating in online scams include Nigeria, Romania, Ukraine, Spain, UK, Italy, and Netherlands. It doesn't mean that scamming is limited to these countries. It could be anywhere in the world.

The most dangerous type of online scam is identity deception. Some merchants intentionally disguise their identity inorder to defraud the customers and avoid detection. The technology of the Internet makes it very simple for the users to disguise their identities. Some of the marketers claim to be their location in China. They will be using the location either to disguise their true location so that they can fool the customers and swindle their money or simply to promote their business. The fact is that they will have no connection with China at all.

There are some simple ways to identify these kinda scammers. These scammers usually use a VOIP number to disguise their location. The numbers with prefix +4470 or +4487 are not usually used by genuine companies and are not used in China at all. The simplest method of checking the location of the companies is through their phone numbers. Using the Website numberingplans.com one can search for the geographic location of any phone number. If the location differs from the one that has been claimed by the company, say no to them straight away, no doubt it is a scam.

The predominant way to identify a scam is to make an effort to check the information provided. “Please! Be smarter than the scammer”

LOSS OF MONEY-JUST A CLICK AWAY:

2010-02-03T18:37:00.001+05:30

Nowadays we can see a lot of advertisements like the above title. Haven't you seen it? Oh! I am really sorry; I forgot to tell that they will be in a different form. Ok have you ever come across any advertisement like, “Congratulations, you have won a cash prize of 500 U.S. dollars click here to claim the prize”. If yes, this advertisement is the disguised way of telling that “you are going to loose your money, click here to do that”.

Please understand that, “There is no such thing as something for nothing”. You are probably dealing with a scam if

- You receive uninvited gifts or goods from any source

- An offer from overseas

- A request to pay a fee for more benefits.

- Pay a fee and collect the prize.

- A huge offer on purchase which is hard to believe.

Another way to loose money is through the purchase scams. Assume that your have a car that has to be sold. And you have published it in the Internet. What happens, is you get an immediate response for your advertisement. The only mistake that happens is that the buyer sends a cheque that is more than the value that you have quoted for your car. What you will do is you will call up the buyer and inform him that he had sent some extra money. And the buyer advises you to send back the extra amount when shipping the car. He also arranges an associate to organize the shipping and collect the car. You will do all the steps that have been told by the buyer. Finally you understand that the cheque is dishonored one. But it will be too late when you figure it out. You have already sent the surplus funds to the buyer and also your car. Atlast the shipper disappears with your money.

Indicate that the import of steel to India

2010-02-03T17:31:00.001+05:30

Reports indicate that the import of steel to India has been increased by 70% in the period of April 2007 to march 2008. One of the key reasons for this mammoth increase in the import rate is that there is a fast growing demand for steel in India. The fast growing demand of steel is not the only reason of increased steel import in India. The other important factor being the lowered import duties and the relaxed rules and regulations of scrap metal import (Not the safety measures). Import duties of steel have been lowered from 15% to 5% during the period of 2007.

However there was a sudden increase in the import of steel in India in the year 2008. The reason being, the 5% import duty on iron, steel melting scrap, and aluminium scrap was totally scrapped in the government’s budget of 2008-2009 (i.e. Import duty is now 0% ). Moreover the general excise was reduced to 14% from 16%. We hope that this sudden cut down of import duties and general excise was to increase the availability of steel in the domestic market. Anyway this is absolutely good news to metal traders in India which keeps them smiling wide. The Indian steel imports has raisin in such a way that it exceeds the exports.

I don’t want anyone to get overwhelmed by the numbers above. To make it simple, let me tell you something about the impacts of this change in the import duty, general excise and the relaxed rules.

- The reduction of import duty of steel will allow Indian steel producers to access raw materials at lower prices.

- This act also boosts the consumer demand for the finished products in India.

- Also this reduction in import duty of scrap steel will enable India to produce steel at much lower cost than China.

- If automobile manufacturers pass this reduced excise duty in the form of lower prices, the demand of steel will increase and hence helping the companies like TATA to supply steel.

- Reduction in customs duty for on aluminium metal scrap will benefit the secondary aluminium manufacturers.

- The reduction in excise duty will enhance the housing and infrastructure activity.

- The excise duty reduction will bring down the prices of automobiles and also eventually increase their demand.

- The rule and regulations of scrap metal import are very much relaxed as they seemed impractical in India (virtually to promote the trade).

- The imports of scrap steel and aluminium will become easier and convenient than any other countries.

Hence this total cut of import duty of scrap metal in India will take India’s metal trade to the peak in the global scrap metal market. And also the new rules and regulations of scrap metal import, laid by the Indian government where withdrawn because of the impracticality of those rules. The old rules said that unshredded scraps were only permitted from suppliers who have been registered by the government. However this rule has been totally scrapped off. Don’t get confused with the facts and figures mentioned above. The thing is that “the gateway of India is wide open for metal trade, all are welcome to do the metal trade in India! So come let’s do the trade!”

WESTERN UNION SCAM:

2010-02-03T12:11:00.002+05:30

“Exiting offer! Mercedes Benz C-class for just rupees fifty thousand. Hurry, limited offer! Select your transaction method!” Please don't search for the location where you can get it. We are not gonna mention it, as it is simply impossible, as everyone knows, and this is an example for scam advertisement.

A Western Union scam is any scam that uses Western Union method of payment. If anyone sees an advertisement as the one above, you will be anxious in getting a Benz and you will straight away agree to send the money through a transfer service. Anyway the money will be sent, but you will not receive the C-class Benz. Unfortunately the money has been already picked up. It means that you've been a victim of online auction fraud. If you are lucky enough you will atleast receive prototype model of a Benz C-class.

About western Union:

The Western Union money transfer service is the great way to sent money to the people you know and trust. And Western Union recommends not using western union money transfer service to pay for online auction purchases as they do not offer any types of purchase protections or escrow service. To make it simple, once the money is sent, there is no protection on it, and no way to get it back.

TIPS TO AVOID WESTERN UNION SCAM:

- Be cautious if the online seller will accept only one type of money transfer. Most legitimate sellers will accept more than one form of payment.

- Make sure that you check out any seller references or feedback before making a purchase. However, often this method won't work because the seller can himself create the feedback or reference and may be bogus.

- Western union money transfer is the 100% preferred payment method of scammers. Because the moment the scammer gets the MTCN number or the money transfer number he can get the money and disappear into cyberspace, leaving you with an empty box, damaged pride and a hole in your pocket. So even if sellers say that there paypal accounts are down, don't pay them through western union.

We take the issue of consumer fraud very seriously. We value the consumers who use our services and know they work hard for earning every single penny. When consumers loose money, we feel like we loose. So please report any abuse if found.

NIGERIAN SCAM- ADVANCE FEE FRAUD:

2010-02-03T10:22:00.002+05:30

NIGERIAN SCAM- ADVANCE FEE FRAUD:

This Nigerian scam escalates rapidly once you show the interest in it. Let us make it clear with an example.

Assume that you have received a purchase order for your company's product. However, intentionally, the initial order won't be large; the scammers will usually start off with a sample order which will be paid with a bogus credit card or a draft. These fake importers will lure you, saying that they will be placing a big order soon. Aiming at the big order, you will send the sample to them. After some days, you will receive an email stating that your sample has been approved for sale and all you have to do is to send 500 U.S. dollars (sometimes even more) to get you registered to trade your products in their country. Falling into temptation you will send the cash for registration also. However, you won't receive any bulk order thereafter, and you won't be able to contact the importers also. Simply, your money is gone!

However, this Nigerian scam can be avoided easily. Credit cards and demand drafts from Nigeria, Togo, Cameroon, Benin, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Ghana can be avoided. Ship the goods only after receiving the money in your account, which you can withdraw. In addition, keep in mind that it takes up to three weeks to clear an International deposit. Even your bank should confirm it in writing.

Moreover, this Nigerian scam is often dangerous physically too. Wondering how? In some cases you will be asked to travel to Nigeria to complete a transaction. You will also be told that no visa is required to enter the country. “Entering Nigeria without a valid visa is a serious offense.” So how do the scammers get benefited in this? These cunning scammers bribe the airport officials and tell them to allow the marketer to pass the immigration and customs. Hence the victim's illegal entry into the country will be used by the scammers as leverage to coerce the victim into releasing funds. If the victims don't obey to what the scammers say, then the will be killed!

To protect yourself, say no any offer if you feel something fishy. Never provide any personal details if you are not sure about the genuineness of the importer. The main thing is to report the abuse if found so that thousands of people will be saved from it.

RECYCLING- A SUCCESS STORY:

2010-02-02T18:05:00.001+05:30

Success is not only measured by how much money we make, but also the impact we have. Don't fear that I am going to overwhelm you with some with numbers, graphs, and figures to explain you the success of recycling. Nowadays recycling is appreciated and practiced from schools to international organizations. They are digging... Oh sorry that's not digging; they are mining the garbage and are finding dollars out of it while caring the environment too. There are many recoverable metals in our nation's thrash which can be recycled and reused for 'n' number of times.

There are many schools that have earned hundreds or even thousands of dollars through simple recycling. This is a survey about the global recycling programs. Starting in 1960 recycling was about 6%. In 1990 it increased to 16%, later in 1995 it was 26% and finally now it's nearly 50%. I think, I lied that we won't use any figures or numbers in this passage. Anyway this won't happen again. The survey above shows the fast improvement in recycling. All the fast growth in recycling is because of its positive affect on the environment and high competition in the market.

Nowadays recycling is done with the help of two programs. One is a voluntary program in which the residents are encouraged to recycle the waste produced at home. However they are not forced to do so. The other one is mandatory program. As the name shows, some communities have passed laws mandating citizens to recycle at least the trash produced by them. Anyway the second program is not successful as the first one. The reason is simple. “Enforcing law is impractical”. Successful recycling programs are those that make people easy to recycle the thrash. The most successful move is to provide thrash containers in the city so that recyclers can collect them easily. This method is widely practiced nowadays.

Apparently recycling is in the path of success. Let's ask you, how many times have you been encouraged to recycle? “All the so-called "secrets of success" will not work unless you do”. So let's work together and do great things.

RECYCLED STEEL-KEY TO WASTE REDUCTIONS:

2010-02-02T16:59:00.002+05:30

Open the doors to waste reduction with the help of recycled steel.

Steel use is dominated by the automobile, household appliance and construction industries. There is hardly any product that people use that does not contain steel included or not made of steel. Among all other steel based products automobiles are highly recycled nowadays. Cars now are simply valuable to be left to get rusted and vanish.

Steel is also mined from an ore. Iron ore stripped from a blast furnace can be used for steel production. Let's make it simple. Here is an example to show the extend of steel being used. “Each household uses approximately 600 cans per year”. Anyway all these cans will be scrapped after use. It is reported that only 70% percentage of scrap steel is recovered and the remaining 30% is landfilled.

Recycling of one tonne scrap steel saves 80% of CO2 emissions. Recycling 7 steel cans saves enough energy to power a 60 watt bulb for 26 hours. Steel cans contain 25% of recycled content and are completely recyclable. Virtually every car that has been driven on road can be recycled if wasted. Or, else they could cause a traffic jam circling the Earth more than one three quarter times. When the steel in just six cars are recycled we can get enough steel to build a new house. And the very important fact about steel is that we cannot make new steel without recycled steel.

About 75 percentages of all major appliances are made of steel. So is the scrap produced also and all the steel scrap is recyclable. And the main property of steel recycling is, steel never looses its strength. Major part of industrial waste produced is steel. They can be absolutely recycling into new steel and the waste can be reduced.

So we hope everyone understood how to make a key to waste reduction using steel. All we need is to recycle the scrap steel. The importance of making this key is to reduce wastage, to reduce the dependence of natural resources, reduction in pollution and the reduction in energy required and the main thing is to fulfill the demand of steel without depleting the natural resources. So let’s all hold “the key”.

ENERGY AND RECYCLING:

2010-02-02T15:42:00.001+05:30

We already know recycling helps to keep tons of waste out of landfills, but did you know that recycling helps to save energy too? Industries that produce new products from recycled materials use less energy since they don’t have to process raw materials from the scratch. The goods we use and the materials that are made require energy to produce and they make an impact on the environment when they are disposed. Recycling of the disposal solves both the problems.

Energy conservation is the main benefit of recycling. The usage of recycled products rather than producing a new one eliminates the energy consumption in transporting the raw materials to the manufacturing unit. Secondly only less energy is required to manufacture a new product through recycling, than producing it from the raw materials. The recycling of aluminium cans is an excellent example. This reduction in cost of raw materials and the savings in energy input costs reduces overall price of the product and increases the competitiveness of the industry.

So we can see that recycling is closely tied to energy conservation. Recycling saves energy by reducing the following parameters:

• Delivered electricity.

• Process heat.

• Transport

• Miscellaneous energy inputs.

Shown below are some facts about energy conservation through recycling:

• Recycling aluminium saves 95 % energy used to manufacture virgin aluminium.

• Recycling 1 tonne newspaper saves enough energy to heat a home for 6 days.

• A recycling 1 tonne plastic saves the equivalent energy of 3.85 barrels of oil.

• Recycling one glass bottle can save enough energy to light a 100 watt bulb for four hours.

• In total, the recycling of 953,900 tons of paper, glass, plastic, and other materials in a year saves enough energy to power 124,000 homes for the same one year.

Think of the worthless garbage turning into worthy energy! Sounds great isn’t it? So from the examples shown above it’s clear that recycling is the very important way of saving energy. So let’s encourage recycling and help in producing “clean energy from dirty scrap”.

INTERNET AND SCRAP MARKET:

2010-02-02T14:34:00.001+05:30

The success of any business depends on the knowledge of the businessperson and advertising. Before starting a scrap metal trade, one should know the position of the scrap market worldwide. I am sure one cannot travel cross the globe to seek the information about the market. All say that Internet is the world's largest library. Yes Internet is definitely the world's largest library. Nowadays there are many websites that provide bundles of information regarding the market.

And the very important use of the Internet is the International access. Without the Internet it is very much difficult trading outside the country or virtually impossible. However Internet breaks all the barriers and opens the door for the international market. “National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway”.

The most important parameter in a successful business is advertising. “Doing a business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but nobody else does.” Probably there are many advertising media such as radios, newspapers, television and the Internet. So of these four modes of advertising why should one choose Internet? The answer is simple. Think that you have a small scrap metal business. If you have a Website for that business, the Website makes your small business look big. By using Internet your business will become really big! The marketer's and consumers dream is the World Wide Web. It is the best of mass advertising and the best of target making.

If we do it right, the Internet can enhance your company's image, build customer loyalty, and get information to customers quickly and cheaply. According to a journalist, Neil Chase, “The net users are the cream of the crop in terms of income”. One of the Internet's greatest strengths is its ability to help the consumers find the right needle in a digital haystack of data. Nowadays there are many websites that help the company's to sell their scrap in the International market and helping them to connect to the right customers they wish to deal with.

So the conclusion is Internet is the best medium to expand the business. Many websites even provide information about the scrap metal prices updated every second. They also provide the facility of selling your products to the right customers without the need of roaming all around, looking for business. Though most of these services are free of cost, if anyone feels it so good, they can pay for the service and get more benefits. However the benefits will overweigh the money one spends on the Internet.

Finding information about the scrap metal trade in the Internet is simple. Just Google in the keyword scrap, you can find about 38,000,000 websites. So why settle for less when you can get more? Hooked up to Internet? Help is just a “CLICK AWAY”.

$$$$s FOR SCRAP:

2010-02-02T12:18:00.001+05:30

"Money doesn't grow on trees?" is an old proverb. How about this one? "There are dollars lying in dustbins and junkyards?" Yes there's a lot of money lying in waste disposal areas and junk yards. Unable to believe it? Everyone knows there would be robbery where there is lot of money and where the robbers remain un-noticed. Metal prices have come up about 25% and that has thieves targeting construction sites and junkyards. The example stated about the thieves is just to define the demand for metal and the price hike, nothing intentional. Anyway the theft of scrap metal is a problem world wide. Now any one can believe there is a lot of cash in scrap metals. Once there was a report on missing manhole covers. Does anyone know a manhole cover fetches about $20 in the scrap market? And an important note: don't try this at home or you will live the rest of your life in prison. Anyway this is not an advertisement to promote robbery. Pardon us if it seemed so!

It was told in a review that "Everyone is looking all the nooks and crannies," "I'm even thinking I should go through my garage." We all know the incident that happened on 11th of September 2001. Yes the day World Trade Center was destroyed. What would have happened to the debris of that great collapse? They were not just thrown off. Reports say these thousands of tons of scrap steel were exported to part of India and Asia. Those scrap was recycled and reused for various constructions. Most of the demand was from China. The scrap importers in India had some shipping restriction earlier. Even under this situation India imported metal scrap worth $1 billion per year. And now some of the rules laid by the government were scrapped. So with the doors wide open India has a great opportunity to grow in the scrap market.

Unauthorized gathering of scrap metals is called robbery. So what would be picking up scrap paper called? It's called "Environmental awareness" The scrap paper prices are expected to rise by 10% this year. It seems there is a lot of money in dustbins also. Did anyone start searching the dustbins now? There is one more interesting aspect in this market. China imports many junk materials from America, then convert them into useful items and then export it to India or even back to America and turn the scrap into cash. It means that we are getting the same scraps that were exported to China. Interesting isn't it? Scrap metal nowadays seems to turn into gold. The items ranging from old window panes to old engine parts are fetching very high prices at local scrap metal marketers. The scrap metal prices has sky rocketed from $380 to $480.

So let make a new saying, “There is gold in scrap metal." We are not only making money from scrap but also saving the earth from degrading! And the conclusion is "MONEY MATTERS"

Christianity Today: Fall by Christ to Live Life Right

2010-01-22T12:42:00.003+05:30

The challenges faced by the Christians of today are many more than what they faced during the last Century. Christianity was very much prevalent in the United States in the last century and it was evident in the way that God was still the cornerstone of the government and the judicial establishment. In schools, prayers were offered at the beginning of a day and most people attended church religiously every Sunday. But later, through the years Christianity has seen a decline of faith and seems to be still falling.

Christianity began to decline from the publicly eye and God was being pushed out of people's lives long before that. God began to be marketed for money and there are still many who continue to do just that, without the fear of consequences and Hell’s wrath. It is a known fact that no man can run for long without God and it is imperative to understand that although we, as human beings, have free will to choose. We should come into the realization that we are free to do whatever we want to with our own lives; yet, God is still the power who is in control of all things.

Both the Old and New Testaments are full of prophecies that the world will face a paramount of destruction and upheaval in the last days before the final judgment. The Bible foretells certain events that precede the end of the world, and we have been witnesses to the beginning of these events over the past few decades. It is time that we as individuals started thinking about the future and reclaim our lives from the path of destruction and hell. It is high time that you turned back to God and start taking control of your life.

The first thing to do would be to start giving away all that is sinful and creating in you a vacuum for Him to fill and reside. Start up by clearing up all that is sinful in you cupboard, computer and mind. First of all take time to learn how Jesus successfully managed his life in spite of a busy schedule. After all, He came to earth with the most important mission on earth which he had to complete within a very short time. One of the keys for his successful life is proper time management and Jesus had the habit of spending quality time in prayer. Prayer, as we know, is communication and fellowship with God. Jesus spent time in prayer, especially in the early morning and late night hours. There are some online resources that offer inspirational prayer advice, prayers, inspirational stories, Christian MP3 music, and all that you could benefit in a Christian life.

You can also download Jesus Christ wallpaper, Virgin Mary wallpaper, Mother Mary wallpapers, and Christian Poems among many other that could add faith and courage to follow a Christian life of goodness and reap the rewards of good faith. Clothe yourself with the Armor of God while being equipped with the wisdom, the knowledge and the understanding of what it will take to stand up and be counted as a Christian at this time in history.

