STAPLES REWARDS - CASHED IN

 I am proud of my knowledge about recycling but there is so much info out there it's good to have connections.  Electronics-recycling is not as easy as it should be.  I used to take stuff to the Best Buy store near me, in Caesar's Bay.  What I don't really like is they lump Recycling Desk with their Customer Service Desk and there's almost always a long line at the Customer Service Desk.  It's kinda silly, because they only do that to make sure the stuff people try to drop off are acceptable to them.  They charge for recycling TVs and computer monitors of certain sizes.  It's a good thing that a friend from my local Buy Nothing group told me about Staples' recycling program.  It takes more than just electronics stuff!  Pens and writing instruments, alkaline and recyclable batteries, inks and toners, and even TVs and computer monitors, free of charge.  Once a month, I visit the Staples store in Linden Commons to recycle whatever I gathered that time of the month.  You do have to register with Staples, so your recycled items can be tallied and points earned.  I used the points to buy a ream of paper here and there, a few times to buy pens, not stuff that I really want but hey the points may expire so why not just use them.  This past week I splurged for a webcam.  Recall that a few weeks back I thought Camo Studio was such a cool thing?  Free software to connect an old iPhone to use as a webcam, that is cool, right?  It still is, it is just that my old iPhone is, well, just too old.  The battery doesn't last and the connection to the computer, via Camo Studio, doesn't seem to last that long as well.  I still need a webcam after all, something to mount above one of the two monitors connected to the Lenovo laptop.  The laptop has a built-in webcam, but in its closed state sitting on the side, the webcam is unusable.  I got the cheapest webcam available, some LogiTech 720p/30fps model.  All the other models are priced from $100 and up.  Yike, is that the effect of tariffs or what?  Already?  Anyway, if you have a Staples store near you and you are as passionate as I am about recycling, register with them.  I am old-fashioned and still enjoy walking into a store and look around.  Maybe you are too.  If you don't want to bother with the points, i.e. you buy all your stuff on-line, then just let the points expire.  It's good to recycle.  Staples is trying to be a good corporate citizen, or maybe there is money to be made, we should support them either way.

GREEN TRAVELER

At my current job, I travel frequently. Every time I pack for the trip, I am tempted to plan to not bring back some clothes, as a way of getting rid of excess clothes.  I don't buy clothes that often but I do inherit old ones from relatives and the collection grows slowly.  So far I only actually left behind only some socks that became unfit.  I also plan ahead and try to be a green traveler, by doing the following:

• I bring along a stainless steel tumbler to drink water etc from.  If needed, I would also use it to hold water with tooth-brushing.  Starbucks has a bring-your-own although I have yet to participate.
• Usually by the second day I would have a disposable cup from lunch to use with tooth-brushing.  The hotels provide cups, whether glass or plastic, but I'd rather re-use a disposable cups a few times.  One time I accidentally dropped a glass cup, ugh, all the more reason to re-purpose a cup from breakfast.
• If the hotel provides silverware and the office has cereals, I would borrow a spoon to go with breakfast at work.
• I take home all opened shampoo travel-sized bottles and unpacked bars of soaps for use at home.  I have a good stack of them to last for a while.
• Whenever the option is there, I take mass transit to work, even though my employer provides a car for every trip.  Even when I have to get from the airport, with luggages, to the hotel.  It helps that I travel relatively light.  A weekly pass for the local subway, when used to get to the hotel, saves money from a taxi ride, which burns oil.
• Most offices I visited have recycling bin for paper etc.  As I picked up free magazines or touristy pamphlets, I brought them to the office for recycling.
• I always hang a Do-Not-Disturb sign and avoid having my room cleaned everyday.  I re-use the hotel towels for the entire stay, which is mostly one week long.  Another reason for the Do-Not-Disturb sign, "If it's yellow, let it mellow.  If it's brown, flush it down. " I have nothing more to say on the topic.

