05.18.12

Over 50% of Americans drink 3-4 cups of coffee per day. Let’s face it, that’s a lot of coffee in the States alone. Many of us brew coffee in the morning or keep a pot going all day in the break room at work. We accept coffee as a part of a normal (functioning) day, but how often do we think about the waste that our coffee consumption generates? Perhaps you’ve never considered reusing coffee grounds before… but let us assure you, there are many creative uses for old grounds.

1. Try using your coffee grounds as plant fertilizer. Mix the grounds loosely into the soil surrounding your plants or even sprinkle them directly on your lawn. Cold coffee can even be used directly on potted plants indoors. The grounds contain useful nutrients like Nitrogen, Calcium, Potassium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, and Sulfur and can even help keep bugs away from sensitive plants.
2. Use grounds to scour greasy pots and pans.
3. Dry the grounds completely and fill up an old stocking or breathable sack. Use this as an odor absorber in cabinets, cupboards, or refrigerator.
4. Use the coffee sludge from your filter as a wood stain. Mix in more or less water depending on the darkness of the wood.
5. Use as a beauty supplement. Mix grounds with egg and apply to the face. Let dry, then rinse with warm water. The concoction will gently firm and tone, minimize pores, as well as scrub off dead skin.

Just another way of Going Green!!

04.25.12

Did you know that (according to the EPA) 41% of all office waste is paper-related? The average office wastes around 1.5 pounds of paper per day! Recycling office paper is a simple and effective way to reduce waste. Placing a recycling bin inside of your office is an ideal way to get started. But, there are many additional ways to reduce office paper waste. Be proactive when it comes to protecting the environment by paying attention to these paper recycling tips.

• Reuse paper. Ask office employees to place paper that has only been used on one side inside of a special box or tray. When non-sensitive information must be written or printed, ask staff members to take paper from the stack of one-sided paper.

• Recycle Envelopes. When possible, reuse envelopes that have already been printed on. You can purchase address labels that can be affixed over an existing address.

• Take advantage of technology. Sending an email instead of sending a fax or memo takes less time, less paper, and will save on printing costs – make sure to recycle your e-waste too!

• Adjust font sizes. Make sure that all corporate paperwork is printed using the same basic font. By making the house font smaller and setting column widths a bit wider, you can cut back on printing paper.

• Cut back on mail. If your office receives mailers regularly, contact the National Waste Prevention Coalition. This organization will send you postcards (printed on recycled paper) that ask organizations not to send mailers to your office. You can also ask clients to send emails instead of letters.

Sometimes printing a letter or document is necessary. Purchasing recycled paper from the start is the best way to set a great office example. If your office is equipped with a kitchen, you can also purchase recycled paper goods. Recycling office paper doesn’t require much time or energy, but it will make a huge impact on the environment. Call Go Green Mobile Shredding today to turn your office paper into eco-friendly pulp. You can reach us at (877) 821-0217.

04.17.12

The electronics and high tech gadgets that we enjoy our in everyday lives contain a number of pollutants and other materials that are harmful to the environment and the public health if disposed of improperly.  But the costs of managing and controlling the negative impacts of e-waste aren’t reflected in the price tags you’ll see on the shelf. So who should pay for these “hidden costs” of e-waste—and how?

That’s a question that national laws and regulations don’t yet address. But states across the country, including California, are beginning to take on the challenge of paying for e-waste recycling and sustainable disposal of electronics through their own laws.

Here are a few:

New York – Free for Consumers, but Manufacturers Pay Up

New York State recently enacted a law that places the financial burden of e-waste recycling on the manufacturers. That is, companies like Apple, Dell, HP and Samsung will have to pay out of their own pockets for the collection and recycling of electronics that contain toxic materials.

Because the fee is paid directly by the manufacturer based on the type of e-waste they’ll be producing down the road, it incentivizes them to explore greener ways to make their top-selling gadgets.  Meanwhile, consumers pay nothing—all they have to do is participate in the manufacturer’s electronics take back program, or drop off the electronics at a certified pickup location. And by 2015, this will be mandatory for consumers—dumping electronics in the normal trash will be illegal by then.

Maine – Municipal Government/Producer Responsibility

In Maine, manufacturers pay for the recycling of e-waste, but municipal governments are in charge of collecting e-waste. Local governments are required to hold e-waste collection events or maintain e-waste drop off points for consumers. As such, part of the effort is paid for through tax dollars.

California – Consumers Contribute to Fund Innovation

In California, we have what is called an Advance Recovery Fee (ARF) system. This means that when Californians buy a computer, a cell phone or TV, they are charged an additional Electronic Waste Recycling Fee on top of their purchase. This money goes towards funding state-approved e-waste collectors and recycling centers across California.

The Electronic Waste Recycling Fee is not a deposit, nor is it a “prepayment” of the disposal fee for your covered electronic device. Rather, this money is used by the state to ensure that entrepreneurs and independent e-waste recyclers have the resources they need in order to recycle and process electronic waste in an eco-friendly and efficient fashion.

In this way, the Electronic Waste Recycling Fee plays a big role in ensuring that companies like Go Green Mobile Shredding can offer Southern California businesses cost-effective rates for e-waste pick up, e-waste disposal and hard drive destruction.

