A report by SRI Consulting on PET’s Carbon Footprint

For countries with adequate space and little recycling infrastructure, disposing of bottles in landfill generates a lower carbon footprint than recycling or incineration.  SRI Consulting (SRIC) published PET’s Carbon Footprint: To Recycle or Not To Recycle, an independent evaluation of the carbon footprint of PET bottles with an analysis of secondary packaging from cradle to grave and from production of raw materials through to disposal.

Recycling programs using curbside collection typically displace less than 50% of new PET (polyethylene terephthalate). Community programs with plastic bottle take-back, mandated separate collection, or deposits on bottles tend to report much higher displacement rates. For regions that already have a recycling infrastructure, the aim should be to boost recycled PET (rPET) displacement of virgin PET (vPET) significantly above 50%.

Mike Arné, Assistant Director, SRIC’s Carbon Footprint Initiative, commented “The key to this is not in raising collection rates, but in improving yields, especially in sorting and to a lesser extent in reprocessing. For countries without a recycling infrastructure, the best choice may well be to landfill bottles.”

The report finds:

Shipping distances are not footprint critical – Contrary to some popular belief the common practice of shipping baled PET bottles to China for recycling does not significantly affect the footprint.

Incineration creates the highest footprint – Burning used bottles in waste incinerators converts them largely to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which then goes straight into the atmosphere. This footprint debit can be reduced somewhat by generating power and heat from the incinerator, but the net effect is still carbon positive.

PET recyclate has a lower footprint than new virgin PET – Manufacturers making product from recycled PET, such as straps, films and fibers, should be able to claim that they are lower-carbon than alternatives made from new PET.
The study draws on SRIC’s deep knowledge of chemicals and plastics production as well as its renowned Carbon Footprint Yearbook. This report provides an unbiased and transparent analysis that has been independently developed. It is thoroughly documented for those interested in the details of the analysis. This report should be of interest to producers and users of PET as well as regulators and policy makers.

To access the full report,  PET’s Carbon Footprint: To Recycle or Not To Recycle, visit www.sriconsulting.com

About SRI Consulting (SRIC)
SRI Consulting is the world’s leading business research service for the global chemical industry. Publishing for more than 60 years, SRI Consulting is the preeminent source for in-depth business and process analysis. This report was developed by the Carbon Footprint Initiative, providing comprehensive and current information on carbon emissions. SRI Consulting’s headquarters are located in Menlo Park, California with offices in The Woodlands, Texas; Zürich, Switzerland; Tokyo, Japan; and Beijing, China. Representatives of SRI Consulting can also be found in New Delhi, India; Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia; and Seoul, Korea.
SRI Consulting (SRIC) is a trade name and a registered trademark of SRI International, used under license.

An Extract from Allen Hershkowitz’s Blog…….

Companies or organisations who export electronic waste to the developing world misleadingly argue that this is a “Free Trade” issue. Or they claim to be “donating” used electronics to poor people around the world who can’t afford new electronic equipment. What they are really doing is hiding behind phantom policies that sound nice but in fact export poisons to some of the poorest people on Earth, people already disproportionately burdened with unimaginable ecological, financial, social and political problems.

The New York Times Magazine published a photo essay titled “Dumping Across the Digital Divide” this week, which documents the dumping and hazardous management of electronic waste in Ghana. http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/08/04/magazine/20100815-dump.html )
This practice is not limited to Ghana and infects many other developing countries including China, India and Pakistan.

No matter how it gets there, this is what happens to electronic waste in Africa

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All Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment  (WEEE) handled by Electronic Recycling goes through a preliminary separation and security process in our facility in Dublin and is then sent to our partners within in the EU for final materials recovery

Below is a link to a great article on………..

Thinking differently,

Thinking outside the box

Combining seemingly unconnected information together to provide innovative solutions 

Just one of the gems in the article and the video interview that goes with it….