Lamborghini Leggenda

2009-12-11T09:24:00.001+05:30

Introducing the 2010 Tonino Lamborghini Leggenda Hybrid bicycle. It’s perfect for a ride to the coffee shop or for a work out! At the heart of the Leggenda you’ll find a light weight, hand crafted, custom aluminum frame. The Leggenda delivers unrivaled performance thanks to a Shimano 21 speed drive train. An upright riding position, adjustable stem and light weight 700c alloy rims create a bike that has the comfort and durability of a touring bike with the crisp handling of a race bike. This beautiful Italian inspired bicycle is finished in a high gloss metallic Aztec Gold paint that will turn heads every where you go.??Available in Men’s 20 and 22 inch Frame Sizes.

Lamborghini Montagna

2009-12-10T13:01:00.001+05:30

Are you ready for some serious mountain bike fun? Look no further. The Montanga 24 speed dual suspension mountain bike is ready to tackle any trail, any time. The Montagna starts with a hand crafted full suspension aluminum frame that's built strong yet light enough for great handling and all day epic rides. A simple and reliable single pivot suspension design keeps trips to the bike shop at a minimum. Shimano 24 speed rapid fire shifters and a Shimano rear derailleur add value and performance. Welcome additions include Alloy V-Brakes for stopping on a dime and an alloy quick release for easy saddle height adjustment. Light weight 36 hole alloy rims complete this awesome ride. The Montagna is finished in a beautiful yet durable satin black paint with white accents.

Sorel Kids

2009-12-09T14:31:00.000+05:30

Sorel Kids is a division of Columbia Sportswear Company, and in 2000 Sorel Kids expanded to offer a full line of comfortable shoes and boots in the Sorel brand for children. For years Sorel has been known as a footwear maker that makes ultra-comfortable snow boots for men and women, but now they also offer sandals, shoes, and many other classic options for kids. Since the 1960’s, Sorel for kids was the first to combine leather uppers with rubber bottoms, and combine that removable felt bottoms on the shoes. As a result, Sorel Kids boots are the driest and warmest boots available anywhere! You won’t find a warmer, toastier, or more comfortable boot for children than Sorel Kids boots. About Sorel: At Sorel, we make footwear that is honest, uncomplicated, and unpretentious. We believe that form follows function, and that the result is often quite beautiful. Since 1962, we’ve put craftsmanship first in the pursuit of making products that last. We believe that when your feet are taken care of, you can be more spontaneous, and that your boots should last as long as the experiences you have in them. We believe in being effortlessly outdoors no matter what the elements.

Nature's Pearl Muscadine Grapes have the Highest Level's of Resveratrol than any other grape!

2009-11-09T10:09:00.001+05:30

Nature's Pearl is the company who has funded scientific research to discover the power of Muscadine Grape Seed Supplement through double-blind, placebo-controlled human clinical trials. The company is offering a Free 30-Day trial of this All Natural “Cerified Organic” product!

Story Of The Muscadines

The first European settlers in the New World were introduced to the pleasures and health benefits of the Muscadine grape by Native Americans, who consumed this wild-growing fruit in wooded areas of the southeastern United States. It is speculated that over 400 hundred years ago, the first settlers planted what today is known as “The Mother Vine” located in North Carolina.

Independent laboratory tests show that Nature’s Pearl Premium Muscadine grape seeds contain very high levels of natural antioxidants. This concentration of Resveratrol, Resveratrol Metabolites and other phenolic compounds such as Ellagic Acid, OPCs (oligomeric proanthocyanidins) and Quercetin make Muscadine grape seeds a very potent antioxidant.

Nature’s Pearl Premium Muscadine Grape Seed Supplement is made from select Muscadine grapes (Vitis rotundifolia) that grow and thrive in the hot, humid and disease-prone climate of the Southeastern United States. These growing conditions, therefore, make Muscadine grapes very different from common bunch grapes (Vitis vinifera) grown for wine production, which are commonly grown in cooler, milder and less stressful climates.

Like our immune system, which produces more antibodies when under attack, Nature’s Pearl Premium Muscadine grapes produce more disease-fighting phenolic compounds (ANTIOXIDANTS) when under stress from fungal disease. Studies on the make-up of Nature’s Pearl Premium Muscadine grapes revealed that the highest levels of these potent compounds are in its seeds.

Nature’s Pearl Premium Muscadine grape seeds have TWO more chromosomes than wine grapes (40 in Muscadines). That means they have more functional genes and therefore have a greater range of possibilities that distinguish themselves from other grapes. This underwrites their vast range of immune-supporting phenolic compounds that are not present in wine grapes. The extra chromosomes make Nature’s Pearl Premium Muscadine grapes genetically The SMARTER Grape TM with maximum nutraceutical potential.

Try Our Clinically Proven Product FREE for the Next 30-Days!

More Info: www.gonaturespearl.com/irving , www.itsnaturespearl.com, www.muscadinegrapeseedresveratrol.com

Contact: Rick Irving
Phone: 704-620-8889
Email: rick@itsnaturespearl.com

Iran Uranium Cowboy

2009-10-23T13:24:00.001+05:30

Recently we have heard that Iran has been doing uranium enrichment again and we were told about a nuclear facility in QOM. We have heard many people refer to Iran’s President Ahmadinejad as a cowboy. Well, in light of the recent findings it seems appropriate to honor this occasion with a blast from the past (courtesy of slim pickens).

We hope that the U.S. handles this situation well and treats it like the serious matter that it is. We really see this WMD threat as a serious challenge to World peace. We also hope that the intelligence information is inaccurate and that Iran truly is just investigating nuclear power. It’s definitely a serious issue that impacts our national security and the security of the world.

You can check out jobs with the department of homeland security here.

SearchMyCampus caters to fresher housing requirements

2009-07-08T09:41:00.001+05:30

"SearchMyCampus – India's Number 1 Campus Classifieds is gearing up to help freshers with their biggest problem – affordable student housing that is located near or on campus. Apart from increasing its housing classifieds, the team is also working on other features like Tips & Information that help students make decisions about where to stay. "

Delhi, India, June 29, 2009 – Its admission time again in almost every college across the country and student housing is one of the biggest needs fresher needs. To help new students make the right decision about where to stay around campus, SearchMyCampus is extending all its efforts towards increasing the amount of information it offers regarding student housing.

The team has extended all its resources to go out on field and make personal contact with housing providers across various campuses. They are helping housing providers post classifieds on the website advertising student property for rent. They are also encouraging students to post their requirements for roommates. As a result, no matter what the student's budget or location, they should be able to find a suitable room and roommate near the campus with little or no difficulty.

Besides classifieds, the team is also working on answering several questions that students have regarding housing such as 'What are the best areas to stay at around Delhi University' or 'What kind of rents can we expect for paying guest accommodation around Bangalore University '. This information is being collected by the website's student representatives on campus. It is advice by senior students to freshers coming to college. While this feature is only available for select campuses at present, the team hopes to expand it to a large number of universities within a short period of time.

"We hope to offer students all the information they require regarding housing. This includes classifieds, tips and information, and a discussion forum where they can put forth their queries and have alumni or existing students answer these", says Peyush Bansal, founder of SearchMyCampus.

While preparing for students' housing need at the present admissions time, the team is also looking ahead to freshers' needs on joining college. They will be publishing similar data and information for categories like books, tuitions and part time jobs soon.

About SearchMyCampus: SearchMyCampus is India's Number 1 campus based classifieds website for students at college. It offers classifieds for jobs, housing, books, coaching, transport, carpools and more. The website caters to over 130 universities across the country at present.

The Trend Change In Designer Sunglasses

2009-07-06T10:54:00.002+05:30

It is a well known fact that trend changes are hard to come by now with the nosedived market conditions. All the fashion accessory manufacturers are holding back the new models, fearing the worst market conditions. However, things aren’t the same for the designer sunglasses. No matter what the market condition is, new designer sunglasses are popped every now and then. This season it is the big four (Polo, Ralph Lauren, Fendi and Burberry) to introduce some of the finest new designs of sunglasses. The main thing that the fashion lovers will like with these new additions of sunglasses is the fact that they are very sensibly priced. It seems that the designer sunglass manufactures are realizing the truth that not any fashion lovers out there can afford to spend hundreds of dollars in switching between the sunglass styles. Thanks to the wise thinking of the big four, these sunglasses are available in the prices that anyone can afford. Following up is more details about all the new collection of sunglasses.
The New Polo Sunglasses
There will be never a better chance to buy sunglasses at affordable prices. Realizing the fact that people cannot spend much money on fashion, Polo seems to have attached very light price tags to the new collection of sunglasses. However, there is no compromise to the quality of the Polo sunglasses. Though sticks around the traditional design of sunglasses, this season, they have popped a surprise by introducing some cool new designs.
The Trendy Ralph Lauren Sunglasses
Things aren’t much different in the case of the Ralph Lauren sunglasses. They too come with cheap prices than ever before. Though there are only a few new designs available for this season the new ones are really unique. It is quite surprising how these unique Ralph Lauren Sunglasses are available for this cheap pricing.
The Fendi Sunglasses
Fendi joins the new sunglass trend by offering some of the finest designs that they have ever created. However, these new Fendi sunglasses are available only in select stores out there. Surprisingly, they too come with very low price tags.
The Burberry Sunglasses
You will be well aware that Burberry sunglasses haven’t released new designs for quite a long time and now are the time to rejoice. Burberry has some new designs too. The sensible pricing of the Burberry sunglasses will be a sure bet in the fashion market.
Buying Designer Sunglasses At Discounted Prices
Discounts are offered not only by the designer sunglass manufacturers but also by the suppliers. Some of the renowned sunglass supplier offer great discounts to cope up with the nosedived market. Vision specialists being one of the largest supplier of designer sunglasses have also promised to offer some limited time offer for the newly released sunglasses from the big 4. According to fashion experts, this is the right time to buy designer sunglasses at affordable prices.

Top 20 Twitter Directories

2009-06-05T09:10:00.004+05:30

Twitter Managemnt is the ultimate source to find countless friends for your Business , Friendship.

Here you can find what is twitter?, How does it works?, Advantages of twitter ,Various Twitter Directories.

The following Link will give all the necessary Details about twitter directories.

http://www.news.submitinme.com/newsdetails-39.aspx

Importance of Recycling Inkjet & Laser Toner Cartridges

2008-11-04T15:29:00.003+05:30

Experts estimate that almost 350 million cartridges end up in landfills each year. These include laser toner cartridges as well as others. This staggering number has an adverse effect on the environment, as well as, the economics of the situation of buying cartridges.

Recycling is a Good Idea

Surveys conducted suggest that almost ninety percent of cartridges are thrown into the trash after the ink gets over. Moreover the quantity of cartridges that are ending up in landfills is increasing at the rate of ten percent every year. This is owing to the increasing use of printers for documentation purposes. Also, with regards to production, laser toner cartridges require almost ¾ of a gallon to be manufactured. Most discarded cartridges have some remnants of printer ink cartridges that can easily seep into the ground causing widespread soil damage.

As can be imagined these pointers will have a disastrous effect on the environment and thus every effort should be made to recycle cartridges in one way or the other. For all the reasons listed above recycling inkjet and laser toners, seems like such a good idea.

Economic Benefits to Recycling

Apart from the all the environmental benefits, there are various economic benefits associated with recycling inkjet cartridges. The biggest benefits will be in terms of prices. Take the scenario, wherein, a minimal amount of ink cartridges are being thrown away, while a majority of them are being recycled. The prices of cartridges will definitely go down. If consumers recycle or reuse their laser toner cartridges or any other cartridges then they will definitely derive a long term benefit from it.

Lots of Options

As a consumer if you are exploring options of recycling inkjet or laser cartridges and do not want to throw them away, then you have the option of getting them refilled through the mail. Also, many local office stores also have a refilling facility available; you can also deposit the cartridges that you want to send in for recycling. Many a times, you might be offered a few schemes that are usually being promoted by various companies who offer you something in exchange for your inkjet or laser toner cartridges.

Importance of the Process

After reading this article, you must have understood the importance of recycling inkjet as well as any other type of cartridge. The great thing is that you will be doing a service to the environment if you do so and the fact of the matter is that there are numerous alternatives that are available before you even think about throwing away your cartridges. There will always be somebody out there who will be willing to accept your cartridges and get them refilled for you or recycled for you. The importance of this process cannot be denied.

Pitney Bowes Stamp Printers: Models, Types, How Do They Work

2008-11-04T15:26:00.008+05:30

Whether you’re running a company that puts massive amounts of mail out the door or just a regular daily stream of correspondence, mail costs can be a large expense.If you use an efficient mailing system, all your costs and projects can be effectively managed to ultimately see a smooth stream of post heading out the door

An eye on costs

Metering your mail is a good way to keep an eye on costs. Pitney Bowes stamp printers offer superior machines to get this job done. Pitney Bowes stamp printers can weigh, meter and print post, while at the same time showing accrued costs on a dynamic display screen. The Pitney Bowes stamp printers also use this same display screen to monitor the status of the job (s) so you can make changes on the fly. Efficiency is the key and shows in every aspect of the machine, especially the capability to task several jobs simultaneously.

Size and quality of projects

The Pitney Bowes stamp printers are designed to accommodate any type of project. Many projects are shorter run in nature while others are large bulk projects with a complicated logo. The Pitney Bowes stamp printers address each of these concerns. The light mode printing function does the job for smaller to medium sized companies using the Pitney Bowes DA50S while the higher volume higher speed function of the Pitney Bowes DA75S will tackle the larger projects without flinching. The Pitney Bowes stamp printers team understands the needs of all organizations mailing needs and offers stamp machines that will meet the task.

On the fly changes

Being able to process several projects out the door simultaneously is a great advantage when increasing productivity. The Pitney Bowes DM300C addresses this issue while also adding other efficiency features. Pitney Bowes stamp printers are nothing but efficient when it comes to increasing productivity. In this instance, the Pitney Bowes stamp printers process 65 addresses per minute while being able to adjust between jobs for dusty inserts or logos. Pitney Bowes stamp printers are durable and up to the task.

Up-to-date bar coding

For the organization that is ramping up their product offerings, keeping track of where the product is going, in addition to a whole host of other data, is important to future marketing and inventory needs. Bar coding has evolved to a point in today’s inventory management that 100’s of data points can be tracked. Pitney Bowes offers the latest in bar code printing machines to address just this issue. In a majority of Pitney Bowes machines you can also take advantage of USB cables and visual displays so that you are right up to date with whatever printing or inventory task you are working on.

Most Popular 10 Printer Models Of All Time

2008-11-04T15:26:00.007+05:30

Deciding on the most popular printer models of all time is a daunting task to be sure. The evolution of the printer, and the technology behind each incarnation along the thirty odd years of printer development, makes the task difficult when comparing apples to apples –as it were. But if the printer’s evolution were to be divided in its various incarnations and applications over this time period, some choices for the most popular can be made.

The Dot-matrix Chevy remains

When it comes down to the basics, sometimes the most popular printers are the simplest printers that don’t have all the “bells and whistles.” This might be like comparing cars and the older Chevrolets. Nothing fancy, but they did the job and rarely broke down. By comparison, this would be the dot matrix printer. Surprisingly, these workhorses are still in use as receipt printers and low use-lower quality applications. The Epson LX-300 II low impact printer is/was one of the most popular and still offers journeyman work loads. The Panasonic KX –P3696 also ranks right up there as one of the most popular over time.

An evolutionary process

As printers began to catch up with the technological changes that were on-going in the computer end of things, the laser printer, ink jet printers, printer ink cartridges and several applications within each type of printer started to appear on the market. These evolutionary changes make it difficult to say which were really most popular simply because different people have different needs and the all cam and went quickly. But if a generalized “most popular” might be imposed, ink jet printers such as the Canon Pixma MP500 for an all-in one might be suggested while Ricoh AficioG700 and the Canon CL7200D might be suggested as a few of the other more popular models.

Applications and need

To offer a printer that prints on a standard sheet of paper with lines of text as the end-product won’t suffice in today’s printer world. The printers found today must offer specific applications or at least several applications built into one. To this end, photo printers are the printing rage at the moment along with their business brethren the label printer. Photo printer wise, the Epson PictureMate is perhaps the most popular with the Canon Pixma iP4200 also being a popular choice for the duel printing photo/letter options.

As you move toward the business label printer application category you’ll need to segment the application a bit further because their specific use requirements get more detailed by the day. But, since this particular printer application is relatively new, the Zebra line of printers is really the standard regardless of the requirements that you are putting on the printer. The Intermec PB40 can also fit the bill nicely.

How Did Dell Company Get Into Printer Business

2008-11-04T15:26:00.006+05:30

The Dell Company is an American success story. Initially operating from a collage dorm room, the Dell Company was originally named PC Ltd. The founder, Michael Dell, felt that he could better serve computer users if he were to build each computer to a specified set of choices provided by him. He would then construct each computer individually, addressing those needs and ship directly to the customer. His business grew right from the start, with a loan from his family, to over $73 million in its first year.

A smart model

The first smart move that the Dell Company made was to construct a strategy that appealed to a new breed of customer. Computer users were a new breed and fairly savvy about how computers were constructed. The Dell Company focused on this aspect of the user and began using it throughout the company as a model. Computers could be built more cheaply and to individual specification. There was no real need to go to a retailer where you would end-up with a pre-constructed computer giving you options you did not want.

Other products, same model

The company grew and grew. There was little that could affect it. Even when the US economy soured, the company found ways to increase market share at the expense of foundering competitors. It began to look at other markets to use this business model in. The printer business, with all its accessories, and the internet server market at the low end of the pricing spectrum seemed to be good places to let the model work.

Staying close to the core

The printer business seemed like a good place to ply the company’s model. The one dilemma that the company faced, however, was that it did not want to stray to far from its primary product line. With this in mind, and a relationship with another printer manufacturer not working as well as it could, the company approached Lexmark to produce a line of Dell printers and ink cartridges. This way of approaching the printer business would not expose the company to distractions, but give it a bundled product line and access to the lucrative toner and ink markets.

Today’s printer business

The company has definitely evolved since it began offering its first Dell printers. Today’s offerings cover the consumer and business markets with color, ink jet, laser and label printers. The company has gone through some interesting configurations in just about every aspect of its business and management, but has managed to stay fairly close to its core business.

The interesting aspect to this closeness is that it has evolved depending upon the region of the world that one talks about. Australia sells and orders in one way while Eastern Europe works in a slightly different way. Whatever the form, however, the company is still strong and selling all of its products to good results.

Tips To Make Your Photo Print Outs Last Longer

2008-11-04T15:26:00.005+05:30

When you take photo print outs, you will feel fulfilled as it is the culmination of the whole process of digital photography and this feeling of satisfaction will definitely go up a notch if you know that these printouts are long lasting and you can enjoy them for a long time to come. Herein, we have tried to offer you various tips, through which you will be able to get the best results from your printing machine.

The Choice of Your Printer

The choice of the printer will greatly dictate whether your photo print outs will last longer or not. With regards to the mss market, there are two common types of photo printers available for your needs. These are dye sublimation printers and ink-jet printers. Dye sublimation printers use a fusing process where layers of film are fused onto a special paper.

On the other hand, inkjet printers are much cheaper, from the cost perspective, from all angles. Modern inkjet printers use sophisticated pigment technology for printing photos that are more water-resistant than their earlier versions. Inkjet printers specially configured for photo print outs offer six or more colors to provide superior color gradation as well as matching.

Glossy Prints

The paper that you use also contributes to the longevity of the print outs. There are a number of paper types that you can choose from, if you are looking at photo quality papers. However, it’s advisable that, if you are looking for superior quality photo print outs that you go for, glossy paper and printer ink cartridges that too preferably from the printer manufacturer only. The reason being that such papers are configured to work best with the inks to offer users the benefit of better quality print outs as well as print outs that are long lasting in nature.