MAKER FAIRE

I've heard of Maker Faire event before but never seem to find the time to attend one.  When I attended an orientation for recycling volunteers and the sign-up sheet for the event came out, I signed up for it.  Sometimes you just have to make a commitment for something to explore it.  I figure I would be there helping with the recycling tasks at the event and then explore the exhibits if time allows.

As the day of the event approached, I thought of bringing my son along.  I want him to have some exposure to volunteering and perhaps in the process learn something else outside of the iPad.  Alas, he is too young to register as a volunteer.  Fine, I would be willing to pay for him to be at the event, but I wanted him to read more about it and be excited about it.  He didn't find out, so when the day came, I just went by myself.

I worked as a monitor at one of the many recycling stations located throughout the fair.  Each station had a bin for unrecyclables, one for clean paper, and one for metal, plastic, and glass.  There was also a large, green bin for compostable materials, which include food scraps, soiled paper, and papery food containers.  I am happy to report that the unrecyclable container had little stuff compared to the others.  Most of the recycle materials was plastic and the corresponding bin had to be replaced twice while I was there.  The compost bin also filled up quickly and a few times I used glove hands to compress the content to take on more.  Imagine all those stuff simply going to landfill at events past.  I don't know how many other events have such recycling stations so I fear much more materials elsewhere still go to the waste stream instead of being diverted from it.

I didn't have time after my shift to check out the exhibits of Maker Faire.  They sure looked interesting.  I was near the rocket launch and the place was popular.  Kids got to make their own rockets and then launch them high into the air.  There was a pavilion for 3D printing, I wish I checked it out.  I was near a gyro vendor and the smell was intoxicating but when it came lunch time the line was very long.  I had some pastry with me so they became my lunch as I walked about briefly surveying the fair.  Might as well as the gyro was $8!  I did have to spend $4 for an Honest iced tea, at some size that probably cost $1 or $1.50 outside.  Still, I think next year I should make a greater effort to bring my son to the event as an attendee.  Maybe he can learn some handy skills, or at least become excited about them.

FOOD SCRAP COMPOSTING

I sometimes hear stories about people storing food scraps in freezers and on the weekends take the stuff to green markets to recycle.  I suppose these people live in apartments and don't have a backyard container to heap the stuff in.  Or maybe they just like to stick to guidelines in composting brochures to minimize issues with odors and bugs.  Whatever the case, I admire those people.  That's dedication.

I have a backyard and occasionally toss the scraps, mostly fruit waste, into the compost bins I have in my backyard.  For sure they attract bugs but that's what backyards are supposed to be, no?  I know someone whose backyard is, possibly, airtight with plastic on the ground and the fence.  I think that's extreme.  Might as well stay indoor, close all the windows, and turn on the A/C.

After attending a volunteer orientation for recyclers hosted by the city, I wanted to contribute more to food scrap recycling.  It takes time for my compost bins to work and there's that bug issues, so might as well take them to a green market.  I'm not dedicated to keep the food scraps in the freezer or the refrigerator and worried that my stuff wouldn't be accepted.  Luckily, when I arrived at the recycling site, there were just these bins ready to take the stuff.  Whichever bins that were not closed were to be used.  The bins sits out in the open, even if they are closed, for a few hours, so maybe it doesn't matter if the collected stuff was frozen or not.

In the not-too-distant future, the whole NYC will recycle food scraps.  For now, the scraps are either trashed, composted in some backyard, or collected at the green markets, which only open on the weekend, usually.  In my case, I made it a bike trip, about 10 km round-trip, to get to the green market, a break from running to give my knees a break.  I went on a Sunday but had I gone on a Saturday there was a market closer to me.  It takes some extra effort to recycle food scraps and I happen to have it.

Use any open green bins then put containers in the yellow bag (in this case) as trash.

I think of green markets as taking place in some parking lot or some open area, but this one on Corteyou occurred on the sidewalk.  It was a bit crowded but not too bad.