I look at it a bit like sailing a ship. You always have somebody awake on deck with the binoculars, looking out. Businesses often don’t do that; they’re all down below, working away

http://www.bnet.com/blog/management/how-to-be-an-ideas-factory-loosen-your-grip-on-your-creations/2912?promo=713&tag=nl.e713

For Dublin, a mayor with the appropriate budgetary controls and oversight would ensure that local authority costs would be brought under control, writes Peter Brennan. President of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce.

Businesses and their representative bodies, such as the Dublin Chamber, rarely take a strong interest in the structure of local government, instead leaving it to be debated among public representatives and political scientists.

However, compelling evidence from the European Commission, the OECD and the National Competitiveness Council points to the importance of city regions in determining the competitiveness and growth of national economies.

Businesses are now asking quest ions as to how effective our local authorities are and whether we are getting value for the rates we pay.

Local government in Dublin is big business, with the four local authorities employing some 10,000 staff with an annual budget of about €3 billion.

These local authorities provide many similar services in areas such as waste, water and housing, resulting in duplication (actually a quadruplication) of some functions. It is Dublin’s citizens and businesses that foot the bill for these inefficiencies through local rates and charges, income tax, Vat and other taxes.

Current expenditure of the Dublin local authorities is almost €1.7 billion, of which 37 per cent, or €625 million, is funded by commercial rates.

This is well above the national average of 27 per cent. The recent Local Government Efficiency Review Group report assessed our local government system and identified cost savings and additional charges of a mere 7 per cent of the total cost of running local authorities.

Decisions on cutting Dublin’s cost were postponed and will the subject of a separate investigation.

Dublin Chamber welcomes the government’s commitment to create the office of a directly-elected mayor for Dublin, with strong executive powers over Dublin’s four local authorities. Enabling legislation for a directly-elected mayor is expected to be published in October, with the possibility of an election next spring.

Directly-elected mayors have proved their value internationally. Through their strong executive powers, they transform the cities they serve, putting them on the map and making a real tangible difference to the lives of their citizens. Mayors such as Michael Bloomberg of New York, who has successfully promoted the city’s economy; Richard Daley of Chicago turned his city into a contender for the title of the world’s greenest city; Bertrand Delanoe of Paris has created beaches along the banks of the Seine and made Velib free bikes as synonymous with Paris as red double decker buses are with London.

In London, the first directly-elected mayor, Ken Livingstone, pioneered ambitious and agenda-setting policies and his successor, Boris Johnson, is championing the London Olympics.

For Dublin, a mayor with the appropriate budgetary controls and oversight would ensure that local authority costs would be brought under control and only services that were ‘‘fit for purpose’’ would be delivered.

There has been no leadership to reduce the cost base, while improving the services provided by local authorities in Dublin because no single body has overall responsibility at a political level for the Dublin City region. The Fingal mayor is concerned with Fingal, the South Dublin mayor with South Dublin and so on.

When budgets or resources are tight, projects – such as park and ride facilities – where the benefits fall in another local authority area are the first to go.

Yet the Dublin City region is the driver of growth for the Irish economy as a whole. It accounts for over three out of every ten jobs, 47 per cent of Ireland’s services sector and nearly half of Ireland’s tax revenue.

Clearly a national recovery is heavily dependent on a Dublin economic recovery. The importance of city regions to their national economies is not unique to Dublin and Ireland.

Internationally, city regions offer a concentration of economic activity and the pool of skills and resources that provide a natural environment for companies to grow. The harsh reality is that, if Dublin grows, so does the rest of economy.

The political debate on the draft legislation for a directly-elected mayor shows the possibility of real change in local government, with better services at a lower cost being a real prospect. Dublin Chamber has met minister John Gormley to articulate how the draft legislation could be strengthened in a way that would lead to real change and promote greater operational efficiency in the running of the city region.

With the country facing one of the most challenging periods in its history, the commitment to have an accountable mayor with a real vision who can run local government in a way that places Dublin on the international map is vital.

Dublin Chamber believes that the election of a mayor with real executive powers could be the catalyst for positioning Dublin as a location of choice for international investors and a hub of economic activity.