Printer Maintenance

You might have the best printer money can buy, but if it is not maintained properly then do not expect good quality or long lasting photo print outs. It’s important that you take care of your printer like any other electronic appliance and see to it that it is properly maintained at all times. Inkjet printers are prone to clogging, and hence you must use it regularly to prevent the ink from clogging the print head. If clogging does occur, you must run the printer utility software for the cleaning of the print head.

This is just a small cross section of tips that will help you produce photo print outs that last longer. There are many more that will ensure that you get the best results. Other considerations that you might take care of are using a good digital camera, touching up the pictures, and using the method of trial and error as you will never get it right the first time. So keep these tips in mind for long lasting photo print outs

Who Invented The First Laser Printer? The History Of Laser Printers

2008-11-04T15:26:00.004+05:30

The Laser Printer was invented at Xerox in 1969. The earliest model was based on the company’s own xerographic copiers and was modified according to the requirements of a printer. Researcher Gary Starkweather is credited with its research and development and by the year 1971, he had brought into being a fully functional networked printer system. Over a period of time, the business of laser printing earned billions of dollars for Xerox.

The First Laser Printing Machines

Commercial laser printers were first integrated into use by way of the IBH model 3800 in the year 1976. It was used by businesses to print high-volume documents like mailing labels and invoices. All in all it was a very primitive version of the modern day printers and was quite large. One of the first laser printers that were specially designed for use with an individual computer was the Xerox Star 8010 that was released in 1981. The biggest problem with this printer was the expense. Their price was around $17,000 which actually made it unaffordable for most individuals and business so its use was limited to a relatively smaller number of businesses.

The rise of the Laser Printers

It was only after the use of personal computers started becoming more widespread that HP introduced one of the first laser printers targeted at the mass market. This printer was the HP LaserJet 8ppm and was released in 1984. An interesting fact to note here was that is used a Canon engine, which was in turn controlled by HP software. This printer became very popular and hence companies like IBM, Brother Industries etc followed it up with their own printers of the laser variety.

The Role of Laser Printers

Apart from the regular printing jobs that a printer was supposed to perform, laser printing popularized the process of desktop publishing. This was given an added fillip with the release of the Apple LaserWriter for its Apple Macintosh computers in 1985. This was accompanied by the Aldus PageMaker, which further popularized desktop publishing.

Popularity of the Printers

The prices of electronic devices have fallen over the years and so has the cost of laser printers and cartridges. Moreover, the size of such printers for offices or home has also gone down and today their sizes are acceptable for use in homes and small offices as well. What this essentially means is that the development and technological research in the printing industry never ends.

These devices are satisfying all kinds of needs and requirements pertinent to documentation and are achieving the highest standards of quality and reliability and are regularly setting new benchmarks for the same. Each and every development will be written down in a new chapter of history and chances are that the history of laser printing machines will be never ending.

Who Invented The First Inkjet Printer? The History Of Inkjet Printers

2008-11-04T15:26:00.003+05:30

No single person can be credited with the invention of the first inkjet printer. However, we can safely say that it was invented in 1976 but did not enter the popular consciousness until 1988 when Hewlett Packard released the DeskJet Printer and marketed it like a home consumer item. It must be said, however, that buying this printer and the printer cartridges was not everybody’s cup of tea as it was priced at around $1000. A steep price indeed!

The Inkjet Revolution

If you compare the inkjet printer in use today to those that were launched some twenty years ago, you will find that they have indeed come a long way since then. Though they arrived in the stores in the 1980s; it was way back in the 1970s, that printer companies recognized the fact that the ink based printers were the way forward and this technology would be revolutionary in nature. They began the process of developing printers and printer cartridges. The initial challenge for the company was not only to concentrate on quality but also on affordability. Siemens invented a popular inkjet printer model in 1977 and it became quite popular amongst businesses and organizations. The biggest benefits of this printer were that it sprayed ink only when necessary and were not very expensive.

A Few Challenges

A major challenge faced by printer developers with regards to this type of printers was the fact that the flow of ink from the print head to the page needed to be controlled. This required cutting edge technological research not only in terms of the printers but also the printer cartridges. Initially the dried ink, clogged the printer head, and even the IBM strategy to use electrically charged droplets for coating the pages with ink was not successful and lacked consumer appeal. This challenge was tackled by two companies namely Hewlett-Packard and Canon. They introduced the inkjet printer in the market that used liquid ink, held in cartridges. These became vastly popular and this technology is still in use today.

The Inkjet Cartridges

An article on these printers won’t be complete without mentioning the role of printer ink cartridges in the scheme of things. It is the ink cartridges that played a stellar role in the increasing popularity of these printers. Printer cartridges are the core element of each and very printer and they have also gone through a long and evolved process of development, side by side with the printers. Without the development of printer ink cartridges there would be no inkjet printers. It’s as simple as that.

As can be seen, the whole process of developing a printer is long and goes through a long period of trial and error. This is one of prime reasons why so many companies have contributed to the development of printing technology.

Early Years Of HP Printers: How Did HP Start In Printers?

2008-11-04T15:26:00.002+05:30

When the history of the printer business is written HP will hold pride of place. Hewlett Packard has earned world-wide renown for its printers and various other electronic products that have not only made an intrinsic difference to the world of business but also to our daily lives.

The Start of HP

Before we tell you about HP printers; it’s important to give you a little bit of information about the beginnings of the company in general. It was in 1939 that Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett started working on an audio oscillator and laid the foundations for HP, in Paolo Alto in California. It was Walt Disney who helped the Company get off to a flyer after he bought several of the oscillators for his animation movie, Fantasia.

Getting into the Printer Business

There is no great story that needs to be told about the company getting into printers manufacturing. They have been widely credited as the pioneers of inkjet printing and laser printing, but as far as the invention of these printers goes, there is no one single manufacturer or inventor that can be credited with their invention. The company entered into the printers market in the normal course of events in an attempt to satisfying an ever increasing business demand for printers.

The Emergence of Their Printers

It was in 1984 that the first HP printers of the inkjet and laser variety made their entry into the market. These printers were specifically meant for the desktop models. It was in the 90s that the company decided to enter the printer market with a bang and the fact that their computers had become extremely popular meant that the demand for their printers was increasing like never before. The company started marketing their printers for the average consumer and not just for the offices.

A Brief Timeline

HP started its research in inkjet technology at HP labs, way back in 1978. At that point of time, there were quite a few large, industrial inkjet marking devices that were in use, however, these devices were considered unsuitable for use in the process of document printing. In the year 1984, low priced personal HP printers were introduced in the market known as ThinkJet. It was far superior to other printers in the market at that point of time and offered superior printing quality and that too at affordable rates and printer ink cartridges. This spelt the end for noisy dot-matrix printers.

Popularity

Over the many years that it has been in the printer business, HP has made a mark for itself with its reliability, quality, and affordability. The ancillary printing supplies associated with HP printers are easily available in the market including cartridges, etc. Moreover, customer support is easily available and thus a person is able to maintain his or her printer in the best possible manner. The HP history of its printers is a journey of success brought through by cutting edge research and development.

Early Years Of Brother Printer Company: Brief History

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There are so many printer companies in the world today that it is difficult to keep track of them. More and more companies are exploring the opportunities thrown open by the increasing demand for printers and are coming out with new models promising better quality and reliability. However, there are some companies who have done pioneering work in terms of printing technology and have been there throughout the course of the printer history. The Brother Printer Company is one such manufacturer who has always been associated with high quality printers.

The Brother Industries

Brother Industries Ltd is a Japanese company that produces a diverse range of products including label printers, printers, Brother multifunction printers, machine tools, sewing machines, typewriters and many other computer related electronics. In the world of printers the Brother Printer Company is known for its quality, reliability, and efficacy of its printer models and the company has gravitated from distributing various printers under OEM agreement with other companies to distributing products under its own name. Today the Brother Printer Company is as big a name as many of its contemporaries in the market like HP, Canon, and various others.

Early History

An interesting fact to note is that the Brother Printer Company did not start out as a printer company. It was a company that started out manufacturing sewing machines in 1908. Back in the those days the company went by the name of Yasui Sewing Machine Co. and was founded by Kanekichi Yasui in Nagoya, Japan. In 1934, the company changed its name to Nippon Sewing Machine Manufacturing Co.

Growth and Printers

In the 1950s the company began to call itself the Brother International Corporation and started the overseas export of their sewing machines. They were very successful in this regard and have been credited with many advances in the sphere of knitting machines and home appliances during this time. However, it was not until 1971 that the semblance of the Brother Printer Company came into being when they created the revolutionary new high-speed dot matrix printers.

In early 2003, the Brother Printer Company brought out its multi-function devices into the market. These were printing devices and over time these Brother printers have been widely appreciated. When it comes to printers and printer ink cartridges sales, the Brother Printer Company is widely regarded as one of the front runners.

A Brief Timeline of Brother Printers

It was in 1971 that the Brother Printer Company launched the worlds first high speed dot matrix printers. In the year 1985 the UK arm of Brother Industries started the production of electronic typewriters. In 2003, the China based, Shenzhen, arm of Brother Industries started the production of multi-function products including printers

Differences / Similarities Between Ink Cartridges, Laser Toner Cartridges & Printer Ribbons

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Ink cartridges, laser toner cartridges, or printer ribbons; are all an integral components of printers systems, without which all printers are practically useless. These are the components through which the end product of printing is visible to us. These components contain the ink, which spreads on the paper during the process of printing. The market is replete with a wide variety of cartridges manufactured by different manufacturers and that can be used in different types of printers.

The Concept of Similarities and Dissimilarities

When you talk about cartridge’s one must understand that there are quite a number of similarities between the composition, structure, and usage of the three cartridges. After all the basic concepts between the designs remains similar and only a few minor changes distinguish them from each other. However, one must also understand the fact that there similarities does not mean that they use can be interchanged. Ink cartridges can only be used in ink jet printers.

The Similarities

Typically there are two separate cartridges that are inserted into the printers, one is a colored cartridge filled with the three primary colors while the other is a black cartridge. In laser toner cartridges there is no ink but there is a toner which is a material that facilitates laser printings. However, the coloring parameters remain the same.

Both ink cartridges and the laser variety can be refilled and thus users can save money on the cost of buying a whole new cartridge. Even printer ribbons can be refilled; however, the process of refilling will differ.

Differences

Apart from the technical differences associated with the three cartridges, and the process of printing in general, there are differences related to the quality of the print, cost, and speed of printing. When it comes to printing speed printer ribbons are the slowest of the lot while cartridges using laser toners are the fastest. Moreover, with regards to cost, the cartridges for laser printers are more expensive than their ink based counterparts. This is because the cartridges for laser printers offer the best printing output and are faster than the other cartridges. One can take out a large number of print outs of the same superior quality unlike in ink cartridges wherein the results start getting blurry quite quickly on account of the ink running out.

None is better than the Other

If you look at the similarities and differences, you will see that you cannot judge the cartridges based on them. You cannot say that one is better than the other, as it’s completely your choice as to which printer you own and thus the cartridges that you are going to use. Experts will tell you that laser toner cartridges are the best amongst the three, but for that you must have laser printers, which in itself is expensive and so are its cartridges.

The Top Five Digital Cameras Under $300 For 2008

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If you are not a professional photographer, or if you are not taking up photography as a hobby, you do not have to get a really expensive digital camera if your only purpose for it is to capture the great moments in your life. The digital camera you would need would be something that you can whip out when something nice happens at home. It would also be something that you can easily bring along to special events and to your travels.

You can find such a digital camera to suit your needs for under $300. The five best digital cameras that you can get for under $300 are listed below.

Canon PowerShot A720 IS. Many experts in digital cameras have opined that the Canon PowerShot series is the best line available in the market today. It is therefore not surprising that it has cornered a good portion of the market.

What makes this particular digital camera so special? For one, it has 8.0 megapixels and its lenses have a 6x zoom. It also boasts of an increased usability that makes it easy for the person using it to control the pictures he or she is taking.

Nikon Coolpix P50. This digital camera poses itself to be a middle-ground camera. As it is, it is a good startup camera for anyone who wishes to learn serious photography, but it is wieldy enough to serve ordinary point-and-shoot picture-taking purposes. This Nikon digital camera model has 8.1 megapixels, and it also has a 3.6x zoom with a wide angle.

Canon SD1100 IS. Another digital camera coming out of Canon’s production line, this model introduces a couple of new features that were not yet seen in other digital cameras, be it from Canon or from any other brand. These features in particular are face detection and motion detection. Both are aimed at preventing picture blurring

Sony CyberShot DSC H10. This digital camera is designed for photographers on a tight budget – great for heavy-duty shooting and yet going for a mere price of less than $300. It has 8.1 million effective pixels and is fitted with a 10x optical zoom manufactured by Carl Zeiss.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5. This model from the Panasonic digital camera lineup is dubbed as a “Travel Zoom” camera. It has a powerful zoom lens – a 10x optical zoom – and yet the gadget itself is quite slim and handy. It boasts of 10.7 million pixels, a high-resolution 3.0 LCD screen, and the ability to make movies with a resolution of up to 1280 x 720 pixels. Other than that, it has 22 shooting modes and a built-in clipboard.

These are the five best digital cameras that people with $300 to spare can buy. Take your pick.

Launching A School Recycling Program

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A school recycling program bestows two main benefits to the schools that conduct them. The first benefit is that a school recycling program helps teach students the value of recycling and the role that recycling plays in saving the environment. The second benefit is that the school can treat it as a means of raising funds to buy equipment and tools that will enhance the learning atmosphere within their premises.

It is quite simple to hold a school recycling program in your school. Here are a few steps to bear in mind in launching one.

Do a bit of research and make a survey of the local recycling centers. Find out what materials they accept for recycling, how much they pay for these materials and if they require fees. Another thing that you should know is whether they would pick up the recyclables from the school or they need you to bring the recyclables to the center.

Based on what you have learned, decide what materials you are going to collect in your school for the recycling program. The materials most commonly gathered for such projects are paper, plastics, CDs, floppy disks and printer ink cartridges.

Organize a committee that will oversee the school recycling program. It could be a group of teachers or the student council. It does not matter which one would take charge of the project as long as someone is taking responsibility for it.

Designate places in your school premises where the recycling receptacles will be placed. Provide separate containers for your recyclable materials – one for paper, one for plastics, one for printer cartridges and such. It is very important that these places are accessible to the students. Putting up recycling spots that are accessible to the students will encourage them to participate actively in the school recycling program. Also, make sure that this place is kept clean at all times.

Make it a point to promote the school recycling program as much as you can. Have reminders announced during school assembly. Have posters put up on bulletin boards showing the location of the recycling receptacles in the school premises. You may even get a contest or a point system going in order to encourage the students further to participate in the project.

Invite an expert to hold special lectures or Q&A sessions on recycling and its importance. This would be a great way to educate the students on the value of recycling and encourage them to participate in the school recycling program. As an alternative, you can organize the teachers and have them give this special lecture themselves.

School recycling programs are known to be effective, and many students even find them fun.

Fun Kids’ Crafts & Toys To Do With Your 5 Year Old On Your Inkjet Printer

2008-11-04T15:23:00.007+05:30

Kids these days may prefer to play with their computers, PlayStations, Xboxes or Nintendo Wiis. Yes, even five-year-olds these days know how to use those gadgets, and many of them actually do. However, a creative parent would be able to divert the attention of their little ones with the use of some paper and their trusty inkjet printer.

The trick is to create toys and kids’ crafts with your inkjet printer. Here are a few ideas that you can use.

Jigsaw puzzles. You can download software that can create a jigsaw pattern on any picture. Use this on some of your child’s favorite pictures and print them on matte paper using your inkjet printer. Afterwards, you glue this pattern onto a piece of cardboard then cut it up to come up with the jigsaw puzzle pieces.

Coloring sheets. Some parents may think of coloring books as a bit old-fashioned, but they are still a great way of teaching children about colors, shapes and space. Your own kids will no doubt enjoy them. But you do not have to buy coloring books; you can just create coloring sheets using your own inkjet printer. You can download coloring patterns from the Internet, or make your own if you are handy with photo-editing software. Once you have printed out a bunch, hand them over to your kid along with a box of crayons and your child will be entertained for a whole afternoon.

Pretend food. If you are into baking customized pastries and cakes and if you have an inkjet printer that is dedicated to the creation of edible printouts, you can create pretend food for your kids. It does not even have to be pretend food at all. You can cook up your very own toffee or chocolate bar and wrap it up with your special edible inks. You can even use it to make a marshmallow wrap.

Scrapbooking. It is never too early to start scrapbooking, and you can teach your child how to make one using your inkjet printer. Maybe instead of using actual photos, you can print family photos on your inkjet printer. And then, you can give these printouts to your kids, along with materials used for scrapbooking that they will not choke on or injure themselves with, such as cardboard, colored paper and ribbons, and let them have a go at their own scrapbooking project.

“Rubber stamps”. Kids love playing with rubber stamps. You can make your very own unique “rubber stamp” by printing a pattern or a figure that you want on glossy or smooth paper using your inkjet printer. Once the paper is out of your inkjet printer, you can press the printed surface of this glossy paper on a dry and absorbent paper, and then you would have an imprint. While this may not be practical for daily play, it could be a wonderful way of adorning notebooks and scrapbooks.

There are many ways that you can entertain your children using an inkjet printer. You just have to be creative at finding these ways.

Finding Printer Drivers For Outdated Operating Systems

2008-11-04T15:23:00.006+05:30

Gadget geeks, especially those who love to get their hands on the latest hardware and software out there as soon as they can, would have raced to get Windows Vista installed on their computers. If they are Mac users, they would have gotten the Mac OS X Leopard as soon as it got out.

This behavior, however, definitely does not apply to everyone, and there are even some people out there who are clinging stubbornly to their old operating systems, such as Windows XP, Windows ME, or even Windows 98 and 95. And what is not to love about these old operating systems? They are still stable and very much functional. Besides, there is a saying that if it is not broken, it should not be fixed.

Sticking to an old operating system, however, does have its disadvantages. Finding printer drivers that will work on the old operating system is just one of them. Like all companies involved in manufacturing parts and equipment for computers, companies that design and produce printers have to keep up with the latest operating systems, and this time it is Windows Vista and Mac OS X Leopard. They have to churn out printer drivers that will work on these new operating systems. Also, they have to cease providing old printer drivers for old operating systems because it is less economical for them to maintain support for these printer drivers.

The best source of the printer driver is the printer’s original installation disk. Some owners, however, tend to misplace old disks once the printer has been installed into the computer for the first time. Because the manufacturer of the printer has already ceased support for the old operating systems, it would be a miracle to find the appropriate printer drivers in its website.

And then there is the Microsoft website, or the Apple website, for those who use the Mac operating systems. These websites may have the appropriate printer drivers still available in their pages for downloads, so any user of an old operating system may search these pages for the printer driver that he or she needs.

When all of the above methods described above fail, then there is no other resort but to open a search engine, such as Google or Yahoo, and search for any resource website that has the printer driver stored within its pages and available for download. There is a caveat in doing this, however.

The top websites for downloads, such as CNet’s downloads.com and PC World’s website, guarantee that the files available for download on their servers are safe. The same cannot be said of other sources for printer drivers. Be careful – it may contain a virus or an adware.

How Thermal Transfer Printers Work

2008-11-04T15:23:00.005+05:30

Whenever we make a purchase at a shop or at a supermarket, more often than not, we see a little printer next to the cash register at the checkout counter. That little printer, called a thermal transfer printer, prints out receipts, and is a minute detail in an elaborate system called point-of-sale system or POS. Have you ever wondered how a thermal transfer printer works?

As its name implies, a thermal transfer printer is dependent on heat. It makes use of a special form of paper, called thermal paper, and a ribbon with solid “ink” or resin with a polyester film backing. When you open a thermal transfer printer, you will see the rolled thermal paper nestled within, just beneath the printer head. Sandwiched between the thermal paper and the printer head is the ribbon.