NYC, IT IS EASY TO BE GREEN

Contrary to Kermit's claim, it is easy to be green, especially if you live in New York City.  There are many good news in recent months and weeks.  Some weeks ago my brother took some old electronics to an e-recycling event hosted by Tekserve and he got a coupon in return.  He had no plan to buy anything from Tekserve but thought I would so he gave it to me.  And so I did, a stylus that works on the iPad and other iDevices.  Sure Steve Job would turn in his grave but hey it does work.  The coupon lopped $10 off the cost of the stylus, I ended up paying only $5.  Next we have the long-awaited bike share program that despite some noises is used by many people.  There's even talks of paying for the program to expand quickly into parts of Brooklyn and Queens that won't have subway services for weeks because of scheduled repairs to fix problems brought about by Hurricane Sandy.

This week it was announced that NYC may soon get food scrap recycling.  Food waste takes up to 35% of the waste stream.  The City pays by the ton to get the garbage trucked elsewhere for dumping, so cutting the size by 35% will save us some money.  The latest green good news is that there are now some Street Charge stations, for people to charge their electronic devices, from solar-powered connections, for free.  Of course one would have to have common sense and not just leave their devices unattended and invite others to steal them.  Hey, we do have ATMs on the street, people can withdraw hundreds of dollars, so having one's iDevices out in the open is not that crazy of an idea.

I followed some URL and found out that there was supposed to be a Street Charge station in my nabe, over on 21st Street or thereabout and Surf Avenue.  I made it part of my afternoon run but alas it wasn't there.  I found out later on that it's scheduled for a July 2 installation.  So while I didn't get a photo of the Street Charge station, earlier in the run I found this nice public sculpture.  Let's say Nemo was found and it was not good news.

NEMO!

In other unrelated news, I helped PPTC out at the third race of the Al Goldstein Summer Series.  I started at the New Registration table then when the race was under way, I ran with the back-of-the-pack runners.  I took some time out to use the restroom of the nearby Central Library, then again to try to contact the owner of a cell phone a friend found.  It was a guy visiting from Haiti and my three years of high school was not too useful, but I managed to find the settings to change the language to English then things got better.  I both met the guy and caught up with the last runner, now a speed-walker, not the stroller woman any more.  When I got back to the finish line, look who's helping with the award ceremony - Mr. Al Goldstein himself!  I did see him walk earlier without the use of the cane, too.

You can call me Al.

HAPPY EARTH DAY

Happy Earth Day!  Not that it means much to me, since for me every day is a day to reduce, reuse, and recycle.  I try not to use drinking straws and just sip from the lips of bottles and cans.  I try to recycle every bits of paper around the house large or small.  I walk, run, or cycle when I go on my own, that is, not accompanied by family etc.  I hate driving, or more exact, the parking part when I need to leave the car.  Every day is Earth Day, but for this year's Earth Day, here's a little something I made while doing my morning run.  I would love to include "Happy", or "happy" rather, but with just the two words it was already over 9 km long and I had an appointment to be at.

Go to http://connect.garmin.com/player/301690842 to see how the path was made.  I am proud that my blog is as transparent as a Lululemon yoga pants, so I want you to know that the A and the E were made without any trespassing, but rather with careful stopping and resuming of the watch and running around a path segment a few times.

SPRING CLEANING TIPS 2013 - PROPER E-WASTE DISPOSAL

Spring is here!  Well, the weather is not spring-like, but spring is here regardless.  With spring we will have spring cleaning.  Faithful followers of this blog know that I already have a head-start with spring cleaning thanks to The Freecycling Network (TFN).  I managed to give away many baby-related items plus old-technology stuff.  Ideally the people who get stuff from TFN or similar networks are individuals actually making use of them.  In my case, I suspect I've been dealing with an eBay Seller, so I am not going to list any more stuff for the time being.  I did have a bunch of old 4-GB, or smaller size, internal hard drives, and some internal burners, mostly CD-R or CD-RW, but there was a DVD burner.  Instead of listing them on TFN, I packed them all up into one heavy backpack and rode on the bike to the E-Waste Warehouse of the Lower East Side Ecology Center (LESEC).  The LESEC regularly holds e-waste events in the five boroughs, whereby people can drop off old electronics for re-use or recycling, or at worst for proper disposal so that the old stuff don't end up contaminating soil or stream. Now things get even better!  The E-Waste Warehouse on President Street in Brooklyn, almost by the Gowanus Canal, is open five days a week (Tuesday through Saturday).  Nothing fancy, just a loading dock where people can drop off stuff.  It's far from the main road, so there are plenty of parking or double-parking space should you come with a truck-load of stuff.  For some kind of tracking, you may be asked from which zip code you come from.