For this vision to work, we need a much more streamlined local authority system. Otherwise the mayor will become another layer of bureaucracy, which nobody wants.

What businesses and citizens deserve is a leader who will promote the Dublin City region and run it the way a modern city should be run, and who is accountable for spending decisions, cost effective service delivery and local taxation. Minister Gormley should bring forward a transformational agenda for local authorities and allow Dublin’s mayor to have far more power and authority than is currently envisaged.

Peter Brennan is president of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and Managing Director of EPS Consulting

The world’s first affordable mass produced electric vehicle made its European  public debut in Dublin when it was publically launched on Wednesday 4th August at Grand Canal Dock, in Dublin. 

Following the official launch the car embarked upon a Roadshow Tour of the country for the month of August where it will be on display at various venues around the country beginning at The Dundrum Shopping Centre in Dublin

Dundrum Shopping Centre, Dublin – Friday, 6th August and Saturday 7th August
Mahon Point Shopping Centre, Cork – Friday 13th August
Headford Road Shopping Centre, Galway – Sunday 15th August
Blanchardstown Shopping Centre, Dublin – Friday 20th & Saturday 21st August

People will be able to reserve test-drive bookings in the LEAF at each of the display venues over the course of the month of August giving them the opportunity to be the among the first in Europe to test drive and experience zero-emission motoring for themselves.

Nissan LEAF is fully equipped with features such as air conditioning, satellite navigation and a parking camera. Innovative smart phone connectivity will allow an owner to heat or cool the interior of the car remotely via a mobile phone.
 
The car’s AC motor develops 80 kW of power and 280 Nm of torque, enough for a maximum speed of more than 140 km/h.  The electric motor is ‘fuelled’ by a laminated lithium-ion battery with a power output of more than 90 kW.
 
A full charge delivers a potential range of 160 km, which will satisfy the daily driving demands of most customers. Global research indicates that the average daily mileage for 80 percent of the world’s population is under 100 km: the figure in Japan and the UK is under 50 km for 80 percent of the population

The Nissan LEAF is available to reserve now online at www.nissan.ie/nissanleaf and the first cars will begin arriving in Ireland next February 2011.

Sims Metal Management Limited today announced that it has expanded its position in the UK electronics recycling market with the acquisition of the business assets of Wincanton PLC’s recycling division.

The recycling assets acquired in the transaction include electronic recycling plants at Billingham and Daventry and sortation centres at Harlow and Widnes. Sims Metal Management, through its electronics recycling division Sims Recycling Solutions, has existing UK electrical recycling facilities in Newport, Manchester, Ellesmere Port and Dumfries.

Graham Davy, Global CEO of Sims Recycling Solutions, said, “We are delighted to expand our geographical footprint within the UK market, allowing us to provide a more localized service to our growing client base. The retailer led capability and logistics expertise of Wincanton’s recycling division, together with its infrastructure, ideally complement our business model and processing expertise. Furthermore, the addition of a collaborative arrangement in reverse logistics with Wincanton PLC, the seller, will allow us to offer an unparalleled level of recycling excellence and service convenience to our UK customer base.

Sims Recycling Solutions are the final processing partners of Electronic Recycling and after preliminary sorting and processing, which includes security shredding, all our material is sent to Sims for separation of plastics and recovery of precious metals. Our combined processes results in a recycling and recovery rate of over 92% 

If you have resposibility for disposing of Electronic equipment, talk to us, we take that responsibility seriously
www.electronic-recycling.ie

The Accelerated Capital Allowance (ACA) scheme operated by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), allows companies to buy energy efficient equipment and write off its full cost against corporation tax in the year of purchase.

keepITsafe, one of Ireland’s largest online backup companies, recently announced that it purchased  €80,000 of energy efficient servers and reduced their annual data centre running costs by 30%.

Commenting at the announcement, Energy Minister Eamon Ryan TD said: “keepITsafe has shown that significant savings can be made. Not only are they reducing their costs, but their whole business operation now runs more efficiently.”
“The Accelerated Capital Allowance Scheme allows companies to move towards implementing more energy-efficient practices and more importantly, save money,” added Eoin Blacklock, managing director, keepITsafe.