When the thermal transfer printer is used, what happens is that the printer head generates heat. Just what pixels or dots are heated on the printer head depends on the characters that are being printed. The heat is then transmitted through the polyester backing of the ribbon, and it causes the resin or the “ink” on the ribbon cartridge to melt. When the “ink” melts, it comes into contact with the thermal paper to form the characters.

This process happens very fast. Ideally, the printout speed of a thermal transfer printer is 12 inches per second, but most machines being used in shops or supermarkets make do with speeds of only up to 6 inches per second.

The process of how thermal transfer printers generate their printouts is quite simple. This is also the principle behind how thermal fax machines work.

The ink on the ribbons used on thermal transfer printers are not really ink. This substance is often made of wax, a mixture of wax and resin, or pure resin. Ribbons made with pure wax are the least durable of the three, and they are often used to print out barcodes and labels.

Ribbons made with mixed wax and resins are a lot more durable than those made of pure wax. They are used for printing finer images on smoother paper, or on film-coated paper. Despite their increased durability, printouts made from thermal transfer printers using ribbons with mixed wax and resin should still be protected from moisture and chemical exposure.

Ribbons made with pure resin are not used for POS and checkout systems. They are for printing on plastics. The printouts made from these ribbons are the most durable, and they require minimum protection from chemicals or the elements.

Thermal transfer printers are simple machines that work using simple processes. And yet, they are a minute but definitely essential detail in an entire POS system.

A Profile Of Savin Corporation

2008-11-04T15:23:00.004+05:30

What do we know about the Savin Corporation? The Savin Corporation, as far as anyone knows, is a company that specialized in developing digital imaging technologies. These technologies are then applied and implemented to the manufacture of photocopying machines, fax machines and printers. Savin is a respected brand name with its own niche in the printing industry, and perhaps it is this reason that prompted Ricoh Company, Ltd. to acquire it as one of its subsidiaries in 1995.

A Short History of Savin Corporation

Savin Corporation has its roots in the United States, in Stanford, Connecticut. Its corporate headquarters is still located there. The company was founded in 1959 by Max Lowe, who had named the company after his brother-in-law, Robert Savin.

Over the years, Savin Corporation has built its strength on the technologies they have developed in digital imaging. The brand name then became associated with innovation and quality in its own niche. Among its products are photocopying machines and fax machines, as well as the copy paper and developing liquids used in those machines. Savin Corporation also offers repairs and service work for their own products, as well as consultation services on creating networks and office systems.

Eventually, Savin Corporation was able to build a network of 250 offices and service centers throughout the United States. It also posted annual revenue amounting to US$675 million.

Perhaps because of its reputation and standing in the printing industry, Ricoh Company, Ltd. sought and bought Savin Corporation in 1995. Savin Corporation continues to grow under the banner of Ricoh as its wholly owned subsidiary.

The Services of Savin

Savin Corporation, according to its official website, is more oriented towards helping their clients focus on their business rather than on the processes that are involved in making that business. Their main aim is to digitize office processes to make it less dependent on paper and to minimize the challenges brought about by paper-dependent office processes.

How is this done? Savin does it through the following:

By creating a document portal that is supposed to make documents more accessible through scanning, sorting and indexing for easy reference, retrieval and distribution.

By providing a system of storage that eliminates the problems and risks posed by keeping a paper-based filing system. This system is supposed to be easier to manage and access.

By putting in software solutions that would make the output of forms more efficient and secure.

Because Savin Corporation is a subsidiary of Ricoh Company, Ltd., there is a huge emphasis on keeping the company’s techniques and systems more sustainable and friendlier to the environment. Just like the other companies that make up the Ricoh Group, Savin has gained recognition through the years for its efforts in implementing such sustainable and environment-conscious practices.

The History Of Ricoh Company, Ltd.

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The Ricoh brand is one of the most respected brand names in cameras, office equipment and industrial equipment in the world today. It is a brand name that is associated with innovative and enterprising technology, and it is a reputation that the Ricoh Company, Ltd. has carefully cultivated in the seventy years since it was founded.

The Beginnings of the Ricoh Company

Ricoh Company, Ltd. was established in Tokyo, Japan on February 6, 1936. It was the brainchild of Kiyoshi Ichimura, an ambitious and enterprising son of a poor farmer. Ichimura, at that time, did not have any privileges or opportunities available to him to speak of, so he created his own opportunities. Thus, he founded the company that was then known as Riken Kankoshi Co., Ltd., a company that produces optical devices and equipment. The name was changed two years later to Riken Optical Co.

It was in these early years that Ricoh began building a reputation for being an innovator. In 1950, the company came up with the very first twin-lens reflex camera that is produced en masse – the first ever in the world. This camera is none other than the RicohFlex III.

The company continuously developed its system and techniques for mass-producing cameras, and its efforts were recognized when it was awarded the Ohkochi Memorial Production Prize in 1957. It was also during the 1950s when the company came up with their first line of desktop copying machines, notably the Ricopy 101.

The Global Expansion

In 1960, the company established its first ever offshore subsidiary in Korea. In 1962, it opened its subsidiary in the United States, Ricoh Industries USA. Later on, in 1970, this subsidiary was merged with the company’s office in New York City, leading to the formation of Ricoh of America. Other subsidiary companies were formed in Switzerland, Taiwan and Holland.

Meanwhile, the spirit of innovation lived on. Ricoh began involving itself in the production of sensitized paper and other paper products, as well as creating new and better kinds of office equipments and cameras. It was also at this time that they built a department that is supposed to be wholly concerned with the research and development that Ricoh would need in order to see further progress in the future.

The Ricoh Company Today

Right now, the Ricoh Company, Ltd. is one of multinational companies originating from Japan today. Its website boasts of US$17 billion in annual revenue. It also has 81,900 employees working in 150 offices all over the world. The company has also acquired naming rights to a football stadium in Coventry, England and an indoor arena in Toronto, Canada. It is also active in the sports scene, being the owner of the Ricoh Black Rams, a rugby union team in Japan, and being a major sponsor of the Women’s British Open.

But for all this, Ricoh has shown more commitment in making its systems and processes friendlier to the environment. It has garnered numerous awards from all over the world for this endeavor.

How To Clean A Clogged Printer Head

2008-11-04T15:23:00.002+05:30

Clogged printer heads are a definite hassle to all printer owners. It is not just because clogged printer heads greatly affect the quality of the printing job done on the affected printers, but they can eventually lead to damage to the printer. It is very important to clean out printer heads when they are clogged, but it would be a lot better if we conduct preventive maintenance on our printers to keep them from developing clogged printer heads.

Clearing Clogs from a Printer Head

Most printers these days have systems built into them that allow them to clean their printer heads. This is done by initiating the printer’s cleaning cycles. Ideally, printer cleaning cycles must be started up once a week to prevent the printer head from getting clogged.

The downside to performing the printer cleaning cycles is that it wastes a lot of ink. We all know how expensive printer ink cartridges can get, and the printer cleaning cycles are not an efficient way to use printer ink.

There are other, ink-efficient ways to be able to clean printer heads that will prevent their clogging just as effectively. One such way is to brush the printer heads with Q-tips soaked in water. Sources vary on whether alcohol would be more effective than water, but in the opinion of some printer resources, alcohol can be harmful to printer heads and should thus be avoided.

Another way of preventing clogged printer heads is to buy a cleaning cartridge and use it regularly on your printer. A typical cleaning kit usually has a tube of ammonia that you can spray on the printer head and remove the dried ink.

Preventing Printer Head Clogging

Cleaning clogged printer heads can be a real hassle, but the condition is very much preventable. The main method of preventing printer heads from getting clogged is to use the printer. In fact, a lot of experts are saying that it is better to print one colorful page a week than to run a printer cleaning cycle because doing so uses a lot less ink. In general, using the printer prevents the ink in the printer cartridges to dry up.

Keeping the printer free from dirt and debris also helps a lot in preventing the printer heads from getting clogged. However, dirt and debris should never be cleaned from the printer using a vacuum cleaner because it can cause the circuitry of the printer to get fried. When that happens, you would have a bigger problem than simply dealing with clogged printer heads.

If you need to store your printer away, it would be best to take the printer cartridge out. Also, never touch the printer head with oily or dirty hands. Doing thus will leave skin oil on the printer head and add to the possibility of it getting clogged.

Wide Format Printers for Special Uses

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Wide format printers may be considered one of the great innovations of the digital printing industry. After all, such machines have made it possible to produce huge, even gigantic prints without suffering any loss in terms of picture quality and color accuracy. However, wide format printers are specialized printers. They are not the type of printers to be found in households in general.

When we speak of wide format printers, we refer to those printing machines that produce prints ranging from a width of 17 inches to a hundred inches. Any machine that prints wider than that range is called a super-wide format printer. Usually, a wide format printer makes use of a roll of paper or textile rather than sheets to do its job.

Exactly what printing needs do wide format printers serve? Below is a list of the general uses of a wide format printer.

Party banners. Party planners and events coordinators always opt for professional-looking banners to decorate the venues for their parties and events. Party banners made using wide format printers are produced much faster and are more economical than other commercial printing processes. But such is not limited to party planners and events coordinators. Even people who host parties in the privacy of their own homes opt for party banners made with wide format printers because they are prettier.

Engineering and architectural plans. The plans produced by engineering and architectural firms need to be detailed, and printing them the regular way would not cut it. These firms use wide format printers to produce their plans, drawings and diagrams.

Education. Wide format printers are sometimes used to print out visual aids in lectures and educational programs. Materials printed for this purpose often include maps and copies of valuable art. There are museums that make use of wide format printers to produce copies of the art objects and artifacts in their keeping and use them on traveling lectures. It is much better than transporting the original pieces all the time.

Graphic design. Graphic design artists often use wide format printers to create samples of their work, especially when they are put on display for presentations, exhibitions and such.

Interior design and decoration. There are people who can get creative with how they decorate their house with the use of wide format printers. Some print their own posters and wall hangings using fabric that is friendly with wide format printers. People who cannot afford buying real art can make do with copies made using wide format printers and display them at home.

Working With Edible Ink

2008-11-04T15:23:00.000+05:30

Edible ink is probably one of the most interesting – not to mention delectable – inventions made these past few years. If you have seen a photo image on the icing of a cake at least once, then you have had your encounter with edible ink and have eaten it too.

Edible ink is ink that is made mostly out of food coloring. Most brands of edible ink are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and thus are safe to eat. Among the big-name manufacturers of printer inks, Hewlett-Packard, Canon and Epson stand out as producers of edible inks, although there are many stores, both online and offline, that specialize in creating and selling their own edible inks

Uses of Edible Ink

Most of the time, we see edible inks being used on pastry products. Cakes are a prime example. Personalizing and customizing is the in thing these days, and a lot of bakeshops these days are offering personalized cakes using photos printed on edible paper with edible ink. Such designs on cakes used to be limited to birthday cakes, but now, any cake can be adorned with photos printed with edible ink, including the usually traditional wedding cakes.

Printing with Edible Ink

The manufacturing of edible inks is regulated by the FDA, and so they are generally safe. The edible paper sheets upon which these inks are used are made usually from rice or starch, and thus they are safe to eat, too.

As for the printer, any inkjet printer made by HP, Canon or Epson can be used for printing with edible ink. Manufacturers of edible ink always tell which printers are compatible with their compatible inks. There is a catch, though. Any printer that is used for working with edible ink must never be used on any other regular printing job. Regular inks are toxic when ingested; thus, any printer used for printing with edible ink should be a printer dedicated for that purpose only.

However, it is possible to convert an old printer that has been used for regular printing jobs as a printer for edible ink. All that you need to do is to clean the printer, especially the printer head, thoroughly to remove all traces of the regular ink that was once used with it. To be on the safe side, you can also replace the printer head with one that is designed more suitably for working with edible ink.

It is fun to work with edible ink, not just in baking. It is a tasty way of playing with computers, and it is safe, too.

How To Find Help In Troubleshooting Your Samsung Printer

2008-11-03T22:26:00.000+05:30

Printers, no matter how well you take care of them or how properly you use them, will have to give in to the pressure of wearing and tearing that comes with their use. The breaking down of a printer is inevitable over the passage of time, even if the said machine is a Samsung printer. When that happens, it becomes your task to find ways to troubleshoot the machine, which is the first thing you must do.

The First Steps

When your Samsung printer is new, you should anticipate the time that you would have to troubleshoot it after a period of usage. No matter how good the quality of the machine is, machines have a nasty habit of generating errors when you least expect it.

So, in anticipation of such a time, you should store the user manual that came with your Samsung printer as well as the warranty card or certificate that you signed up for when you bought it. Put these in a safe place where you would not forget about them. Naturally, the software that your Samsung printer comes with would have this manual installed in your computer, but it is always better to be on the safe side. Thus, when your Samsung printer decides to behave badly, you can always pull out your manual and consult it in attempting to troubleshoot the printer.

When the Manual is Missing or Out of Date

There will be times when the user manual that came with your Samsung printer would not be of help to you. In that case, the better alternative would be to get in touch with the customer support service of Samsung and see if they can do something about your problem in troubleshooting your Samsung printer. You can contact the Samsung customer support through their website or through their hotline number.

When you get in touch with customer support, take a note of model number of your printer. Each machine has its own quirks, so to speak, and a problem experienced with a particular model of the Samsung printer may be something uniquely its own. So, provide the model number of your Samsung printer when asked and describe in detail your problem. If you have the error code that your printer generates when you try to use it, even better.

Another thing you can do in your attempt to troubleshoot Samsung printer is to search blogs, tech forums and other tech websites for possible information on the error code that your printer generates when used. These resources may provide additional information that you may not find from Samsung’s side itself. They may help you understand what is it that is making your Samsung printer behave like so.

There is always a solution to every problem, even if that problem involves troubleshooting your Samsung printer.

The Big Brothers Big Sisters International

2008-11-03T22:23:00.000+05:30

The Big Brothers Big Sisters International, or BBBSI, is considered to be one of the best brand names that the United States of America has ever offered to the world. The BBBSI is a non-government, non-profit organization that was created for the purpose of offering one-on-one mentoring to young people in challenging situations. Forbes Magazine has once named it as the best charitable organization in the United States.

The Origins of BBBSI

The BBBSI started out as a small organization in New York City more than a hundred years ago, in 1904. At that time, a court clerk named Ernest Coulter began work for the New York City Children’s Court. He found himself disturbed by the fact that so many young boys were finding themselves in this courtroom.

Out of this idea, Ernest Coulter decided to form the Big Brothers of New York City. He got a number of volunteers, and each volunteer was supposed to befriend a young boy in challenging circumstances. At about the same time, the Ladies of Charity of New York City began to work with young girls who were brought to the New York City Children’s Court. Later on, the Ladies of Charity became known as the Big Sisters.

Through the efforts of its founders, the work of the Big Brothers and the Big Sisters spread throughout the United States, gaining support all the way. In 1925, President Calvin Coolidge became one of its patrons. Many other US presidents and notable figures in American politics lend their efforts to the work done by these two organizations.

In 1977, these two separate organizations merged and became the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. In 1998, the organization went international and became the Big Brothers Big Sisters International. They have an established presence in 11 countries outside the United States, namely Australia, Bermuda, Bulgaria, Canada, Ireland, Israel, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia and South Africa.

The Impact of BBBSI

BBBSI deploys volunteers, called Bigs, who are required to spend four hours every month with their Littles. The volunteers are rigorously screened by the BBBSI staff through interviews and background investigations.

There are studies reporting that spending time with adult mentors has truly led to a lot of positive effects among young people. As stated by the BBBSI official website, after 18 months of being mentored by a Big Brother or a Big Sister, the kids are less likely to get involved in using illegal drugs or alcohol, and are more likely to attend school regularly. Self-confidence is another reported result of spending time with a Big Brother or a Big Sister. Another outcome of mentoring is an increased ability to adjust to family members and to mingle with other people.

Ways To Use Epsom Salt For Healthy Living

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Epsom salt is a chemical compound that has proven itself for having many uses. One such use that people have discovered for Epsom salt is for promoting good health. Why has Epsom salt come to be associated with healthy living? That is because Epsom salt has magnesium, and magnesium is a very important element in making sure that our bodies are functioning as they should.

By what ways can we use Epsom salt to help keep our bodies in tiptop shape? Here is a list of a few things we can do with Epsom salt for our health.

As bath salts. Epsom salt was first used as bath salts. A good soak in a tub filled with warm water and mixed with two cups of Epsom salt is great for detoxifying the body and relieving stress.

As a foot soak. The feet are often the most abused parts of our bodies, and it is not surprising when we feel pain in our feet. Soaking the feet in warm water mixed with half a cup of Epsom salt can take the pain away from the feet. Doing so also helps reduce the appearance of varicose veins and helps treat athlete’s foot and other fungal ailments commonly afflicting the feet.

As a facial scrub. Epsom salt can be an effective agent in cleaning and exfoliating the face. Exfoliating the face is necessary because it sloughs away the layers of dead skin cells from the face and allows newer, healthier cells to emerge. This is easy to do; all that needs to be done is to mix a pinch of Epsom salt with the facial scrub and massage it onto the face. Afterwards, rinse it off.

As a body scrub. Just like the skin on the face, the skin on the body also needs to be exfoliated. But other than that, massaging Epsom salt all over the body can also promote better blood circulation, soften the rough parts and help in making the skin tone look more even. Just rub Epsom salt on your skin and rinse.

As a hair cleanser. The shampoo, conditioner and styling products that we use on our hair often leave remnants on each strand, leading to product buildup. When product buildup happens on the hair, it can be hard for the nutrients supposedly supplied by shampoo and conditioner to be absorbed by the hair. To clear the hair of product buildup, mix Epsom salt with your shampoo and rinse thoroughly.

These are just some of the uses Epsom salt has that can help promote bodily health. Having some Epsom salt at home is always handy.

All You Need To Know About Epsom Salt

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What is Epsom salt? Epsom salt is the name by which most people know the chemical compound magnesium sulfate, with the formula MgSO4. The compound is more popularly called by that name because it was first discovered in Epsom, England, where it was distilled and marketed primarily as a bath salt. The knowledge of Epsom salt and its many uses have been with us since the 1500s.

As mentioned above, Epsom salt has many uses, more than just being a bath salt. It is used in gardening and agriculture, in medical treatments, in beauty treatments, and in the production of tofu.

The Agricultural Uses of Epsom Salt

Plants derive energy from sunlight and the process that allows them to do this is called photosynthesis. The main component that lets plants get this energy is in turn called chlorophyll, and chlorophyll is made up of magnesium. Applying Epsom salts to plants, especially potted plants left indoors most of the time, encourages these plants to get more energy despite their limited exposure to the sun.

Epsom Salt in Medical Treatments

Epsom salt has properties that make it useful in treating patients with various illnesses. One of the uses of Epsom salt in medicine is as part of the procedure used by doctors in emergency rooms to revive patients who have suffered from cardiac arrest.

Epsom salt is also sometimes prescribed by doctors to treat patients suffering from colds, respiratory congestion and asthma. In the maternity ward and the nursery, Epsom salt is administered to delay or prolong the labor in women who are experiencing it prematurely. There are studies showing that intravenous application of Epsom salt to premature babies prevent the development of cerebral palsy in them.

In first aid, Epsom salt is applied to treat boils and carbuncles. It is also known to draw splinters from a wound.

The main use of Epsom salt comes in pain relief. Gels and compounds containing Epsom salt are given to patients suffering from fibromyalgia and osteoporosis. It also flushes out the toxins in the body that are brought about by stress and replenishes the magnesium that stress seeps away from the body. It relaxes the muscles and soothes away the pain.

Epsom Salt in Beauty Treatments

Aside from giving stress relief, which is also part of the aim of beauty treatments, Epsom salt also has clarifying properties that make it good for the skin and the hair. When used on the skin, it acts as an exfoliating agent and sloughs off the layers of dead cells from the skin. The clarifying properties of Epsom salt also help in treating excessively oily skin and in reducing the appearance of wrinkles.