When the E-Waste Warehouse is open for business, this sign is put out on the sidewalk.  The loading dock is just to the right of this photo.  A LESEC person sat on the dock collecting stuff, I didn't want to bother him with photography.

The LESEC E-Waste Warehouse is near a T-intersection.  The Gowanus Canal is behind the photographer and the street where the white van is on is President.

Years ago I would drive van-load of stuff I rescued from the street to LESEC events.  I should also take such items to the E-Waste Warehouse, but I won't be doing that at all.  It's a bit far for me and I hate driving, even when there is plenty of parking.  Instead, I've been taking old electronics to my local Best Buy at Caesar's Bay.  I just walk there with a laundry cart, usually with just one item, but one time I brought three pieces.  I just chalk the walk up as a Charity Miles walk, usually done after a meal.  Right at the entrance, I would ask for a Recycle sticker to affix to each piece, then just drop the stuff off at their Service Desk.  No need to even wait on a queue if there is one, just leave them on the floor out of the way for the service people to get in and out of the area.  All the staff are so friendly, they even thanked me for recycling.  According to this blog post, http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/04/24/how-best-buy-makes-money-recycling-america’s-electronics-and-appliances?page=full , Best Buy makes a little money off the free service and their e-waste handlers meet industry standard.  Still a win-win situation for me.  As long as I don't do any compulsive buying while at Best Buy.

I recently found out that Staples also accept old tech stuff for recycling.  I knew that Staples used to take only Dell stuff but things changed for the better.  The local Staples store is much closer for me than the Best Buy store, but recycling with Staples is a little more involved.  You need to be on queue as if you are buying something, then the clerk has to look up some codes to I.D. the pieces and print you a receipt.  On those days when Staples have $1, or better, sales I wouldn't want to be at Staples.  I suppose I'll take the long walks to Best Buy after all.

BROOKLYN FREECYCLE

Let's hear it for Brooklyn Freecycle!  Or FreecyclePlus actually.

Did you visit any of those links I provided in my last post?  Practicing what I preach, I actually posted a few things with Brooklyn Freecycle today.  It's nice that my Offers appeared right away, but it won't do any good if nobody wants the stuff.  I am sure if the site ever gets popular, spammers will ruin it for everyone and new posts will have to be approved, just like with The Freecycling Network.

FreecyclePlus uses a point system in dealing with Offers and Requests.  Supposedly, people can bid with points to have a better chance of getting stuff.  But points are not really required to bid.  Huh?  It reminds me of Whose Line Is It Anyway's point system.  The points don't matter and Drew Carey awarded, the improv geniuses on the show, with abandon.

Anyway, one of the stuff I am offering on Brooklyn Freecycle is these CD tray thingamajig, viewable at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/qaptainqwerty/8467538481/

Do you have any idea how to use these trays?  I only I bought at BJ's Wholesale not really knowing how they are to be used.  Many years later they just sit around not used.  I suspect they are used together with some CD-organizing system, perhaps hooked onto some rod and swing out as needed.  Hope someone will see through and can put them to good use.