Current Capital allowances allow a write off against equipment over 5-8 years, generally on a straight line basis over the period. With the Accelerated Capital Allowance scheme, companies who invest in energy-efficient technology  can write off 100pc of the purchase cost of the qualifying energy-efficient equipment, in the year of purchase.

The following is a list of the types of equipment covered by the ACA
- Refrigeration and cooling systems
- Catering and hospitality equipment
- Electro-mechanical systems
- IT software and hardware
- Lighting
- Electric vehicles

Full details of the scheme and a complete list of eligible equipment can be found on the SEAI website. 

Of course when replacing any of this type of equipment, there is a need to manage the disposal of the old equipment in an environmentally sustainable way and this is where Electronic Recycling comes in.

Experts at handling all types of Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) at the lowest cost, with average materials recovery rates in excess of 90% and in some cases 100% of certain types of equipment. 

Reusing materials recovered from WEEE can save over 80% of the energy required to manufacture new equipment from virgin material so combining ACAs with the Electronic Recycling service not only saves you money, it makes a very serious contribution to environmental sustainability.

The intangible value of low to medium skilled employment and the long term impact on all employment when supposedly low skilled manufacturing goes elsewhere is very well illustrated in this article by Andy Grove, CEO if Intel from 1987 to 2005.

The article is written about the American market but almost everything in it applies to Ireland and the current “Mantra” regarding high skilled jobs in the Knowledge Economy.

Read the full Bloomberg Article

 Do you want to have a look at any correspondence that has been copied before being sent out from your organisation? especially sensitive legal documents, or have a look at anything that has been copied and filed in the organisation for the last five years.  No need to hire a firm of investigators just switch on the nearest photocopier

Since 2002, copiers have hard drives that save data. Everything that anybody ever copied is saved in the hard drive’s memory.

Businesses are completely unaware of the potential information security breach when the office photocopier is replaced. When the machine goes, so does any sensitive data that has been stored on the copier’s hard drive for years.

Most lease/rental photocopiers, after the first user has finished with them, are sold to the second hand market  and hundreds of scanned documents, which would be considered confidential, have been found on used or discarded photocopiers. In almost all the machines, the files, phone numbers, fax numbers, email addresses and in some cases, the total office security instructions were still on the hard drive

Modern, large, office-type photocopiers are computers with a hard disk. They scan images and they are stored on the disc. They are just like networked computers, and they have all the same security issues that a computer does, including being targeted by hackers.  
Any reasonably proficient techie could easily access the hard drive of a photocopier and retrieve copies of confidential documents by simply hooking their laptop up to the copier. They don’t even need to leave the comfort of their own home. The activity of photocopiers linked to an unsecure network can be seen and tracked online.

The American experience.

In a February 2010 Report , Armen Keteyian of CBS News  went with John Juntunen of Digital Copier Security, Sacramento, to a warehouse in New Jersey, one of 25 across the country, to see how hard it would be to buy a used copier loaded with documents. It turns out … it’s pretty easy.

Juntunen picked four machines based on price and the number of pages printed. In less than two hours his selections were packed and loaded onto a truck. The cost? About $300 each.

“Until we unpacked and plugged them in, we had no idea where the copiers came from or what we’d find.“

“We didn’t even have to wait for the first one to warm up. One of the copiers had documents still on the copier glass, from the Buffalo, N.Y., Police Sex Crimes Division.”

It took Juntunen just 30 minutes to pull the hard drives out of the copiers. Then, using a forensic software program available for free on the Internet, he ran a scan – downloading tens of thousands of documents in less than 12 hours.

The results were stunning: from the sex crimes unit there were detailed domestic violence complaints and a list of wanted sex offenders. On a second machine from the Buffalo Police Narcotics Unit we found a list of targets in a major drug raid.