The Recycling Program of San Diego, California

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Recycling is an endeavor that the city of San Diego has actively pursued for almost 20 years. The city’s recycling program is under the general supervision of the San Diego Environmental Services Department. Housed in Ridgehaven, which is considered to be one of the United States’ most energy efficient buildings, the San Diego Environmental Services Department’s recycling program has been very successful so far. The waste diversion rate of the city has gone up to 52% as of 2004.

Basically, the San Diego Environmental Services Department’s responsibilities cover: collection services, enforcement of the city’s waste reduction regulations, management of the landfill in Miramar, coordination with various recycling centers and education of the public on San Diego’s recycling program.

Waste Reduction Regulations

The city of San Diego has a number of regulations that its Environmental Services Department is enforcing. Included among these regulations are ordinances against littering, illegal dumping, scavenging, recycling contamination, leaving garbage and recycling bins out beyond collection hours, and others. To enforce these regulations, the city has officers that are assigned to patrol specific areas of the city.

The Miramar Landfill

The Miramar Landfill is the destination for most of the household refuse generated by San Diego. According to statistics, 1.4 million tons of garbage is buried there every year, but that figure is down from the 1.8 million tons being dumped at the landfill before the establishment of the San Diego Environmental Services Department in 1988.

The Miramar Recycling Center is located just within the entrance of the landfill. The recycling center accepts numerous recyclable materials, including TV monitors, computer monitors, printer ink cartridges and computer electronics. Scrap metal can also be recycled there, but for a small fee.

Recycling at Home

There are many options for householders to do their recycling at home. They can choose to do their recycling with the recycling centers under the San Diego Environmental Services Department, or with other private enterprises. Householders can also opt to donate their recyclables or to avail of paybacks.

Recyclables accepted in the blue recycling bins installed at curbsides by the city are: plastic bottles and jars; glass bottles and jars; newspapers, magazines, catalogues and telephone directories; paper and junk mail; cardboard, dry food packaging, paper bags and packaging; metal cans, foil and empty aerosol cans.

The recycling program of San Diego is considered to be one of the most successful in the United States. This recycling program is successful largely because of the active participation and cooperation of the city’s residents.

Setting Up A Recycling Program At Home

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There is a huge need for recycling to be done at home. For one, households are major consumers of goods as well as major producers of wastes. A good part of the garbage that is brought to the landfills comes from households.

But that is just one thing. Just like in anything, children learn their most important life lessons at home. In order to reinforce the need for our society to pursue recycling actively and to encourage the next generation to do that as well, kids should be taught to recycle at home.

The Importance of Recycling

Why do we need to recycle household wastes? We have all heard different kinds of arguments as to why recycling should be done in various media, but in summary, here are the four reasons why recycling is important.

Recycling saves our natural resources. Many household wastes are made up of plastics, wood products, metallic products, Styrofoam and other such products. These materials are created from natural resources such as wood, metal and petroleum. Our planet’s natural resources are limited and can be depleted. Recycling and reusing these products can extend the use of these materials.

Recycling reduces pollution. There are many household wastes that are non-biodegradable. Otherwise, they contain chemicals that can be harmful. When non-biodegradable materials end up in a landfill, they stay there for years and years. If they have chemicals, these chemicals can seep into the soil and pollute ground water. In some places, non-biodegradable materials are burned, and such an activity is a source of pollution.

Recycling saves up on space occupied by landfills. With the amount of garbage that households produce, it is becoming a problem where to put them. Landfills are not capable of accommodating the volumes of waste that our modern society produces. We do not exactly have other viable options to address the shrinking landfills, and creating new ones always pose another problem.

How Recycling Programs at Home Work

Recycling at home is a very simple process, but it takes work to maintain it and get it done consistently. The key to a good recycling program at home is consistency.

Here are tips on how to set up recycling at home.

Pick a place at your home where it is most convenient for all the household members to do their recycling. It could be the garage or the patio, or any place in your home that is not out of the way for anyone. Set up that place so that it is easy to clean and to gather the recyclable materials. Assign a separate receptacle for each type of recyclable: paper, metallic objects, cardboard, glass and plastics even printer ink cartridges.

Do you wish to donate your recyclables? Do you wish them to be collected by a franchised hauler? Or do you want to be paid back for your recyclables? Whatever decision you make on this one will affect how your recyclables will be collected or disposed of.

Again, recycling at home should be maintained consistently. It is the only way for it to be successful.

Cartridge World: A Profile

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Cartridge World has long been known as one of the most successful exports of Australia. A pioneer in the printer cartridge refilling industry, Cartridge World has almost two thousand refilling stations all over the world, making it the biggest company that specializes in ink refilling these days. Cartridge World has a presence in 74 countries, and they have more than 700 stores in the United States alone.

The Corporate History of Cartridge World

As mentioned above, Cartridge World originated in Australia. It was founded by Bryan Stokes in 1991, and at the time, Cartridge World was known by the name Australia Cartridge, Co. Bryan Stokes pulled in Paul Wheeler as a partner a few years later, and in 1999, Australia Cartridge, Co. transformed into Cartridge World. At this time, the company began expanding all over Australia and outside of it.

Cartridge World works on a franchising system. Reports have shown that in the printer cartridge refilling industry, the company owns 18% of the market share, and this percentage translates to around $30 billion in annual revenue. As of the first quarter of 2008, Cartridge World has 1,984 stores in 74 countries. Of these, 763 are located in the United States.

What Makes Cartridge World Good

The beauty that Cartridge World offers is something most of its competitors are already banking on: convenience and savings for the consumer. OEM cartridges, after all, are pretty expensive. OEMs do churn out cheap printers, but oftentimes their profit comes from their consumable products, like printer cartridges and special types of printer paper. Compared to these OEM products, getting compatible ink refills from companies like Cartridge World is a lot less costly.

Challenges Faced by Cartridge World

Just like most big franchise companies, Cartridge World faces tough competition from other enterprises seeking to dethrone it from its position of supremacy. Also, OEMs such as Hewlett-Packard and Canon are making it more troublesome for Cartridge World to refill HP and Canon printer cartridges with compatible replacement ink by introducing new printing technologies and asserting their patent rights. It is now up to Cartridge World to take a step ahead of both their competitors and the OEMs by beefing up their research and becoming more innovative.

Where to Find Cartridge World in Southern California

There are 700-odd Cartridge World stores in the United States, and a number of them are in Southern California, particularly Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange County. Here are the addresses of some Cartridge World franchises.

6380 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA

1852N Tustin Street, Orange, CA

3952H Clairemont Mesa Blvd., San Diego, CA

11743 Whittier Blvd., Whittier, CA

Where To Go In San Diego When Your Printer Needs Repair

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Printers conk on us; that is what they do, sometimes. It could be for many, various reasons. Maybe there is something wrong with the circuitry that made it fail to power up or communicate with the printer properly.

Maybe we spilled something on it and we did not exactly do anything afterwards. When printers conk on us, the only thing to do is to get the printer repaired. Maybe there is a jam or a loose thread somewhere inside the machine. Maybe we used ink that is incompatible with it in our effort to save on printer ink cartridges.

If you live in San Diego, where should you go to get a repair job done for your printer? To find the place where you could take your printer for repairs, all you need to do is to open your local yellow pages, whether that big, bulky book that people sometimes subscribe to from the Yellow Pages Company, or its online versions and other directory listings on the Internet. There are probably dozens of stores that offer printer repair services in San Diego.

Here are a handful of store names that we pulled out from different online city searches for San Diego that give printer repair services to its clients.

PG Technical Services. A business that started out in 1990, PG Technical Services began as a company that offered health care services to residents of San Diego. They have long since diversified, and among the other ventures they have entered into are computer and network services, including printer repair.

San Diego Copiers and Office Products. This company is mainly into sales, specializing in copiers, computers, office supplies and office furniture. They claim to have around 30,000 products listed in their inventories from more than a hundred different manufacturers. But inasmuch as their orientation is sales, they also offer printer repair services for their clients, and they state that their response time is no more than four hours.

Printer Repair Depot. Located along Clairmont Mesa Boulevard, Printer Repair Depot is a shop that specializes in printer repairs and printer sales. They are reputed to give fast and quality service not just to San Diego residents but to the whole of South California.

Choosing a Printer Repair Shop

As much as possible, we should take our conked out printers to the service centers accredited by their manufacturers when they need repair. The reason for this is that accredited service centers are more than highly likely to have the genuine parts needed in the required printer repair.

In the absence of available accredited service centers, aside from the fact that their services can be more costly, there are other repair shops that we can take our printers to. Before we let the people in these repair shops touch our printers, we should consider not just the speed by which they can get repairs done, but also a guarantee that their repair jobs are done with high quality standards. This guarantee can come in a form of a warranty.

How To Recycle Printer Cartridges In San Diego

2008-11-03T22:02:00.000+05:30

Recycling printer cartridges is not just some growing fad that is happening these days. It is a sign that many people are finally taking seriously the call to conserve the planet’s dwindling natural resources and to save it from further harm caused by waste products. The additional bonus is that people can actually save money, if not earn a little money, from recycling printer cartridges.

Why Recycle Printer Cartridges?

For some people, the printer cartridge is nothing more than a small plastic case containing ink for the printers that they use. However, as small as a printer cartridge may be, it represents a degree of sophistication reached by the developments in printer technology.

Each printer cartridge is made of plastic, and plastic is a byproduct of oil. We all know that oil is a fossil fuel that is drilled from the bowels of the earth. But other than that, each printer cartridge has bits of metal on it, usually copper and nickel, especially on the places that serve as nodes connecting the cartridge to the printer head itself.

And then, the ink that each printer cartridges contain is made up of various chemicals that may prove harmful if disposed carelessly in a landfill. They can seep into the ground water and end up contaminating it.

Recycling Printer Cartridges in San Diego

There are many ways by which you can recycle printer cartridges in San Diego. The easiest thing to do in recycling printer cartridges when you live in San Diego is simply to visit a recycling center that accepts printer cartridges. You can also go to printing shops that recycle printer cartridges.

If you are wondering where these recycled printer cartridges end up, you can be assured that they are put to good use. Most of the time, they are refilled with remanufactured ink and resold. This process extends the life of a printer cartridge. You can even take advantage of this by having a shop that is involved in recycling printer cartridges to refill your printer cartridges for you and deliver them for you to reuse.

When reusing is no longer possible, the only means left to recycling printer cartridges is to extract the plastic and metallic materials with which they are made. These materials are then put to use as different products.

Earning from Recycling Printer Cartridges

Recycling printer cartridges is certainly a way of helping in the effort to save the environment. The good and bubbly feelings that we should get from recycling printer cartridges should be enough of a benefit to encourage us to keep doing it.

Many recycling centers, however, push this a little bit further by offering points and rewards to people who come to them to recycle printer cartridges. This can be great in raising a bit of cash.

Where To Get The Best Discount Printer Cartridges In San Diego, California

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Printer cartridges can be quite expensive, and with today’s rising costs of gasoline and other various products, we could all do with a little savings here and there. With regards our printing needs, we could do our savings by buying discount printer cartridges. Discounted printer cartridges, as the name implies, can be branded ink cartridges offered at discount prices, but they could also be cartridges filled with replacement ink that are compatible with most machines.

If you live in San Diego, California, where do you find the stores that sell discount printer cartridges? This is a simple question with a simple answer. To find them, all you need to do is to pick up your yellow pages and look for the listings under office supplies.

Caboodle Cartridge. Caboodle Cartridge is a franchise store located along Midway Drive in San Diego. This store specializes in selling replacement printer cartridges and prides itself in being able to serve its customers without making them wait. The savings that you can generate from buying discount printer cartridges here can amount to around 50% of your regular purchase.

Cartridge World. Located at Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, Cartridge World is another place in San Diego that makes replacement printer cartridges and discount printer cartridges available to the public. Cartridge World also operates as a recycling center for empty printer cartridges. It currently has a program wherein clients recycle its empty printer cartridges with the store and 5% of the proceeds are given to a school of the client’s choice.

Island Inkjet. Another franchise store, Island Inkjet is a place where clients can get their empty printer cartridges refilled. It does not exactly sell discount printer cartridges, but its services can spell savings for many users of inkjet printers. Clients can drop in and wait for half an hour for their cartridges to be refilled. It is also possible to call in for deliveries or pickup services. The San Diego store is located along Balboa Avenue.

A Toner Warehouse. A Toner Warehouse is a supplier of discount printer cartridges, toner cartridges and other related products. It mostly offers replacement printer cartridges and OEM - compatible ink cartridges for various brands of printers, such as Canon, Epson, Lexmark and HP. Orders with A Toner Warehouse are mostly done by fax or telephone.

It is not difficult to find a place in San Diego that sells discount printer cartridges. All you need to do is to search your yellow pages, be it the online or offline version. But then again, you can always rush to the nearest Staples store or Wal-Mart.

TEXTILE RECYCLING

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Old clothes are accepted by recycling banks.
Most home recycling bins, provided by your local council, accept old clothes and textiles.
Old clothes could be donated to charity shops. Taking the old textiles to the jumble shops is another option.
Rather than throwing away old textile items, they could be used to make cushion covers, cleaning clothes etc.
Old woolies are shredded and re-spun taking half the energy of new wool. However, the re-spun wool needs to be washed thoroughly.
It is estimated that, of collected textiles:

6% goes to waste

12% goes for fiber reclamation

19% goes for filling materials

21% goes for wiping cloths

38% goes for second hand clothing

4% goes for second hand shoes

The textile recycling association may be contacted for more information regarding textile recycling. You can reach them through their website- www.textile-recycling.org.uk.

Advantages of textile recycling and reuse:

ü Reduces the need for landfill space. Textiles present particular problems in landfill as synthetic (man-made fibers) products will not decompose, while woolen garments do decompose and produce methane, which contributes to global warming.

ü Reduces pressure on virgin resources.

ü Aids the balance of payments as we import fewer materials for our needs.

ü Results in less pollution and energy savings, as fibers do not have to be transported from abroad.

CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL RECYCLING

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Buildings are made from many materials, many of which are recyclable such as metal, wood, glass, etc.
Metals used for construction generally include steel, iron etc. The metals could be recycled according to their specifications.
Wood and glass materials used in construction could be recycled with the appropriate recycling methods.
Some construction items could be re-sold to the architectural salvage yards.
Most of the building materials such as wood and bricks could be re-used.
The recycling of bricks can be broken down into several different categories:

Demolition materials - Mixture of materials resulting from demolition of buildings
Salvaged materials - building materials salvaged from the materials remaining after demolition
Reclaimed building materials - The materials that can be generated from the careful demolition of an old building by hand which are suitable for reuse in their original form
Recycled building materials - The materials that can be generated from the careful demolition of an old building which are suitable for re-use as raw materials in the manufacture of new materials

Brick recycling involves the following steps:
1. Crushing- There are lots of commercial brick crushers available today. They are capable of crushing the masonry into fine rubble.
2. Recycling- The crushed rubble are again cleaned and used to create new bricks.

Advantages of brick recycling:

Bricks do not require disposal
Recycling reduces the waste dumped in landfill sites
Brick recycling saves the need to extract new raw materials from the earth
The cleaned bricks are an asset.

AIRPLANE RECYCLING

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More than 3500 airliners will reach their end-of-life between 2008 and 2025 at a rate of around 200 aircrafts per year.
The aircrafts are the absolute sources of the valuable metal, ‘Aluminum.’
Almost 80 percent of Aircraft parts are recyclable. Most of the fuselage and wings of jets such as Boeing 727 is made of Aluminium which can be sold as scrap.
Once the engines, landing gear, avionics and components are removed from the aircraft, there is still value in the aluminium.
This scrapped Aluminium will be later used to manufacture automobile parts including wheels and transmissions.
Steel, found in the landing gear of planes like Boeing 707, is also relatively easy to recover.
Recycling composite aircraft materials is trickier than working with raw metals.
Composites using lightweight and durable carbon fiber are found more and more in newer aircraft, and make up half of each Boeing 787.
Recycled carbon fiber is being tested for use in tires, paint, industrial injection molds, and sporting goods such as skateboards.

FACTS:

According to Boeing, the largest manufacturer of jet airliners, about 7200 commercial planes including Boeing 737, 747 and Airbus A320, A340 models will be scrapped.
Boeing, in 2006 co-founded the Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association, with an aim to expand the airplane recycling rate to 90 percent from about 60 percent today.
The lifespan of most commercial airliners is said to be around 30 years. Most of the airliners used today were born by 1970s and now there is a jump in the number of planes beyond use. So aircraft recycling will reach its peak through the next decade.

HOW TO RECYCLE WOOD

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In the first instance, you should contact your local authority to Visit at the wood recycling facilities they offer to the householders.
Wood recycling ensures that the waste does not end up in landfill site where, as it is biodegradable, it produces greenhouse gases.
The wood that cannot be reused as reclaimed timber could be recycled into any one of the following:

Ø Mulch- which prevents soil erosion, enrich soils, help limit water loss and moderate soil temperature change.

Ø Composting agent- Sawdust and wood shavings can be used as a bulking agent to improve air flow and decomposition.

Ø PET bedding- Untreated wood material could be used foe PET bedding.

Ø Chip board and medium density fiber board- A resin is mixed with the chipped wood and heat/ pressure is applied to the mixture to form a board.

There is little scope for the recycling of domestic wood waste. While companies exist for the collection and reuse/recycling of pallets and crates for example, there are only a few such facilities for household waste.

FACTS

It is estimated that 50 million cubic meters of wood are used in the UK every year. Almost half of these goes into paper making but two thirds of the wood is imported.
Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute.
The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years.
Ten million tonnes of waste wood is produced each year in the UK
Only 1.5 million tonnes of waste wood is recycled in the UK every year. The remaining 85 per cent is sent to landfill
Wood sent to landfill produces methane gasses and contributes to global warming.
The Government has now set targets to reduce the amount sent to landfill

HOW TO RECYCLE ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT

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Old electrical appliances are quite unlike common urban garbage. These are complex artifacts and many contain toxic chemical substances. Inappropriate disposal methods such as land fill or incineration can pollute air, soil and water.
Most of the electrical equipment could be reused or separated into electrical equipment parts.
Many of the electrical items that we throw away can be repaired or recycled. Recycling items helps to save natural finite resources and also reduces the environmental and health risks associated with sending waste electrical goods to landfill.
You can donate old working electrical equipments to the charity shops rather than just throwing them away.
All new electrical and electronic products sold now carry the 'crossed out wheelie bin" logo to help you identify which products are recyclable.
To avoid environmental and health problems due to hazardous waste substances in electrical and electronic goods, appliances marked with this symbol mustn't be disposed of with unsorted municipal waste, but recovered, reused or recycled using an official recovery system.
To make recycling easier, when you take your waste electrical items to a Household Waste and Recycling Centre, they are now separated into the 5 groups below.

Large household items- washing machines, microwaves
White goods - fridges/ freezers
TV's and monitors
Gas discharge lamps
All other electrical goods

FACTS

Electrical goods are the fastest growing waste stream in the UK, growing by 5% each year

Each year in the UK we go through over 1.2 million tonnes of electrical waste. That is the equivalent of 150 thousand double Decker buses

75% of waste electronics end up in landfill sites

In the lifetime of 1 UK citizen 3.3 tonnes of waste electronics is created

Two million TV sets are discarded every year - most end up in landfill sites

"Over six million electrical items are thrown away every year in the UK. It is estimated that over half of them are still working or could easily be repaired

AUOTOMOBILE RECYCLING

2008-10-02T16:51:00.001+05:30

More than 80% of the material used in automobiles could be recycled.
Fixing the repairs and using the old vehicles is better than dumping them straight away.
The abandoned vehicles could be reported to your local council. They will remove them and take them to the recycling facilities.
There are hundreds or even thousands of approved vehicle dismantlers and recyclers around the globe.
Engine oil could be recycled at the civic amenity sites.
You can contact your local council for more information regarding automobile recycling.
These automobiles are huge sources of steel and aluminium.
Moreover, almost all the parts of an automobile, from tires to plastic materials used in the automobiles could be recycled.
There are also many automobile recycling programs conducted by several companies who offer a free pick up of the junk cars for recycling.