BEYOND THE FREECYCLING NETWORK

When I recently got back into freecycling, I thought it was a while since I got involved with the movement, that there would be some other web sites beside The Freecycling Network (TFN).  I didn't look too hard and settled back with TFN.  In these days of Facebook, Twitter, instagrams etc, TFN, at least the Brooklyn and NYC groups that I use, are rather quaint with their Yahoo!Groups interface.  No attachment, a little delay waiting for approval by moderators, message list order sometimes seemingly out of whack.  But I quickly got used to it.  It's actually not bad, just post a message and wait for email responses.  You can even send email to some group address to post offers.  Still, there must be other services out there, and as Allan from AnyGoodToYou wrote in that service's blog, there are.  I checked out the sites Allan mentioned, including the ones found in Wikipedia.  I also happened upon other services.  So there are alternative services to TFN, but none matching TFN's breadth.  Some are limited geographically, others are just alternative interface to the same TFN data, and some are too quiet to be considered active.  For my visits, where applicable I only look for Brooklyn, NY and nearby towns, usually NYC (supposedly the five boroughs of the Big Apple).

http://trashnothing.com - Freecycling Network with a more modern interface

http://www.reusemoose.com - mostly Australia?  I did find a Brooklyn group but it has very little to offer.

http://www.anygoodtoyou.com - UK-based for now

http://freecycleplus.com - relatively new, few listings

http://www.reuseitnetwork.org - Brooklyn and NYC groups are Yahoo!Groups like Freecycle, no interface improvement, new listings in the single digits.

I do recommend you check out these alternatives to TFN.  Competition is good.  Maybe your particular city has a lot of activities.

I would not be surprised if I missed some web sites for freecycling.  Do let me know in the Comments!

FREECYCLE REVISITED

Audiobooks, I love them.  Much as I love reading, the eyes get tired easily.  I already spend a lot of time staring at computer/smartphone/tablet screen, I should use the eyes less whenever possible.  Listening to audiobooks is the answer.  I can do it while driving (it makes the driving less annoying, I hate driving), while walking, or even while sweeping the floor.  But not while running.  I rely on audiobooks, in the form of CDs, from public libraries but use a portable DVD player to listen to them.  I suppose I can try carrying the DVD player in a backpack but I prefer to run with as few things as possible.  It's too bulky anyway, even for walking.  I finally decided that I should get a real CD player.  I am sure I can buy one cheap, but why not give freecycling another try.  Surely someone out there only listen to music and such on iPod etc and has a CD player sitting around collecting dust.  I revisited my last post about freecycling (http://www.qaptainqwerty.com/2006/11/going-in-circles-with-freecycle.html ) and it was back in 2006.  Wow, about 6 years ago!

While I recalled that I belonged to two freecycling groups, I thought there is some rule about people should go to the group for their borough only, so I went to the Brooklyn group.  It slowly came back to me, one of the reason I didn't like the freecycle groups.  It's a lot of info to sift through!  One wrong click and you are back to the beginning, slowly paging through the many pages.  It's all Yahoo's fault.  Or maybe the posters' fault.  Messages should be bunched together if they are related.  So that Offer, Promised, Taken etc go together.  The way things are, you need to eyeball the messages a lot.  Or maybe I'm missing something.  At least I have Message Delivery set to Web Only, so that I have to specifically go to the groups to see the messages.  Having every single message sent to a mailbox will inundate the mailbox in no time as there is just too much activities.  Access the Message Delivery setting by clicking Edit Membership while logged in groups.yahoo.com

I didn't see any offer for a CD player and since I haven't visited the site for a while, I decided to offer something before I post a request.  Nobody responded to my offer of some replacement brush for a Colgate electric toothbrush that I bought by mistake at a Pathmark store-closing sale.  I did come across an offer for some running magazines.  I know someone who can use a recent copy of Runners' World!  I made the contact and it all worked out.  I have the magazine and gave the donor a running-themed sonobe.  Actually, it's her husband who runs, but I wrote a thank-you note on the sonobe addressing both of them.

I wandered over to the NYC group for freecycle and saw that people all over the city use it, including Brooklynites.  Before long, I found an offer for a CD player, as well as an offer for a reader of memory cards.  I also found two requests for things that I can offer, namely for an audiocassette player and a wireless router.  Two takes and two gives, I think I'm balanced.  As long as I don't take more than I give, I should be fine, right?