The third machine, from a New York construction company, spit out design plans for a building near Ground Zero in Manhattan; 95 pages of pay stubs with names, addresses and social security numbers; and $40,000 in copied checks.

But it wasn’t until hitting “print” on the fourth machine – from Affinity Health Plan, a New York insurance company, that we obtained the most disturbing documents: 300 pages of individual medical records. They included everything from drug prescriptions, to blood test results, to a cancer diagnosis. A potentially serious breach of federal privacy law.

While there is no comparable report available for Ireland, considering almost nobody even knows that a photocopier has a hard drive, it is certain that the situation is the same here and a full working copy of your organisations files could be going out the door with that old photocopier

How do you protect yourself?

1. Regard anything in the office with a memory, Copiers, Printers, Fax Machines as having the same security requirements as your computers, especially if they are connected to a network.
2. If possible and if there is no need to store the information, make certain that all documents, once copied or printed are deleted from the memory or hard drive
3. When changing or disposing of anything with a memory or hard drive in it, make certain that the component that contains the storage media is removed and destroyed.

 The most important element of maintaining data security when disposing of old office IT  equipment is making certain that you, or the IT company or Facilities Management service  working on your behalf, use a properly licensed, reputable company to handle the equipment  and specifically that this company can completely destroy any data storage media. If necessary  request that you accompany the drives and see them being destroyed.   Rendering the drives  unreadable does not get rid of the data as the storage surface can still be read and using erasure software is only as good as readily available data recovery software. If it not shredded it not secure. 

Electronic Recycling, specialise in the disposal of Office IT Equipment and we have a specific procedure for data destruction using a very aggressive shredder and, if required, we are more than happy to have our customers accompany data media drives to our facility in Finglas, Dublin to see them being destroyed. 

Electronic Recycling are licensed by Dublin City Council and we have been managing Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) since 1996 making certain that, not only is our clients data properly destroyed but their responsibilities under the EU WEEE Directive 2003 and The Irish WEEE regulation of 2005 are fully complied with.

The next time that old photocopier is being replaced, make certain someone deals with the data security issues, it might contain some sensitive data about you, or about your area of responsibility within your organisation and could be a gold mine for those involved in data theft.

From an article by John Kennedy in Digital 21

Clever use of ICT in Irish classrooms could help beat the effects of looming cutbacks for schools.

As the kids from St Fintina’s VEC secondary school in Longwood, Co Meath, amble into their classrooms on a sunny Wednesday morning it’s hard not to imagine the thoughts flowing through their minds – anticipation of the summer ahead, trepidation at the exams they face. We are visiting Ireland’s first virtual learning environment where three students who wanted to study chemistry but couldn’t because of cutbacks were faced with the prospect of having to switch to a new school.

Thanks to the initiative of school principal Tom Stack and the support of the local VEC, Microsoft and Dell, the fifth-year students – Ciara McDonald, Ben Nock and Rachel Ennis – have been able to stay in their school and, in doing so, are in the vanguard of a new movement in Irish education.

The technology issue in Irish schools is only now being addressed. The €150m Smart Schools = Smart Economy project is well under way and by the start of the new school year in September many schools’ classrooms should be kitted out with a projector, a laptop for the teacher and the appropriate education software. In the meantime, austerity measures still loom and cutbacks will be inevitable.

Class via video

Longwood has had initial broadband hiccups. Despite being 45 minutes from Dublin, Longwood is in a broadband blackspot. However, I was able to witness a class taking place by video over the web between its three chemistry students and chemistry teacher Ruth Smith who is based at Dunshaughlin Community College, 35 kilometres away. The dialogue between the teacher and the three students was direct and focused even though Smith had a full class to manage.

Dunshaughlin Community College (part of Meath VEC) was one of the 12 original ‘Schools of the Future’ announced by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates in 2007. Today, the school works with other schools like St Fintina’s to spread the use of technology.

“What we did was focus in on student learning, teacher professional development and open up the syllabus to people so they could fully see what they were supposed to be doing and allow a lot of collaboration,” Microsoft Ireland managing director Paul Rellis explains.