FACTS

The number of cars recycled in 1997 alone - nearly 13 million - would cause a traffic jam circling the Earth more than one and three quarter times.
Recycling just one car saves 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,400 pounds of coal and 120 pounds of limestone.
Virtually every car taken off the road today is recycled - thanks to the steel and iron content.
It takes about 45 seconds to shred the average automobile into fist-sized pieces of steel for recycling.
The automobile is the most recycled consumer product in the world today.

HOW TO RECYCLE PRINTER CARTRIDGES?

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Ink cartridges have highly toxic materials. Hence disposal of these cartridges is a major issue.
In addition to environmental benefits, there are also economic benefits to a consumer when they recycle.
Using refill kits usually ends up costing you about only $3 or $4 per cartridge refill.
You can typically refill an inkjet cartridge three times before it fully wears out.
You can have them professionally refilled for you through the mail.
Once the cartridge is worn out and cannot be refilled anymore, you can have it professionally recycled.
You can take them to your local office store, as most should accept them and many even have a promotion where they give you something in exchange for your cartridge.
Look for the instructions in the box of your new inkjet printer.
Ring up the International Cartridge Recycling Association at (202) 857-1154 for more information about recycling printer ink cartridges.
Most of the printer ink cartridge manufactures provide free return envelop for used ink cartridges.
If all else fails, you can contact your local sanitation department to see if they have a special recycling location where products like ink cartridges can be dropped off.

FACTS

It is estimated that roughly 350 million cartridges end up in landfills every year.
It is estimated that between 80-90% of cartridges are simply thrown in the trash.
The number of cartridges ending up in landfills increases by more than 10% annually.
A brand new laser cartridge requires 3/4 of a gallon of oil to be produced.
Discarded cartridges still have small amounts of ink in them which can leak into the ground.
It is estimated that the engineering grade polymers used to manufacture the printer cartridges takes almost 1000 years to decompose.
You are being kinder to the environment by lessening the amount of cartridges ending up in landfill sites.

METAL RECYLING

2008-10-02T16:49:00.000+05:30

Metals generally fall under two main categories: Aluminum and steel.
Testing the kind of metal waste you are having is very much simple. Steel which is a magnetic metal can be easily separated fro aluminium, as aluminium is a non-magnetic material.
Beverage cans are usually made of aluminium whereas food cans are mostly made of steel.
It has to be noted whether the drink cans are clean before recycling process is started.
Home recycling bins, provided by the local council, usually accept metal.
Aerosol containers could also be recycled once they are completely empty.
Metallic film wrappers such as chocolate wrappers cannot be recycled.
There are many cash for can schemes that may be operating around you.

FACTS

Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours -- or the equivalent of a half a gallon of gasoline.
Every ton of recycled steel saves 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,000 of coal, and 40 pounds of limestone.
There is no limit to the amount of times that aluminum could be recycled.
More aluminum goes into beverage cans than any other product
A 60-watt light bulb can be run for over a day on the amount of energy saved by recycling 1 pound of steel. In one year in the United States, the recycling of steel saves enough energy to heat and light 18,000,000 homes
1.8 billion drinks cans are made of steel
The recycling rate of all steel packaging is 46%; aluminum has a 23.4% packaging recycle rate
All steel cans contain up to 25% recycled steel
Its not just food and drink cans made from steel! - most of your deodorants, hairsprays, polishes, paint cans and other household and DIY products are made out of steel too!

RECYCLING PAINT AND OIL

2008-09-18T09:35:00.005+05:30

Waste paints, engine oil, oil filters, paint brushes etc contain toxic chemicals that are very harmful to the environment.
Pouring oil and paint down the drain is really a bad idea. It may even damage a total ecosystem that they reach.
Disposal instructions will be mention in the packs of the oils and paints. It is always wise and safe to follow those instructions.
Donate unwanted paints and varnishes, as others can reuse them.
Buy products in bulk whenever possible to reduce packaging waste.
Use eco-friendly alternatives whenever possible.
Seek the help of the paint manufacturer. Most of the paint manufacturing companies have their own recycling programs.
It is possible to recycle the paint container after it has been cleaned and dried.
Look into local paint recycling and exchange programs.
The paint products can also be disposed safely at your local household hazardous waste collection program.
It is very much important to recycle engine oil with atmost care. Because even a small amount of oil, disposed can cause considerable damage to the environment.

FACTS

Although latex paint is less harmful than oil-based paint to the environment and public health, all types of paint should be handled and disposed of properly.
A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.

HOW TO RECYCLE OLD BATTERIES?

2008-09-18T09:35:00.004+05:30

Batteries of any kind are capable of producing the hazards like

Polluting the lakes and streams as metal vaporize in air when burned.
Heavy metals used in the batteries have the potential to leach from solid landfills.
These old batteries will expose the environment to harmful lead and acid.
Most of the batteries that are available today include corrosive acids in them.
They may cause burns and even damage our skin and eyes.

Hence it is very much essential to safely dispose the used batteries. Recycling is a better solution for getting rid of the used batteries without harming the environment. The following step could be taken into account while disposing the old used batteries:

· Batteries of any kind will have toxic substances. Recycling the used batteries is an excellent option than there disposal.

· Rechargeable batteries should never be thrown away along with normal household waste as the have some heavily toxic metals. They must be returned to the manufacturer for safe disposal or effectively recycled elsewhere.

· Sending any type of battery to the landfill or incinerator means the contents of the battery will ultimately end up getting into the soil, air, groundwater, and/or surface water, and thus eventually into the food chain and drinking-water supply.

· Usage of rechargeable batteries should be encouraged as it requires more power to manufacture an ordinary battery.

· Also, most of the local councils offer battery recycling services also.

· For more advice on safe disposal of batteries, one can approach the manufacturer of the same.

To find a company near you where you can drop off your old batteries for recycling, check out the comprehensive database at the Earth911.org website

RECYCLING CLINICAL WASTE

2008-09-18T09:35:00.003+05:30

Clinical waste is another kind of hazardous waste which needs great attention in disposing.
Special care should be taken while disposing used needles and syringes.
Get instructions from doctors or manufacturers on safe disposal of different kinds of medical waste.
All the medicine containers, once empty could be recycled.
Most local councils offer a free medical waste collection. It is good to contact your local council to get help on safe disposal of clinical waste.
Some companies like Medical Waste Solutions Ltd are dedicated to clinical waste treatment schemes.

Due to the nature of clinical waste the opportunities for reduction, reuse or recycling are limited. However, the environmental impacts of clinical waste could be reduced by following these points:

Ensure effective segregation of all clinical and non clinical waste.
Continually review the collection and disposal method for clinical waste, using the waste hierarchy (e.g. introduction of reusable sharps bins)
Launch waste awareness campaigns
Continue Duty of Care Waste Audits

The removal of syringes and needles require atmost care. Here are some guidelines for safe removal of syringes and needles.

Find a suitable container for disposal. Try to get a ridged plastic container with a screw top lid to place the needle or syringe in.
If you can place something protective over your hand like rubber or thick leather gloves.
If at all possible, do not touch the needle or syringe, Use something like tweezers or tongs to pick it up.
If you have to pick the needle up with your hands, or if you are using something like tweezers, pick them up by the blunt end.
Do not touch the sharp point with your hands.
Do not put the cap back on or re-sheath.
Place the sharp end of the needle into the container first.
You can place more than one needle or syringe into a container, but do not overfill.
Make sure the container is tightly sealed.
Do not place the container in the regular waste, down the toilet or drain. Contact the clinical waste removers like Erewash Borough Council for safe removal.
Wash whatever you have used to handle the items in an antiseptic detergent.

HOW TO SAFEFLY DISPOSE COMPUTER EQUIPMENT?

2008-09-18T09:35:00.002+05:30

Comprising of monitors, printers, hard drives, and circuit boards, the disposed computers are known as e-wastes.
These e-wastes are not supposed to be thrown out along with the common household rubbish, as they contain highly toxic substance.
The disposal of this hazardous waste requires atmost care and caution.
It is estimated that, a single computer will contain approximately 2 kg of lead.
The PCs are made up of a complex mixture of materials. This complex mixture makes these PCs very much difficult to recycle.
You can safely dispose the e-waste by returning it to the manufacturer or donating the computers to a non-profit organization or transporting them to any professional waste disposal facility.
The famous computer manufacturers offer a service to collect and transport the e-waste from your home to the recycling unit at their own cost.
Professional waste disposal is same as the manufacturer’s schemes except the fact that you will have to pay for their service.
A number of non-profit organizations collect electronic equipment including computers and printers, either for reuse or for de-manufacture and recycling. Recipients pay nothing for the equipment or buy it at a heavily discounted rate.

FACTS

1. As of 2005, more than 250 million personal computers have become obsolete in the United States.

2. Nearly two million tons of used electronics, including computers and televisions, are discarded each year.

3. According to the EPA, manufacturing one desktop computer requires fossil fuels and chemicals that amount to at least nine times the weight of the computer.

4. Electronics often contain useful materials such as precious metals, glass, and plastics that should be recovered rather than buried in a landfill.

5. Precious metals are used in computer circuit boards and of course glass and plastics are used for manufacturing computer monitors.

6. Recycling these products reduces the need to mine the earth for raw materials.

WHAT TO DO WITH OLD MOBILE PHONES?

2008-09-18T09:35:00.001+05:30

Most of the mobile phones in use today are recyclable.
Old mobile phones could be donated to friends or family. This is a kind of reuse of mobile phones.
Moreover, the old mobile phones are taken back by the manufacturers, for recycling.
Mobile phone recycling schemes are also setup by some leading mobile phone manufacturers.
Also, some companies like Carbon neutral; Turn on your mobile; Envirofone; Recycling appeal, have set up special scheme for mobile phone recycling.

Some of the key features of these mobile phone recycling initiatives are listed below:

CARBON NEUTRAL

Ø They can recycle all kinds of mobile phone. All you have to do is to send the mobiles for recycling to

Greener Solutions
(Future Forests Offer)
Freepost LONI7592
PO Box 32343
London
SW17 9ZZ

Ø You can visit their website www.carbonneutral.com for more information.

TURN ON YOUR MOBILE

Ø They offer a free postal service if your mobile phone is worth a very low value.

Ø Special delivery charges refunded if the handset you send is high value.

Ø Courier service for 10 phones or more - good for businesses.

Ø Refund cheque can be made out to a charity of your choice if you prefer.

Ø For more information, Visit at www.recyclemymobile.co.uk

ENVIROFONE

Ø Value can be seem straight away on the site

Ø They pay postage costs

Ø Charity donation by envirofone with every phone

Ø More information about the initiative could be found at www.envirofone.com

HOW TO RECYCLE ASBESTOS?

2008-08-25T11:02:00.000+05:30

Asbestos is mostly used in UK as a building material. Much of the asbestos from buildings is now being removed. However, tonnes of asbestos still remain to be removed. Asbestos dust is dangerous when inhaled. Hence special care has to be taken while removing asbestos.

* Basically there are three types of asbestos that are in use today. White, blue and brown.
* The fibers with which the asbestos is made gets disturbed during the removal of asbestos. Moreover, these fibers are very much harmful if inhaled.
* Using face masks and hand gloves is advisory while handling asbestos.
* Packaging of asbestos should be done carefully before transportation. The asbestos should be kept damp and contained in plastic bags while transporting, to reduce airborne fibers.
* Most of the councils readily accept asbestos at their household recycling centers.
* You can seek the advice of your local council to get assistance in asbestos recycling.
* Few companies provide certain services to remove asbestos safely.
* A few precautions has to be taken for safe handling of asbestos:

Ø Wear a dust mask approves for use with asbestos.

Ø A plastic sheet could be spread out to collect the dust.

Ø This dust should be cleaned with a damp cloth, which should be sealed in a plastic bag while still damp.

Ø The asbestos material should be dampened to prevent dust escaping.

Ø Asbestos should be removed in sheets or components. Breaking up of the asbestos products should be avoided.

FACTS

1. About 15,000 metric tons of asbestos was used in the United States in 1999; most was imported from Canada.

2. In the past, asbestos was used in around 3,000 products manufactured worldwide, most commonly in the construction, car manufacturing and textile industries.

HOW TO RECYCLE PLASTIC?

2008-08-25T10:59:00.000+05:30

* There are over 50 different types of plastic that are in use today. However, the mostly used plastics are HDPE, PVC and PET.
* It is good to deposit the waste plastic bottles at the local recycling banks.
* The plastic bottles should be cleaned initially, before taking them for recycling.
* Purchasing those containers that your residential recycling program won’t accept must be avoided.
* You can seek the help of your county’s department of public works or other recycling centers to determine what type of plastic to recycle and where to take them for recycling.
* Crush the plastic containers to save space in your recycling bin.
* The plastic bottles should be deposited in the recycle bins. Throwing away the plastic bottles in the trash should be avoided.
* Many of the recyclers do not recycle all kinds of plastics. It is necessary to find out what kind of program your community has, for recycling plastics.
* Remember to remove all the labels and caps from the plastic bottles before you send them for recycling.
* Follow your community’s instructions on what to do with your plastic bottles. Most often there is a special curbside collection for recycling, but otherwise take them to your local Bottle-Bank.

FACTS

1. Americans use a whooping 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour. And the sad news is that most of those used bottles reach the landfills.

2. Recycling plastic saves twice much energy as burning it in an incinerator.

3. Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.

4. Americans throw away 25,000,000 plastic beverage bottles every hour.

HOW IS PAPER RECYCLED AT HOME?

2008-08-25T10:51:00.000+05:30

To recycle paper, several pieces of scrap paper are collected.

* The collected scrap paper is torn into small pieces and is put into large buckets. If you need the recycled paper to be in color, just add small pieces of colored scrap paper in the bucket.
* Then one gallon of warm water along with a tablespoon of bleach is poured into the bucket.
* Now more water is added to cover the paper pieces completely.
* The scrap paper should be allowed to soak for atleast one hour.
* Next, place about one cup of soaked paper into the blender. Add two more cups of bleach water into the blender, too. Blend this paper and water mixture on high. If it doesn't blend easily, you need to add more water to the blender. This forms the slurry.
* Pour the slurry into another bucket and repeat the process until all of the paper has been blended.
* Different paper products like cardboards, newsprints, office papers are made by adding suitable materials to the slurry.
* The slurry is spread using large rollers into large thin sheets.
* The wet paper is then left to dry, and is rolled up in to sheets, ready to be cut.

FACTS:

1. To produce each week's Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down.
2. If all our newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year!
3. The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees. This amounts to about 2,000,000,000 trees per year!
4. Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution!
5. The construction costs of a paper mill designed to use waste paper is 50 to 80% less than the cost of a mill using new pulp.
6. Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the U.S.

HOW IS GLASS RECYCLED?

2008-08-25T10:41:00.000+05:30

* The glass which is disposed in the rubbish bin will reach the landfills along with all other waste.
* Glass is recycled in all the glass banks around the globe.
* Many supermarkets have glass-recycling banks, enabling you to recycle glass on your weekly shop.
* Most home recycle bins, provided by your local council, usually accept glass.
* Glass collected at the curbside is usually color separated on the vehicle or is sold as mixed glass for color separation or for use in alternative markets.
* Glass from pubs and clubs is usually collected color separated in wheeled bins, but often it is collected in mixed bins due to lack of space.
* Glass is usually separated into three colors. Brown, green and clear.
* Recycled glass contains contaminants which must be removed before it is used to make new containers. Metal, paper, plastic, organics, ceramic and pyro-ceramic must all be removed. This is done using manual inspection and high-tech equipment utilizing metal detectors, vacuums, crushers, screens, lasers, digital cameras and even x-rays to detect and remove contamination.
* Once the recycled glass has been cleaned and prepared it is mixed with raw materials and the whole process of glass product manufacturing begins again.
* Recycling glass mainly constitutes of 6 major steps:

>> Dumping Glass
>> Glass Collection
>> Commercial collection
>> Removing contaminants
>> Container making
>> Alternative uses.

FACTS

1. Currently we landfill around 1,400,000 tonnes of glass each year. This is a real lost opportunity!
2. 100% of recycled glass can be used to make new glass bottles and jars, without any loss in quality.
3. Green bottles are made with up to 90% recycled glass content.
4. Can you believe that glass recycling in 2003 saved enough energy to launch 10 space shuttle missions?

HOW ARE ALUMINIUM CANS RECYCLED?

2008-08-25T10:33:00.000+05:30

· The aluminium cans thrown into recycle-bins by the consumer are collected and transported to the treatment plant.
· In the treatment plant, aluminium is sorted, cleaned and made ready for reprocessing.
· They are then turned into molten aluminium through a re-melt process. This is done to remove the unwanted coatings and paintings present in the can.
· After that, the large blocks of aluminium, called the ingots are made. It is estimated that it takes 1.6 million aluminium cans to make an ingot.
· To give aluminium great strength and flexibility, these ingots are taken to the mills and are rolled into sheets.
· These rolled sheets are then used to make aluminium products such as cans, wrappers etc.
· The interesting fact is that it takes mere 6 weeks to complete all these processes and the aluminium cans will be back in the shelves.

FACTS:

* Recycling one kilogram of aluminium can save up to 8 kilograms of bauxite, four kilograms of chemical products and 14 kilowatt hours of electricity.

* Anything made of aluminium can be recycled repeatedly: not only cans, but aluminium foil, plates and pie molds, window frames, garden furniture and automotive components are melted down and used to make the same products again. Used aluminium cans can be recycled to make new aluminium cans, aluminium windows can be recycled to make new aluminium windows and old aluminium engine blocks to make new ones. The recycling rate for aluminium cans is already above 70% in some countries.

* Aluminium beverage cans can be profitably recycled by individuals and groups and most countries have a national can recycling association which offers advice, support, and can put collectors in touch with purchasing organizations.

* Aluminium is the only packaging material that more than covers the cost of its own collection and processing at recycling centers.

Aluminium will never loose its properties no matter the number of times it has been recycled. This means that aluminium can be recycled forever.

Rare To Hear: Future Homes

2008-07-29T10:37:00.000+05:30

If you’re planning to build a new home, and want it to be durable, unique, environment friendly and supremely livable, and then you might want to consider STEEL!

The concept of steel house may be strange to most of the people. These steel houses are slowly gaining bit popularity these days. it is a growing trend, especially in countries like India. Some communities in the United States condominium and townhouse association halls, and new health care facilities are being designed with steel, and the concept of residential steel buildings and homes is being tested in the U.S. with good results.

WHY STEEL?

To start with, the Steel House demonstrates the use of lightweight steel components to create a robust, transportable dwelling with a modernist aesthetic. Steel has many advantages as a structural material. It has a very high strength to weight ratio – a little goes a long way in structural terms. Although steel uses considerable energy in its initial manufacture, it can be formed into precisely engineered sections to ensure that no material is wasted. And steel can be easily re-used and re-cycled at the end of a structure’s life. In addition, a steel frame does not warp or rot, it doesn’t burn or add fuel to bush fires, and it is impervious to termite attack.

Everyone might think that the temperature inside a steel house would be very high during hot summer months, but that is not true. The proven fact is that, the steel houses built in India revealed that, on average, the steel house was one degree cooler in summer than a concrete home. The chief architect of these Indian steel homes says that is because steel walls are smoother than concrete and reflect more light, and because many of the materials he uses in designing the steel structure have an aluminum coating that increases reflective capacity.

Some of the key features of the steel houses are:

• Lightweight and readymade construction
• Weather-proof design
• Protection against cyclone, floods
• Steels homes could be built in shorter time frame using pre-fabricated steel and local materials
• Long lasting and easy maintenance
• Environment friendly
• Easier to build in rural areas where the bricks, sands, stone chips are scarce.
• Use of water above plinth level is minimized as steel homes are dry constructions.
• 10 per cent more living space than traditional homes.
• Less skilled labor is needed for construction

We will be seeing lots of such environment friendly steel houses in the near future.