COM.POST

Technically, I have a compost bin. Earlier this month I decided to use a brand-new trash bin as my compost bin. I started filling the bin with an onion my wife kept in the bedroom to ward off bugs but has gone bad, a SunChips bag, some vines covering the fence in my backyard, then some weeds pulled from the cracks in the front yard, plus many leaves fallen from the huge tree on the street. I know, I know, some purist compost masters would say weeds in compost bin is a no-no but it's such a waste to throw them out. There seems to be a limitless supply of weeds around my house, and my house is not that big. Over time I added teabags from the tea I consumed at work. I save the bags in a plastic bag and brought them home. In the beginning, I threw the whole thing in but lately I rip off the top to prevent the tiny staples from entering the bin. This week I also added fruit peels and such from oranges, mangoes, and rambutans.

I used the word "technical" to describe my compost bin because it is not the ideal bin. I let rain water get into it once or twice then drain the excess water by tipping it over, careful not to spill the content, but otherwise it is not as damp as it should be. Today I sprinkled some water on the bin because it was a hot day. I tried to turn over the bin's content using a hoe and an icebreaker, unsuccessfully. I do plan to switch my current trash bin with this compost bin so that will give it a nice upside down flip, but until I get the proper tool, the bin will not be turning over as often as it needs to be.

Composting should be simple but it is not. Years ago when I did not think of composting the City of New York would sell them at cost, $20 or so, at Compost Give-Back Events. Too bad I did not buy any, even though I dropped off truckload of electronic equipments for recycling at the same location. For me it is not possible to walk into a store and buy a bin to take home. My local Home Depot did not carry any before but on a recent visit there was one model, a 6-gallon rotating drum that goes for $50 or so. The Brooklyn Botanical Garden has some other model that cost $60. $50 or $60 sounds like a lot to pay to hold things that decompose. If you go online to buy them, there are models that go up to $100s of dollars. These things are usually heavy, too, so shipping adds significantly to the total cost when you buy online. It just does not make economical sense. Too bad in these economic hard times the government no longer subsidize the sale of compost bins. Even leaf-collection for composting was suspended a few years ago.

I probably end up buying the one and only model available at my local Home Depot. The big tree in front of my house keep dropping leaves, barks, and branches, not just in autumn but year round. I might as well make the most of these "free" materials.

Reuse This!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Not just on Earth Day, but every day. I do that. Drink coffee from a washable ceramic mug instead of a disposable cup. Wear clothes handed down by my nephews. Make origami out of street flyers. Much as I love to replace them with the latest and greatest, most of my computer equipments are five years old, or longer. Curbside recycling of paper and plastic is nice, but I don't only recycle the stuff used in the house. If I buy a bottle of drink while out, after consuming the content I would take it home, or recycle it at the nearest recycle bin.

I wish everything is easy to re-use, like clothes and paper. Case in point are these plastic pieces that come with the ink cartridges for my Hewlett-Packard Color LaserJet. They protect the cartridges' drums, supposedly, during transit at least, but once unpackaged, what to do with them? They are about 30 cm (11 inches) long, unbendable although a bit flexible along its length. I just cannot think of any way to re-use them other than perhaps melting them and pouring the resulting slush into the shape of a puddle, to make a fake spilled drink. I do know burnt plastic smells horrible though so melting is not such a great idea. Perhaps HP can replace it with cardboard someday, like how styrofoam is used less in packaging these days.

Reuse

Is it not true that sometimes the news is always bad? That when good news happen nobody reports it? I am going to change that view now.

With the recent arrival of Lunar New Year, I had cousins on my side and wife's side visited on different days of the long weekend. They are all receptive in taking used toys and such and I was happy to pass along some of my worldly possessions that have outlived their usefulness. Some I have fond memories of but it was time to part with them. It is still good news to part with them by passing them on to someone who can use them.

