This week at TreeHugger: In the U.K., it’s just as cheap to charge your iPod or play your Xbox using wind-generated renewable energy. The state of California lays down the law when it comes to pitching old gadgets and electronics (hint: you can’t do it anymore). Back across the pond, we consider the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales, home to environmental technology testing and practice, and an online store full of eco-tech. Plus, we debuted our foray into video with the first ever installment of TreeHugger TV, our brand new feature that shows everyone how to have their cake and eat it too.
Thanks to a company called Ecotricity, citizens of the U.K. can buy all the green power they need for cheap. Guaranteeing conventional-power prices, they claim to be the largest independent green electricity supplier in Europe, and 100% of their profits go to their own wind farms around the U.K. The power they sell is the power they make, and football hooligans will soon be involved as well; Manchester Football Club plans to install a turbine that will provide renewable energy for their stadium. Power to the people!
Beginning February 9, new California state laws will take effect that require all electronic waste to be recycled, rather than dumped in the trash and shipped to landfills. According to the state, in 2003, 515,000 tons of electronics were dumped into California landfills; 44% of the waste (by volume) consisted of CRTs and TV sets. Instead of chucking them, consumers will be required to take their old microwaves, laptops, fluorescent lighting and the like to state-managed household hazardous waste collection centers. That means all your old iPods and VCRs can finally go to that great gadget dump in the sky. May they rest in peace.
Wales: home to the Welsh, many sheep, lots of daffodils, several mountains and The Centre For Alternative Technology (CAT). Dedicated to exploring and demonstrating “globally sustainable, whole and ecologically sound technologies and ways of life,” it is home to a small community who live there, putting environmental theories and technologies into practice on a daily basis and teaching others the ways of “alt-tech.” The best part, unless you’re there in person, rambling about the Welsh countryside, is the online store, filled with eco-tech goodies galore.
Finally, we debuted TreeHugger TV. The first installment is a fun (we think), moving-pictures-and-sound treatment of a couple green tips for slackers, which, admittedly, we all are from time to time. So slack off, watch some TV, and enjoy.
Treehugger s EcoModo column appears every Tuesday (but Thursday this week) on Gizmodo.