For more, have a look at www.recycleinme.com

Industry Chat: No Price Hike For Steel In India Till August

2008-07-29T10:36:00.000+05:30

According to Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan, the Union steel Minister of India, the prices of steel will not increase till the first week of August 2008. This conclusion is based on an agreement between Dr. Manmohan Singh (The Honorable President of India) and the steel manufacturers. Though there is a considerable hike of steel prices in the International market, Indian steel prices will remain unchanged till August.

“If the raw material prices increase in the International market, domestic steel producers will have to revise their rates too” , said Mr. Paswan. Moreover, a steel monitoring committee is represented by the Ministry to monitor the prices of various steel products.

Hot Topic:Ship Breaking- The Greener And Safer Tomorrow The Global Programme

2008-07-29T10:34:00.000+05:30

A Global Programme for sustainable ship recycling was formed earlier in 2007 to ensure the improvements in workers health & safety and the environmental conditions in the south Asia region. This programme has been developed in close consultation with two other international organizations with an interest and expertise in ship recycling: the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Labor Organization (ILO). The Secretariat of the Basel Convention seeks to work with all ship recycling stakeholders to ensure the future sustainability of the industry.

THE CONCEPT

The concept of this programme is very simple and is based on four basic principles:

• The first principle is a life-cycle approach, recognizing that action is required within the confines of the ship recycling yard and beyond.
• Second principle being the inclusion of ship recycling into national development and poverty reduction strategies, noting the important role the industry plays as an employer and source of raw materials
• Third principle is, making collaboration with a wide array of stakeholders, including representatives of governments, ship recycling associations, workers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of ship recycling countries, donor countries and ship owner representatives. The active involvement of all relevant stakeholders will be instrumental in securing a commitment to improve the global ship recycling industry in a sustainable manner;
• Finally the continuity, recognizing that the Programme should build on the considerable work that has been done in the past and put into place processes and procedures for the long-term, to ensure the future sustainability of both the Programme and the industry.

All these four basic principles are maintained to ensure a greener tomorrow in the ship breaking industry.

THE NEED OF THE PROGRAMME:

Ship breaking is the key industry of the south Asian countries like India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. This industry provides jobs for thousands of people and the indispensable steel needed for the development of these countries. Ship breaking is inherently sustainable as more than 95% of a ship could be recycled. Ship recycling countries provide a valuable service to the global economy, recycling ships that are no longer operable, which otherwise might be abandoned or sunk. Given over 90% of the world’s trade is conducted via shipping, ship recycling is an issue in which the majority of the world’s population has a stake, although its direct effects, both positive and negative, often go unseen at the global level.

In theory, the ship breaking process seems to be sustainable. However, there is often little regard for worker health or safety, with worker injury and illness, and sometimes worker fatality, being commonplace. Ships contain highly toxic materials, including asbestos, PCBs, heavy metals and oils and fuels, the dangers of which are not always understood by the workforce which results in limited precautions being employed to protect worker health and the environment. The concerns over standards in the industry are compounded by the impending phase-out of single-hulled tankers, which will result in thousands more ships requiring recycling over the coming ten years, the majority of which will find their way to the beaches of South Asia.

Now anyone who has read this passage would have understood the need of the ‘Global programme for sustainable ship recycling’ This Global programme seeks to achieve:

• Promotion of the sustainability of the ship recycling industry by enhancing the application of internationally recognized standards relating to occupational safety and health (OSH) and environmental protection
• Promotion of effective implementation of the future Convention for the “Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships” being negotiated under the auspices of the IMO, by building upon existing technical assistance activities promoting the guidelines of the IMO, ILO and Basel Convention, and elements of the new Convention (as developed)
• Promotion of an integrated approach to the ship recycling industry, by addressing infrastructural and other needs in the participant countries in and beyond the ship recycling yards.

THE ACTIVITIES OF THE PROGRAMME:

The activities of this global programme include:

• Development of model facilities in each of the participant countries to couple both operational and infrastructural improvements in a phased manner, providing a blueprint for other yards to follow suit.
• Development of Government-to-Business certification scheme(s) to provide a yardstick by which ship owners and governments may assess the adherence of a yard to internationally accepted OSH and environmental standards.
• Policy development to assist ship recycling countries in preparing for the entry into force of the IMO Convention on the “Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships”.
• Establishing linkages with related development programmes being implemented in the participant countries.
• Training and workshops to encourage knowledge-sharing and collaboration between all stakeholders in the ship recycling process, including government agencies, ship recycling facility owners, operators and workers, NGOs and external experts.

With all these measures, the programme ensures a greener and a safer tomorrow for the ship breaking Industry.

Find more Global programs at: http://www.recycleinme.com/events/EventsCalendar.aspx

Rules And Regulations: The Gateway Of India-Wide Open For Scrap Metal Trade

2008-07-29T10:32:00.000+05:30

Reports indicate that the import of steel to India has been increased by 70% during the period of April 2007 to march 2008. One of the key reasons for this mammoth increase in the import rate is that there is a fast growing demand for steel in India. The fast growing demand of steel is not the only reason of increased steel import in India. The other important factor being the lowered import duties and the relaxed rules and regulations of scrap metal import (Not the safety measures). Import duties of steel have been lowered from 15% to 5% during the period of 2007.

However there was a sudden increase in the import of steel in India in the year 2008. The reason being, the 5% import duty on iron, steel melting scrap, and aluminium scrap was totally scrapped in the government’s budget of 2008-2009 (i.e. Import duty is now 0% ). Moreover the general excise was reduced to 14% from 16%. We hope that this sudden cut down of import duties and general excise was to increase the availability of steel in the domestic market. Anyway this is absolutely good news to metal traders in India which keeps them smiling wide. The Indian steel imports has raisin in such a way that it exceeds the exports.

I don’t want anyone to get overwhelmed by the numbers above. To make it simple, let me tell you something about the impacts of this change in the import duty, general excise and the relaxed rules.

The reduction of import duty of steel will allow Indian steel producers to access raw materials at lower prices.

This act also boosts the consumer demand for the finished products in India.

Also this reduction in import duty of scrap steel will enable India to produce steel at much lower cost than China.

If automobile manufacturers pass this reduced excise duty in the form of lower prices, the demand of steel will increase and hence helping the companies like TATA to supply steel.

Reduction in customs duty for on aluminium metal scrap will benefit the secondary aluminium manufacturers.

The reduction in excise duty will enhance the housing and infrastructure activity.

The excise duty reduction will bring down the prices of automobiles and also eventually increase their demand.

The rule and regulations of scrap metal import are very much relaxed as they seemed impractical in India (virtually to promote the trade).

The imports of scrap steel and aluminium will become easier and convenient than any other countries.

Hence this total cut of import duty of scrap metal in India will take India’s metal trade to the peak in the global scrap metal market. And also the new rules and regulations of scrap metal import, laid by the Indian government where withdrawn because of the impracticality of those rules. The old rules said that unshredded scraps were only permitted from suppliers who have been registered by the government. However this rule has been totally scrapped off. Don’t get confused with the facts and figures mentioned above. The thing is that “the gateway of India is wide open for metal trade; all are welcome to do the metal trade in India! So come let’s do the trade!”

FUTURE FOCUS

2008-07-29T10:29:00.000+05:30

It is important to distinguish resource renewability and material renewability. The materials such as wood which do not retain its properties when recycled, due to degradation are called non-renewable materials. In that case, steel is a renewable material as they have the ability to retain their metal properties when recycled.

This ability of steel to retain its properties has a considerable positive impact on the environment. However, based on a practical point of view, the amount of environmental benefit through steel recycling greatly depends upon the recycling rate. The higher the recycling rate, the greater will be the benefit to the environment. For example, one tonne of steel recycled 20 times with a recycling rate of 85% enables the production of approximately 6.5 tonnes of steel with the same quantity of primary raw materials. Moreover, with the 20 cycles of recycling, over 9 tonnes of CO2 emissions could be avoided. Have a look at the graphical representation for more info.

THE DEMAND:

Despite the increase in recycling rates these days, the appetite for steel still continues to be intense as before. Hence it is high time to have a look at the demand rate and steel scrap availability for the future needs.

The increase in demand of steel is expected to sky rocket in the next decade. It is predicted that the immense demand growth for steel will outpace the supply with ease in the forthcoming 10 years.

This increase in steel demand in the future should be met with the supply of steel that is recycled from the scrap. Hence it is very much important to be aware of the availability of steel scrap.

The statistical data shown below will give you a clear picture about the steel scrap availability till 2015. The data shown here are the predictions and not accurate values.

STAINLESS STEEL SCRAP AVAILABILITY IN ASIA:

The actual scrap steel availability in Asia has fallen down to a considerable amount, following the Asian financial crisis. However, the availability of steel scrap has followed a constant increase afterwards.

STEEL SCRAP RESERVE IN ASIA

The data shown here corresponds to the steel scrap reserve in Asian countries- India, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam and Bangladesh.

STAINLESS STEEL SCRAP AVAILABILITY IN UNITED STATES:

STEEL SCRAP RESERVE IN UNITED STATES:

STAINLESS STEEL SCRAP AVAILABILITY IN EUROPE

SCRAP RESERVE IN EUROPE

STEEL SCRAP AVAILABILITY IN JAPAN

STEEL SCRAP RESERVE IN JAPAN:

STAINLESS STEEL SCRAP AVAILABILITY IN CHINA

STEEL SCRAP RESERVE IN CHINA

GLOBAL STEEL SCRAP RESERVE

The representation shows the Global steel scrap reserve. The data till the year 2006 are the actual values. The predictions are made from the year 2006-2015

The increase in demand for steel, in conjunction with the long service life of an average steel product means that for a foreseeable future, attention should be focused in improving the recycling rates inorder to maximize the utilization of all available scrap.

Ship Breaking- Sailing Towards Sustainability

2008-07-29T10:22:00.000+05:30

Ships of all types will only have a limited life span and must be ultimately be dismantled with wastes properly disposed of and metals recycled. These scrap ships are huge sources of steel. From the approximate 45,000 ocean going ships, 700 of them are taken out of service every year. 95% of the mass of these retired ships, made of steel could be recovered. Till the early 60s it was believed that ship breaking is a highly mechanized operation that could only be done in industrialized countries like United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. However, today to maximize profits ship owner’s sent their vessels to the scrap yards of India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Vietnam, where health and safety standards are minimal and workers are desperate for work. It is estimated that over 100,000 workers are employed at ship breaking yards worldwide.

Alang, in India, has retained its position as the world’s largest scrapping site for ocean going ships, accounting for an average of 70% of tonnage, and an average of 50% of worldwide demolition sales. Bangladesh retained second position after India in terms of volume of recycling.

Some of the important factors that lured the ship breaking activities towards Asia are that:

Asia is:

• The largest resource of low paid labor.
• Relatively less concerned about environmental and social standards.
• A lucrative local domestic market for steel and other scrap material. For instance, the yards now supply 80-90% of Bangladesh’s steel. In India, it accounts for 15% of the country’s total steel output, at about half the cost of regular furnace-based plants.
• Suitable climate in which ship breaking can take place most of the year, and an infrastructure to transport the scrap to its market place.
• A convenient geographical location: the proximity of the main eastbound trade routes has been an important factor in the development of the South-Asian ship breaking industry.
• Another element to be taken into account is the exchange rate movements, relative to the US dollar and to the currencies of other ship breaking nations.

STEPS INVOVLED IN SHIP BREAKING

The owners of the ship breaking yards are kept abreast of the ships to be sold for scrap by brokers operating from London, Dubai, Singapore and Hamburg. All ships are sold by the ton, at a price ranging from 110 to 150 dollars per ton depending on the market price. As soon as the ship is purchased the clock starts to tick for the owner, who must have it dismantled as fast as possible to recover his investment. So once the ship is bought they sail towards sustainability- to the demolition sites. Once the ship arrives to the demolition site, it is anchored in the waters and the first administrative steps are set in motion. Based on the rules, the ship is checked and is confirmed that it is gas free. Once all the legal formalities are complete, the ship is permitted to enter the territorial waters for bleaching. Vessels are beached by own propulsion power at high tide and during low tide vessels are lying stable on their flat bottom. The ship must be placed in this exact position and above all come to ground as high up on the beach as possible to facilitate dismantling operations. Beaching has a crucial impact on the final cost; the time needed for dismantling can be doubled, if the beaching operation is not successful. This completes the first phase of ship breaking.

During the second phase, cutters and their helpers start cutting the vessel into parts. The breaking operation is undertaken based on the structural design of the vessel. The larger parts are dragged to the dry part of the shore with the help of motorized pulley. A large number of workers are also engaged in this operation. Though the motor does the main job, workers need to help the pulley driver in dragging the part to the dry area of the shore. Another group of cutters, helpers and workers start cutting the dragged parts of the ship into truck-able parts as per order of the purchasers. Heavy equipment like boilers, motors, capstan stocking etc. are carried to stack yards by moving crane. The unskilled workers carry metal plates, metal bars or pipes on their heads or shoulders, start walking in synchronized steps with the rhythm of the singers call up to a definite destination and then pile up metal plates in stack yards or load them on trucks. The supervisors control the group of workers; the on-looker guides them and helps them in pilling up the heavy metal plates in stacks.

Finally, the ship is cut down into different pieces and winched to the shore at high tide and further large portion is cut into suitable pieces on the beach for easier loading and transportations. The valuable components (e.g. small motors and pumps, generator, navigation equipments, life saving equipments, furniture, electrical cables, utensils etc.) are dismantled and sold to second hand market situated on both sides of the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. It is estimated that it takes 5-6 months to dismantle a typical cargo ship.

The interesting fact is that nothing in a demolished ship goes to waste. Even the last drops of oil from the tanker is drained and resold.

THE BRIGHT SIDE

Ship breaking activities hold potential as it creates economic opportunities for thousands of labourers and contribute to the economic growth of regions in need of private sector investment. Practically 100% of the ship is recycled. In this perspective, ship breaking can be claimed to be a sound sustainable industrial activity. Ship demolitions remove large volumes of obsolete tonnage from fleets and recycle many of the materials used in a ship’s construction. Moreover, it is a major employer in the main ship breaking areas

DARKSIDE OF SHIP BREAKING:

Though ship breaking improves national economy and plays an important role in steel recycling, it always poses threats to the ambient environment and working people. It is estimated that an average of one ship breaking worker dies at the yards in Bangladesh every week and every day one worker gets injured. These repots however can’t be seen in the official reports. Ship breaking, however is not risky by itself. Lack of safety facilities and illiteracy of the workers about their health, safety and the dangerous effects of the poisonous chemicals makes this process a risky one. Moreover, accidents are not reported or recorded. It seems that nobody really bothers about the tears of ship breaking workers; they are treated as replaceable instruments for the yard owners. One is lost, so get another to replace him.

A little progress has been made towards installing a better working environment at the ship breaking yards in developing countries. However, ship breaking has to sail a long way to sustainable management before it’s completely safe for both the environment and the workers.

For more: www.recycleinme.com/recyclemag

Grand Theft Metal Scrap

2008-07-29T10:08:00.000+05:30

Let me tell you in the beginning itself that it is not a commercial advertisement to promote robbery or encourage metal theft. I am using this space to create awareness about the metal thefts that going on in a very high pace. Ok lemme start. Once there was a surprise in the city. One day all the manhole covers in the city suddenly disappeared. Everyone was wondering where those covers have gone. Some people were even thinking that this was the activity of some kind of ghost roaming around the city. Funny! I don't think ghosts roam around the city in search of mere manholes covers! Do you? Days after this incident it was reported in a newspaper that some culprits were busted while trying to steal the manhole covers. They were not ghosts anyway! “Thank God”. The fact is that, each manhole cover fetches about 20 dollars in the scrap market.

The demand of metals has increased the prices to the peak. This has driven the metal thieves target areas like junk yards and even homes. Copper and aluminium attract thieves more. It seems like they have some magnetic properties towards the thieves. There is nothing to wonder if you notice that the engine of your car is suddenly missing when you try to start it to get to office. Your car's engine would have been converted into sheets of aluminium by the time you figure out that it has been stolen. There was funny case once, where a man got his aluminium ladder stolen while he was working on the roof. Poor guy had to spend his day alone on the roof. What I supposed to tell you is that, everything that can be moved will be stolen. If your house is made of steel, then you are gone, you will become homeless in just few years; just kidding!

The one who is called the thief is not the only one who steals it, but also the one who holds the ladder for him to climb up. Even those who buy the stolen scrap metal from the metal thieves are subjected to punishments as they are also involved in the robbery. Scrap dealers are required to collect more information from the sellers before paying for the metals and getting them. And the important thing is that they must pay by cheque. The scrap recyclers should report the theft through magazines or some other media to protect themselves from materials being stolen and to protect themselves from buying the stolen material.

We have heard that opportunities make a thief. By reading this passage, is anyone planning to enter the field of scrap robbery? If anyone thinks metal theft is easy and can remain un-noticed, they are absolutely; I repeat “absolutely” wrong. The cops have been alerted and anyone who commits a metal theft won't escape from walls of law. Even scrap dealers should stay alert so that they don't take in stolen goods and get punished as same as the robber. We are extremely sorry that we couldn't show up the list of punishments that a metal thief can get because “The story of crime and punishment is not to be told in short sentences.” Anyway in short, “Grand theft scrap metal, Grand welcome to prison”.

For more information on scrap trade, have a look at www.recycleinme.com

WHY PAPER HAS TO BE RECYCLED?

2008-07-03T11:00:00.000+05:30

Unlike plastics and rubber, paper is easily biodegradable. Then what's the exact need of paper recycling and what is the scope of the industry?

The first aim of paper recycling is forest preservation. About 90% of paper pulp is made of wood. Recycling of paper certainly reduces the usage of wood. It takes about 17 trees and 1500 liters of oil to produce one tonne of paper. It means that “throwing away of one kg of newspaper every week is equal to one tree a year”.

About 20% of domestic solid waste collected is paper. Like an old saying “They kill good trees to put out bad newspapers”, yes it is, “newspapers are dead trees with information smeared on them”. In a survey it was stated that the count of newspaper readers in India was a whooping 203.6 million! It seems there are 203.6 million murderers of trees in India. Though the statement above may seem to be a joke, it is the fact.

Anyway there's no good substitute for papers. “We'll never know the worth of water till the well is dry”. So it's very much important to conserve the trees also. And both the need for forest conservation and requirement of papers can be satisfied only by recycling.

There was an interesting question in news. The question is, if recycling paper can solve these problems, who is going to be the one that does it? The answer is simple enough; just hold up a mirror in front of your face. That is the person in charge of recycling in your household.

The main benefit is forest preservation. Recycling about 1 tonne of copier paper about saves 2 tonnes of wood. Also it has been estimated that recycling half the world's paper would avoid the harvesting of 20 million acres of forest land.

The second aspect is reduction of energy consumption. The requirement of electricity will be greatly reduced by the practice of paper recycling.

Third is the landfill use. About 35% of municipal solid waste (before recycling) by weight is paper and paper products. In a report it was highlighted that recycling 1 tonne of newspaper eliminates 3 cubic meters of landfill.

Finally recycling paper reduces water and air pollution by 35% and 75% respectively.
“If civilization has risen from the Stone Age, it can rise again from the Scrap paper Age”. Recycling of papers provides many job opportunities and a lot of people can make a living out of it. The only thing that cannot be recycled is wasted time. So let's be a part of this paper recycling and save our time and environment because, as Joyce Kilmer said “Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree”. And we are not environmentalists, but “EARTH WARRIORS”.

About the Author:
More information on paper recycling can be found at www.recycleinme.com . You can also find scrap paper exporters and importers there.