• A Woody doll from Toys Story, complete with pull-string and cowboy hat. I bought it back when I was still working in Jersey City near the Newport Mall. Back then my son still liked Toys Story. He watched the Toys Story 2 so many times the VHS tape showed sign of breaking up when viewed.
• My son's kiddie bike. Altogether he had 3 bikes, one when he was really little, with no chain. Uncle Robert got him a better one and he used it for a while until the chain broke and I couldn't find the time to fix it. Finally, we got him one appropriate for his age and size. I had high hopes that he would learn how to ride with just two wheels but it never happened. I will try to get his cousin to resume riding bike first, then perhaps out of being competitive my son will take to the bike. This past weekend the latest bike, now too small for my son, went Cousin N. BTW, the other 2 bikes also found good homes years ago when I got rid of them.
• Various Thomas the Tank Engine toys set and books, plus other train-related toys. Like most boys, J loved trains. I don't recall being so crazy about trains, perhaps because I never saw one, whether in person or on TV, when I was young. Long ago when my son still fitted in a stroller, we visited the MTA Train Museum. We left with my son's first train set, a set of wooden tracks and a few train cars, connected via magnets at the ends. I still remember my son fell asleep as we made our way from the museum to the Pacific Street station of the B train - maybe it was the W train, who knows. It was a hot summer day and I enjoyed a can of Coke bought from a pizza store while my son slept. Aaaaah, those stolen moment when the child slept and the parent had a break.

These days my son is into green toy soldiers along with battle sets (tanks, helicopter, etc) and Bakugan. And of course computer games. Who knows how long it will last, just cherish the moment.

Facebook - Share Photos With Groups

I've been active in helping run my high school reunion scheduled for next year. We have a Facebook group, naturally, and found a few hundred people already. It is great to see the old photos when someone managed to dig them up and share them. Most of the time though, the owners of the photos only share them via their personal albums. One would have to be friends with the owners to know about the photos. I suggested that the owners share the photos with the group but most of them don't know how. So here it is, the step-by-step process of sharing a photo, which was already uploaded to one's personal album, with a group.

For this example, I will post a photo that I already put into my personal album called "Recycling". The group that I will post the photo, that of a recycling bin under the sink, to the group called "I Love Recycling".

First I went to my list of groups. There are many ways to get there. You can go to lower corner of any Facebook screen to click on the Groups icon, which is a picture of 2 people, blue one on the left and a black one on the right. The way FB present the groups can be annoying. It defaults to show only those with recent activities on the right, plus groups that your friends have activities in on the left, so that the group that you want to get to may not be visible right away. If that's the case, you would need to click the See All but on the right side to see all your groups. Even then your groups list will not be in alphabetical order but rather in order of activities. Find the group you want to add the photo and click it. (I'll assume everyone uses a Mac and there is only one button to click. I sure wish life is really that simple, but I digress...)

Once in the group, scroll down to below the Wall Posts and above the Link List to find the Photos section. Click Add Photos.
As shown in the screenshot below, you want to have the tab called Add From My Photos selected. You can upload photos from scratch but why repeat the work? In my mind, the only time you want to do that is if you don't want to share certain comments people already added to the photos that were already uploaded into your album.
You may have many albums and again FB annoyingly doesn't list things alphabetical by default but rather by creation date, or some other way. Find your album and click it.
To add just the photo of the bin under the sink, I clicked its checkbox. Note that the photo of the standing bin in the dark is already selected. I added that photo earlier so it remains selected. To finalize this part of the process, I clicked Add Selected Photos.

If I have many photos to add, there is a Select All button on the right, but my screenshot doesn't show it.
Back in the "I Love Recycling" group, my new photo is now shown as the latest addition to the group's photos album. Done!

