Not too long ago, I brought home a delicious Chipotle burrito for lunch. I always love to read the bags. This one said, “Recycling turns things into other things. Which is like magic.” The napkin followed up on the humor:

Most of us have come to love recycling. At least, those of us who live in a town with curbside recycling pickup, with no more sorting, have come to feel very good about giving what-would-be-trash a second chance at life. And we feel good about buying products that are recycled.

But there has been some debate…

Is recycling actually worse for the environment than landfilling or incinerating our trash?

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It’s hard to believe it’s been over four years since our very first Green 2.9 post. Since then, we’ve implemented various (successful and not-so-successful at times) strategies in our effort to be as responsible as we know how when it comes to environment, social, and financial sustainability. We believe that these three arenas work together to form a complete view of what it means to be a sustainable company that contributes to the continued good of our world – both now and in the future. And we know that we’ve just begun to scratch the surface.

A small forest, a few swimming pools, and energy to spare…

2011 was a good green year for us. As you can see in the graph above, we met or exceeded nearly all the goals we set (with the exception of  aluminum cans recycled, but that’s because we drank even less soda this year, so we’ll toast to good health on that failed goal). We recycled more than we ever have this year. Our paper usage for printed projects was way up due to some large projects at the end of the year that used 100% post consumer recycled content paper. We made a few calculations based on the savings from those projects. When compared to using 100% virgin fiber paper, we saved …

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The other day, as I was looking through my desk drawers, I stumbled upon one of my old cell phones. It got me thinking. What happens to old cell phones? The sad reality is that most of them wind up in the trash. A great alternative to having your old phones sit in a landfill for the rest of time is to recycle them. Recycling phones does a couple of really good things for the environment. It not only keeps harmful toxic materials (mercury, lead, nickel, cadmium) out of landfills, but it also keeps reusable components like metals and plastics recycling through the system.

Another great part about recycling your old phones is that it’s easy. There are many great websites that you can send your electronic donations. One that is particularly interesting is CollectiveGood. This site allows you to not only recycle your phones but also gives you the ability to choose a charity in which you’d like to donate the money you would receive for your phone. There is a wide variety of causes listed, anything from the Center for Domestic Violence to the American Red Cross. It’s as simple as selecting a charity and sending your phone off. Who ever said it isn’t easy being green?