Describing how the digital link-up all came about, St Fintina’s principal, Tom Stack, says: “With the cutbacks in education last year we weren’t able to provide chemistry for the students. I spoke to Seamus Ryan, education officer with Meath VEC, and we got together with Dunshaughlin to provide a remote access link.

“We’ve learned, however, that there still needs to be some face-to-face interaction, so from next year the teacher will come over once a month to work on the more difficult and technical practical work. We think this model has potential for small schools around the country.”

The students themselves agree. “Once you focus it’s just like a normal class,” explains Rachel Ennis.

Adds Ciara McDonald: “The teacher asks us questions like in a normal class and interacts with us. It’s new and interesting.”

Ben Nock says: “I feel lucky because I was going to leave the school and would have had to make new friends elsewhere.”

On the way to perfect

Qualitywise, Ennis says it’s not perfect, “but it’s getting there”.

Dell Ireland general manager Dermot O’Connell, who taught himself physics during his Leaving Cert because it wasn’t taught in his school, is sympathetic. “We have huge class sizes and this will be the first example of the idea of pooling resources, taking the students from all the schools that don’t teach chemistry and bringing them to one location. It’s about enabling that technology.”#

About 34 kilometres west, St Colman’s National School has succeeded in putting a whiteboard in all 17 of its classrooms through a combination of fundraising and State support.

According to technology equipment provider Promethean, 90pc of whiteboards in Irish schools so far are provided through the efforts of parents.

Deputy principal of St Colman’s, Mary Garvey says the school has succeeded in acquiring whiteboards by students collecting more than 22,000 mobile phones as part of the Jack and Jill Foundation scheme. For every 300 old mobile phones collected for the Foundation, participating schools earn a 78-inch Promethean ActivBoard with software and tools.

According to Garvey, the first five whiteboards in the school came via the Jack and Jill Foundation, while the school bought a further three through its own fundraising efforts and the remainder have come out of the Government’s Smart Schools = Smart Economy project.

“Whiteboards are a teaching aid more than anything else. Computing in schools is no longer about three kids sitting around a computer. We have classes where a laptop trolley could be rolled in to give laptops to 20 kids at once.”

About whiteboards

Graham Byrne, Ireland and Scotland director of Promethean, says one in four Irish schools responded to the Jack and Jill Foundation’s whiteboards initiative. “So far, by children collecting old mobile phones we have raised €500,000 for the charity and we’re on track to hit the €1m milestone by Christmas.”

In Dublin City, the primary school at Temple Street Children’s University Hospital has taken delivery of the first interactive table from Smartboards, another provider of whiteboard systems. The table signals a new era of consensus-based learning where the kids work as a team to figure out maths problems.

The hospital also has two interactive whiteboards supplied by Smartboards, with child-health information co-ordinator Grainne Dowdall explaining how the technology is pivotal in keeping kids from falling behind.

“Kids waiting for a kidney transplant come here three days a week for dialysis and can get their schooling here. The adjoining St Francis Diagnostic Centre can use the technology to help kids with autism and other special circumstances.”

Greg Tierney of Smartboards explains: “The key is not just looking at what the technology can do but to look at developing it in a meaningful way for the teaching environment. While a teacher can incorporate their own individual flair or style, there is an argument for a national portal or digital repository for students and teaching professionals.”

The foundations of such a repository may already be under way. Microsoft has struck a deal with the Department of Education whereby 20 graduates will be based at Microsoft in Dublin to develop digital content to support the curriculum in primary and secondary schools.

“The starting point is the teachers,” says Paul Rellis. “Teach the teachers to imagine what they could achieve with this.”
Photo: Teacher Ruth Smith teaches chemistry to students Ben Nock, Rachel Ennis and Ciara McDonald 35km away. Pictured top inset, from left: Graham Byrne, Promethean; Greg Tierney, Smartboards; Paul Rellis, Microsoft; and Dermot O’Connell, Dell

www.computersforschools.ie  
An initiative of Elecronic Recycling