Good News in Recycling

I have some good news from the world of recycling. My brother once told me that Whole Food supermarket takes all kinds of batteries for recycling. I visited the relatively new Whole Food on Houston Street and Bowery but alas it did not have any such collection. The pastry shop inside looked great, even had benches for people with sweet teeth to rest and enjoy their decadence, but I digress. This past Sunday I visited the Whole Food on Seventh Avenue and 24th Street. Bro said it was the first Whole Food in NYC. I thought the one in Union Square is but he is probably right. He has more time to wander around. Me, nowadays I just go to work and come home. Anyway, right there in the entrance/exit area was a container in the shape of a Duracell Coppertop. I suppose Duracell is the sponsor for the service. A security guard was standing in front of the box and I had to ask him to let me take a look inside to make sure it was what I thought. So now in case I want to stop sneakily recycle batteries in my sister's co-op - they have a TechnoTrash collection box - I can make the trip to Whole Food. A bit out of the way for my routine, but Tekserve is just a few feet away. On second thought, maybe it is not such a great idea. I may end up at Tekserver and succumb to all those tempting external 1-TB hard drives...

The other good news is that I just noticed on a recent Staples monthly statement that since Feb 2009 they accept all kinds of ink cartridges for reward money. It used to be just HP, Epson, and Lexmark, then Epson got replaced by Dell, or something along those lines. Now any manufacturers' cartridges can be traded in for $3 apiece. I'll be working harder to "rescue" those old printers that people throw out every now and then. It seems some people know about the program already though. A few weeks ago I picked up a multi-function device and its two cartridges were already gone. I still took it to my backyard to wait for a trip to some electronic recycling event. A suggestion if you take the cartridges to Staples: The cashiers usually don't want to touch the cartridges, for fear of getting ink stain and all. They would simply waste a brand new plastic bag to use as a glove then to contain the cartridges. Better to bring the stuff in an old paper or plastic and give the cashier the whole thing, show them the items of course.

There, I think that's enough recycling rant to certify the Environmentalist tag in my Blogger description.

ARROWOnline.org Re-launched

For years I was the webmeister for the green group Astoria Residents Reclaiming Our World, or ARROW for short. I know, it is an ambitious-sounding name. I was not the first webmeister but rather inherited the design from someone else. Over the years, I kept the site mostly up-to-date, reflecting a few changes with the Board Members and the occasional event announcements. Life changes took a toll on the Board Members and much as we wanted to do more for the environment, other responsibilities took higher priorities. Somehow, even with the convenience of email and the cell phone, I didn't get frequent enough updates to put on the web and for a long time the web site was idle. One day, my ARROW friend SR came across some MAWebCenter person. The software sounded promising, with the possibility that SR and others can just update the web site themselves. I didn't make any changes to the original web site design so it was about time the site got a face lift.

It is a few months later and the new www.arrowonline.org is up. For SR, the software isn't as easy to use as advertised, but I think the site looks pretty good. ARROWOnline's goal is to disseminate useful green news, be it recycling, re-using, or reducing, focused on local organizations. Check it out and learn a thing or two about the green movement!

Recycling in China

Every now and then, the news would have a story about some environmental problem in China as the country catches up to Western standard. The Yellow River is overused for some industry, sand storm blasting Beijing because of destruction of trees, you name it. So it was comforting during my recent visit to see most of the public trash receptacles having separate containers for recyclables and non-recyclables, such as shown in this photo, taken at the San Ya Nan Shan Cultural Tourism Zone in San Ya, Hai Nan Island. In some other places, I spotted plastic containers set aside just for the purpose of collecting used batteries. Of course, it's one thing for the government to make available the recycle bins and it's something else for the average person to be aware of them. Even in my office in the U.S. of A., the recycle bins often have non-recyclables in them.

Just as some U.S. states have bottle-recycling laws, whereby empty soda cans and bottles are worth a nickel or more each, in China, there's a market for plastic, glass, and paper. Bottles for drinking water had some value, as I saw old ladies here and there collecting them. In Tai Cheng, I noticed many people wandering on bicycles, with a wagon behind them, picking up recyclable items. They usually have a glass bottle mounted on the bike's handle bars, on which they would tap periodically to draw attention to themselves. Perhaps they pay a small price for the materials, or got them for free, what I know for sure is that their wagons usually had things in them.