RECYCLED STEEL-KEY TO WASTE REDUCTION

2008-07-03T10:59:00.000+05:30

In this short passage, we will guide you through the steps in making a key out of steel to open the doors to waste reduction and we'd explain the importance of steel in making the key! Don't get confused. To know more about what we are about to say, just keep reading

Steel use is dominated by the automobile, household appliance and construction industries. There is hardly any product that people use that does not contain steel included or not made of steel. Among all other steel based products automobiles are highly recycled nowadays. Cars now are simply valuable to be left to get rusted and vanish.

Steel is also mined from an ore. Iron ore stripped from a blast furnace can be used for steel production. Let's make it simple. Here is an example to show the extend of steel being used. “Each household uses approximately 600 cans per year”. Anyway all these cans will be scrapped after use. It is reported that only 70% percentage of scrap steel is recovered and the remaining 30% is landfilled.

Recycling of one tonne scrap steel saves 80% of CO2 emissions. Recycling 7 steel cans saves enough energy to power a 60 watt bulb for 26 hours. Steel cans contain 25% of recycled content and are completely recyclable. Virtually every car that has been driven on road can be recycled if wasted. Or, else they could cause a traffic jam circling the Earth more than one three quarter times. When the steel in just six cars are recycled we can get enough steel to build a new house. And the very important fact about steel is that we cannot make new steel without recycled steel.

About 75 percentages of all major appliances are made of steel. So is the scrap produced also and all the steel scrap is recyclable. And the main property of steel recycling is, steel never looses its strength. Major part of industrial waste produced is steel. They can be absolutely recycling into new steel and the waste can be reduced.

So we hope everyone understood how to make a key to waste reduction using steel. All we need is to recycle the scrap steel. The importance of making this key is to reduce wastage, to reduce the dependence of natural resources, reduction in pollution and the reduction in energy required and the main thing is to fulfill the demand of steel without depleting the natural resources. So let’s all hold “the key”.

About the Author:
You can find thousands of offers to buy and sell scrap metal and scrap metal dealers at www.recycleinme.com .

STARTING A PAPER RECYCLING PLANT

2008-07-03T10:57:00.000+05:30

The best way of learning things is, trying them by ourselves. Starting a a paper recycling process is the simplest among the other scrap recycling processes . For example there is a paper recycling plant in India by the name TARA (Technology And Rural Advancement) where certain schools have installed their paper recycling plant and using it extensively. It’s clear now how simple paper recycling is. So if they can do it, there is no reason that we can’t do it.

Paper recycling in a small scale will be easy. What about the process if it’s done as a business? Simple, everyone can earn a respectable income by collecting and selling paper to the recycling plants. And as everyone knows this does not require any specialized skills or great technical education.

“A man willing to work, and unable to find work, is perhaps the saddest sight” is an old saying. But things have changed a lot nowadays. Anyone willing to work (educated or not) can get into the process of paper recycling. Believe it or not there are certain paper recyclers making more than $100,000 per annum. It’s hard to believe, but that’s true.

“A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business”. But in case of the paper recycling industry, people can earn money for their livelihood and also it provides them an opportunity to preserve the environment. Sounds great!

So what will be the investment requirements to start a recycling plant and are they affordable? Definitely the answer is yes. The following are the requirements to start an own paper recycling plant. First of all the source is very important. But in case of paper that is not a problem at all. As we all know we live in a paper world. Second thing is collection of the material. The collection mode depends upon the scale of the business establishment we plan to begin. Large scale plants will need trucks and pickup vans. Small scale plants can hire people for collection. The main concern is the plan of transportation. An improper route of operation of collection can affect the business adversely. Then comes the requirement of land. It also depends upon the recycling plant. Finally the machinery. There are a lot of machinery suppliers for this process in the Country itself. And the important requirement of any industry is publicity. “The Internet is the world's largest library. It's just that all the books are on the floor”. So effective advertising can be done on the internet. Anyway don't waste time learning the "tricks of the trade." Instead, learn the trade.

The process of paper recycling is a ten step process as below:
Adding water and applying mechanical action to separate fibers from each other.(PULPING)
Using screens, with either slots or holes, to remove contaminants that are larger than pulp fibers.(SCREENING)
Spinning the pulp slurry in a cleaner causes materials that are more dense than pulp fibers to move outward and be rejected.(CENTRIFUGAL CLEANING)
Passing air bubbles through the pulp slurry, with a surfactant present, causes ink particles to collect with the foam on the surface. By removing contaminated foam, pulp is made brighter. This step is sometimes called deinking.(FLOATATION)
Mechanical action is applied to fragment contaminant particles.(DISPERSION)
Small particles are removed by passing water through the pulp. (WASHING)
If white paper is desired, bleaching uses peroxides or hydrosulfites to remove color from the pulp.
The clean (and/or bleached) fiber is made into a "new" paper product in the same way that virgin paper is made.(PAPER MAKING)
Process water is cleaned for reuse. (DISSOLVED AIR FLOATATION)
The unusable material left over, mainly ink, plastics, filler and short fibers, is called sludge. The sludge is buried in a landfill, burned to create energy at the paper mill or used as a fertilizer by local farmers. (WATER DISPOSAL)

BOTTOM LINE:
Improvement usually means doing something that we have never done before. So why waiting for someone to start the business first? Paper recycling needs very low investment and many people also get benefited by getting employments. The main thing in this industry is publicity and exposure to the industry. The are lot of websites that provide promotion and bundles of information regarding this field. Like the saying “National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway”, certain websites like www.recycleinme.com provide lot of information about the recycling industry, provide trends in international market and also they provide lot of support to improve the firm. Still do you think all these are impossible? Then it’s like “THE IMPOSSIBLE IS OFTEN THE UNTRIED”.

About the Author:
More information on paper recycling can be found at www.recycleinme.com. You can also find scrap paper exporters and importers there.

PLASTIC RECYCLING IN INDIA

2008-07-03T10:54:00.000+05:30

Indian plastic industry is in the path of an impressive growth now. So what is the position of India in global plastic recycling market? When compared to the usage of steel and aluminum, the usage of plastics is more on volume basis. But India was the last in consumption of plastics among America, Europe and China. However this comparison was done by the year 2003. So what is the current position of India in global plastic market and what will be its future?

Indian economy and plastic industry:
In the year 2000, India was 10th in plastic consumption. But owing to the growth through 2000-2008, it’s expected India to be the 3rd largest consumer of plastics by 2010. Obviously by this great leap in this industry the total contribution of plastic industry to Indian economy will also jump to 44Bn USD by 2010.

Employment in plastic recycling industry:
In a report, it was stated like “plastic recycling system can turn a menace into employment opportunity for millions”. When compared to a plastic manufacturing firm, a plastic recycling firm can employ approx 7 times more people. As well as India is a concerned, Indians require more employment opportunities also. As the plastic recycling also contributes a good will to the environment, this industry definitely has a great future.

Processing units in India:
There are over 22,000 plastic processing units and over 150 plastic processing machinery manufactures in India. The machinery units supply over 2500 machineries per annum. There are some associations like All India Plastic Industries Association which was incorporated in 1982 to solve various issues in Import duty of polymers etc. And also the first international trade exhibition named PLASTEC-2008 is to be held at Chennai, the gateway of Tamilnadu to benefit plastic manufacturing industries in the south.

Sources of plastic waste (Scrap plastic):
It was estimated that India generates 5600 tones of plastic waste daily. The two main sources of scrap plastic in India as classified into two categories namely consumer waste and industrial waste. The consumer wastes include the wastes household waste, hospital waste and street waste. And as the name indicates, industrial waste includes all the waste plastic from industries. Plastic waste demands the highest cost in the recycled market i.e.12-15 INR per kg. In the year 2002 around 2 million tones of plastic waste was collected countrywide.

Environmental factors:
Considering the damage created by the plastics to the environment, the government tries to ban the usage of plastics in the country. But thousands of families in India make there living out of the money earned through plastic waste recycling. Any such total ban in this sector will also adversely affect the countries economy negatively.

Conclusion:
So what should we ignore? Is that the environmental factors or the economic growth of the country and Poor’s livelihood? As both of them are equally important we should find an answer for this menace. In the attempt to clean up one segment should not result in “throwing the baby out of the window along with the bath water”. As India has a great resource of man power and technology, plastic recycling can be developed more and the environmental bugs can be fixed. As an old saying, “give me a rock, I will turn it to a masterpiece”, these waste plastics can be processed and reused. That will provide a lot of employment and also contributes a lot to economy, the two main aspects that India needs today.

About the Author:
More information on recycled plastics and plastic scrap can be found at www.recycleinme.com

DON’T BLOW THE PLANET

2008-07-03T10:51:00.000+05:30

I remember those good old days, when the air was clean to breathe, water was clear to drink and the land was full of fresh green vegetation to have healthy food. However a lot of environmental problems now affect the entire world. I am even unable to breath due to this pollute air. Today to drink some fresh water, it has to be purified using several methods. We can find fresh green vegetables no more.

According to me, of the various kinds of problems faced by our planet, the depletion of non-renewable natural resources is the major concern. The increased demands of Aluminium nowadays claim more energy and mineral resources. However, based on my experiences, every problem will have its causes, effects and most importantly a solution. In the case of depletion of natural resources, the unique solution is to “Recycle.” The usage of recycled metal saves both energy and mineral resources needed for primary production.

The well known fact about aluminium is that anything made of Aluminium could be recycled for ‘n’ number of times and can be reused. Moreover the atomic structure of the same never changes, no matter the number of times it has been recycled. Moreover, recycling one kilogram of aluminium can save up to 8 kilograms of bauxite, four kilograms of chemical products and 14 kilowatt hours of electricity. It is the good news regarding the increased usage of Aluminium. The only thing is, we have use recycled Aluminium .

Aluminium scrap is collected and recycled everywhere in the World. Recycling of Aluminium plays a key role in Europe, North America and Japan. By the year 2020, the metal demand is projected to shoot up to 70 million tonnes. The challenge for the metal Industry is to satisfy the ever increasing demand for Aluminium, at the same time reducing any negative impacts to the environment. Recycling of Aluminium is the best way to meet the emerging Industrial needs and to eliminate environmental risks and conserve energy. Also, recycling aluminum creates 97% less water pollution than producing new metal from ore.

We will never know the worth of water until the well is dry. It is high time to act to stop the depletion of non-renewable natural resources and conserve non-renewable energy sources. So recycle and reuse whatever it is possible to do so and save the grinning Planet.

“Good Planets are hard to find, don’t blow it”-Quoted in time.

About the Author:
Join the recycling community at the online scrap marketplace www.recycleinme.com . Recycle, Reduce and Reuse

CAN TO CAN IN 60 DAYS

2008-07-03T10:44:00.000+05:30

Let us start with the life cycle of aluminium can. Metals don't have life anyway. To make this passage interesting, let's assume that metals are living things

Here in a processing unit, an aluminium-can is born. Meanwhile let me tell you a fun fact, every 3 seconds, a human baby is born, in mean time 140 cans are born! Alright here a new born aluminium can goes to the self of a beverage store and ready to be sold. Someone purchases the beverage, enjoys it, and the empty aluminium can is thrown in a recycle bin. This scrap aluminium can is easily separated from other scrap and are taken for the recycling process. There he is melted in a furnace, rolled into sheets in mills and then new beverage can is made.
However this recycling process completes within 60 days. So after 60 days, the old dead beverage can gets a rebirth. He is back on the self again for business, yelling “I am back.” Yes the fact is aluminium never wears out, it can be recycled forever. “Aluminium never dies!” And the important fact about aluminium is that it never looses its properties. So a scrap aluminium-can becomes a new one in 60 days, it’s “can to can in 60 days”

Though this story is imaginary, the facts told about aluminium are true. That is, the scrap aluminium-can can be recycled within 60 days and reused as a new can without any loss in the metal properties. And aluminium can be recycled for many number of times. So if anyone sees an aluminium-can lying in roadside, it is not just a waste, but it is a living aluminium-can crying that “I am still alive”. So “SAVE THEM!”

THE RECYCLING PROCESS
The recycling of Aluminium can is a simple four stage process.

1. Shredding- Aluminium cans which arrive in bales are shredded into pieces to the size of a walnut in a shredder. The shredded pieces are then passed to a magnetic separator to remove the impurities.

2. Decoating- Decoating is done to maximize energy efficiency. Lacquer from the branded and decorated cans is removed by blowing hot air (around 500ºC) through the shreds in a decoater, on a slowly-moving insulated conveyor.

3. Melting- The hot, shredded, decoated aluminium is fed into the furnaces and melted. The furnaces have state of the art regenerative burners and a burner management system to reduce the amount of energy used.

4. Casting- Ingots are cast by tilting the holding furnace and pouring the molten metal- via a two-stage process to remove any remaining minute non-metallic particles and gases - into a vertical casting unit. Chemical composition and metal cleanliness are then tested on each cast. As the metal flows into the mould, it is chilled by jets of cool water being pumped around the mould, and a solidified outer shell is formed. The ingot solidifies gradually during the casting process, which takes approximately three hours. The ingots, which each contain around 1.6m used drinks cans, are then shipped on to a mill for rolling into the sheet from which can makers subsequently produce new cans.
Aluminum cans distinguish them as the most recycled and most recyclable beverage container in the world. An awesome 105,784 cans are recycled every minute nationwide.

About the Author:
More information on aluminium scrap can be found at www.recycleinme.com . You can also find daily aluminium prices and charts at the fast growing scrap portal.

SCRAP METAL-A SECONDARY RAW MATERIAL

2008-07-03T10:42:00.000+05:30

As a country move towards prosperity, and growth in every aspect, the need of resources will definitely increase. So is the need of metals. The demand of metal in turn increases the consumption of natural resources.

We all know that most of the natural resources used in production are non-renewable. If we do not control the usage, they will not be available for the future use. In a report by the TATA steel company, it was told that the consumption of steel is much more than the consumption of food! Sounds funny? However that is true.

For 200 years we have been conquering Nature, now we are beating it to death. If the need for natural resources is not controlled now, all the resources will be depleted in a short span of time. And let's understand that when soil disappears, soul disappears. The four basic ways to control this demand are:
* Innovations in technologies of processing
* Finding a substitute for one resource that is scarce.
* Technologies to recycle metal scrap
* Researches in product design that will use fewer resources than before.
Of these four solutions, recycling is found very much effective. The reason being, recycling reduces the usage of resources and energy. This reduces the environmental, social, and the economic cost of manufacturing.
These scrap metals behave as the secondary raw materials. Because materials like aluminium can be recycled indefinitely as there is no change to the original materials. These recycled materials are purer than the actual ones.

Recycling is slightly more complicated than just collecting a bin full of empty cans and old newspapers to keep them out of the waste stream. There are certain rules laid by the Government. It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment. Just joking! Nevertheless the order to all of us by the environment is that
• Reduce.
• Reuse.
• Recycle.
We all know that there is no use of running fast in a wrong path. All of us can agree that the economic growth in the country is extremely fast. However the geophysical scarcity will retard or even stop the economic growth in future. So a substitute for the usage of raw materials is essential. Definitely recycled scrap metal could be used as a secondary source of raw material. If we take care of the earth and she will take care of us!
So "TAKE CARE."

About the Author:
Find offers to buy and sell scrap metal and scrap metal dealers at the fast growing online marketplace for scrap, www.recycleinme.com

Demand for Aluminium by 2020

2008-07-03T10:33:00.000+05:30

By the year 2020, the Aluminium demand is projected to get increased to 70 million tonnes, with over 30 million tonnes obtained from recycled scrap. Recycling Aluminium that is currently in use as cars, commercial vehicles, ships, airplanes etc would equal up to 18 years of primary Aluminium output. The amount of Aluminium produced from old scrap has been growing from 1.4 million tonnes in 1980 to a whooping 6.8 million tonnes in 2004. The transport sector has been the most important resource of recycled Aluminium. Today recycled Aluminium is produced from 44% transport, 28% packaging, 10% engineering and cables and only a mere 7% from building applications due to its long use phase. Shown in the fig is a graphical representation of Aluminium scrap sources .

However, Aluminium recycling will undergo major changes through the next decade. Buildings that contributes only 7% of aluminium scrap now; will represent up to 33%, recycled aluminium from transport will fall down to 32%. The schematic representation of the forecast is shown in the fig.

The growing markets for Aluminium are supplied by both primary and recycled metal sources. The increase in demand for Aluminium and long life time of the products mean that the overall volume of primary metal will continue to be noticeably greater than the volume of recycled metal.

It will be clear from the representation that the volume of primary metal will continue to be much more than recycled Aluminium if recycling rate is not increased.

GLOBAL ENERGY SAVINGS DUE TO ALUMINIUM RECYCLING
Recycling Aluminium saves up to 95% of energy required for primary Aluminium productions thereby avoiding harmful emissions including green house gases. Improving overall recycling rate of Aluminium is very much essential for sustainable development. Today, recycling of Aluminium scrap saves up to 80 million tonnes of green house emissions per year, which is equivalent to the emission of 15 million cars. The reduction in Co2 emissions in future by the End-life Aluminium recycling is predicted and shown below.

The objective of the Aluminium industry for 2020 or beyond is to reduce the green house emissions, conserve less energy and avoid dependence on natural resources; with the help of recycling. All the energy inefficient materials used today will be replaced by Aluminium (especially transport applications). And so the demand for the same will shoot up. Inorder to eliminate the energy losses during the production of Aluminium due to this increased demand, recycling of Aluminium scrap has to be followed from now!

About the Author:
More information on aluminium scrap can be found at www.recycleinme.com . You can also find daily aluminium prices and charts at recycleinME.

AIRCRAFT RECYCLING BOOM

2008-07-03T10:31:00.000+05:30

The hot topic today, in the world of Aluminium recycling is Airplane recycling. More than 3500 airliners will reach their end-of-life between 2008 and 2025 at a rate of around 200 aircrafts per year. The major concern today is the disposal of these scarp aircrafts. Some of these old aircrafts are used for ground training purposes, while some of them are left to rot next to the runways. In an effort to address this problem many organizations have started environment friendly recycling programs. According to Boeing, the largest manufacturer of jet airliners, about 7200 commercial planes including Boeing 737, 747 and Airbus A320, A340 models will be scrapped. Boeing, in 2006 co-founded the Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association, with an aim to expand the airplane recycling rate to 90 percent from about 60 percent today.

HUGE SOURCE OF ALUMINIUM

For decades, thousands of obsolete private, civil, and military aircraft have been lying in “graveyards,” while the demand for recycled aluminum continues to increase. The aircrafts provide an absolute source of the valuable metal, ‘Aluminium.’ Almost 80 percent of Aircraft parts are recyclable. Most of the fuselage and wings of jets such as Boeing 727 is made of Aluminium which can be sold as scrap. Once the engines, landing gear, avionics and components are removed from the aircraft, there is still value in the aluminium. This scrapped Aluminium will be later used to manufacture automobile parts including wheels and transmissions.

CHALLENGES IN ACHIEVING COST EFFECTIVE AIRCRAFT RECYCLING
The principal challenge that must be dealt with in creating this ideal aircraft recycling scenario includes the following:

a. Identifying decision options for dismantling aircraft to simplify recycling;

b. Identifying and optimizing technologies for automated shredding, sorting, and re-melting.

c. Identifying the range of representative compositions likely to be obtained from recycling aircraft components.

d. Identifying the combination of performance requirements and compositions that would make useful aircraft components from recycled metal, even though they may not achieve the highest achievable levels of toughness;

e. Identifying useful byproducts to handle elemental residual unable to be used in recycled metal.

The lifespan of most commercial airliners is said to be around 30 years. Most of the airliners used today were born by 1970s and now there is a jump in the number of planes beyond use. So aircraft recycling will reach its peak through the next decade.

About the Author:
www.recycleinme.com helps members to buy and sell scrap at very competitive rates. You can find aircraft scrap dealers and aircraft aluminium scrap importers there.