As Californian’s, we’re proud of the measures that our state legislators have taken in order to equitably distribute the costs of e-waste disposal and recycling. Because the sad fact is, when there aren’t laws and regulations in place to address the costs of e-waste management, then everyone pays—if not today, then tomorrow, when our ecosystems become endangered and our children and grandchildren become sick. We hope that other states, and perhaps the national government, will take cues from the successes demonstrated in states like New York, Maine and California. That way, we won’t be faced with difficult decisions, such as whether to fund public schools or to pay for superfund cleanup sites, or whether to invest in renewable energy or pay for the ongoing reclamation of contaminated landfills.

Going green is going well in California—and we’re glad that we can make it easy for you to do your part. Call Go Green Mobile Shredding for all your e-waste recycling and secure hard drive disposal needs.

12.29.11

Flash-based memory has been an industry standard for years, but solid state drives (SSDs) are just now becoming affordable enough to be included in original equipment manufacturer (OEM) devices. Solid state hard drives replace the traditional hard disk drive for storing system data as well as user documents, settings, records and credentials. SSDs are particularly favored in mobile computing, due to their resilience, portability and low voltage. The Macbook Air, the Acer Chromebook and the Samsung Chromebook all rely on flash storage, for example.

But in spite of the benefits for the end user, solid state drives pose new challenges for data security. A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Diego concluded that securely erasing data on SSDs is more difficult than on HDDs for a number of reasons. Important takeaways from the study include:

Solid State Drives Cannot Be Degaussed

For years, degaussing was an important and highly effective step in decommissioning hard disk drives and other digital media. Data on tapes, hard disk drives and floppy disks is stored magnetically. By exposing these types of media to high powered magnets, the data was erased or rendered completely irrecoverable. Because of the way solid state drives store data, degaussing has little to no effect on them. This includes mass solid state drives as well as USB thumbdrives, SD cards and USB pendrives.

Secure Deletion Methods on SSDs Don’t Always Work

Software-driven secure file deletion methods usually involve formatting a drive and then overwriting the sectors where the data was stored. This process is sometimes called sanitization. You can buy commercial software that automates this process for you. The problem is, however, that the majority of such software is designed for hard disk drive interfaces. Because the method by which solid state drives physically write data to sectors is fundamentally different than the read/write process for hard disk drives, the secure deletion commands often do not get carried out properly for SSDs. To remedy this sisue, some SSD manufacturers have implemented built-in secure erasure mechanisms for SSDs, but even these features are less than 100% reliable.

Physical Destruction is Still the Most Secure Practice

As with hard disk drives, solid state drives that contain or formerly contained sensitive information should be shredded. The lesson that we’ve learned from other types of digital media is that no file can truly be eradicated electronically. With today’s technology, this is even more true for solid state drives.

Call Go Green Mobile Shredding and we’ll come to your office and shred your solid state drives on-site.

12.22.11

Today’s business managers and consumers are getting savvier about protecting their privacy and identity. But a heightened awareness of the importance of paper shredding has led to a few persistent misconceptions about data security.

1. Particle Size Matters Most

Well-intentioned office managers often presume that, when it comes to paper shredding or hard drive destruction, smaller particle size always equals greater security. While it is important for shredded material to be practically unreconstructable, there are other points of vulnerability to consider beyond the risk of someone piecing together shredded paper or electronics. This is why government agencies stress the process of data destruction, rather than the resulting particle size. Regulations focus on best practices for the collection, transport, processing and disposal of sensitive material.

Don’t be overly impressed by the size of the particles that any particular shredding company claimed to produce. Particles that are 1/26” aren’t inherently more secure than particles that are 1/32”. Instead, ask how secure their data destruction process is. A good way to measure that is to check for National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) certification. NAID verifies approximately 20 different aspects of a data destruction company’s process before awarding certification.

2.  In-house Paper Shredding is Best

There’s a mentality that if you want something done right, do it yourself. But when it comes to data destruction, handling it in-house may actually leave you more liable. Shredded confidential documents in the dumpster behind your office building are easy targets for two reasons:

1. Dumpsters on public roads or even private alleys are easily, and in some cases, legally accessible.

2. Experienced dumpster divers know that shredded documents contain the most valuable information; that’s what they’ll grab first.

Outsourcing your paper shredding solves these issues by disposing your processed documents in a receptacle or facility that is not open to the public and  by comingling your shredded documents with material from other clients.

3. All Paper Recycling is Secure

Many  businesses have arrangements with recycling companies who buy their office paper, pick it up and take it to their facility for processing and baling. While these companies serve an important role for the environment, the purpose of this service is completely different from secure data destruction. This arrangement is purely for the sale of recyclables, and doesn’t account for the security of your company’s information. Sensitive documents could be compromised in transit to the facility or even at the facility by an employee.  A more secure way to dispose of your recyclable material is to shred them on-site, right before your eyes.

Go Green Mobile Shredding  is a NAID Member data destruction company that can shred your hard drives, digital media and paper on site, right in your parking lot. We issue a certificate of destruction documenting the secure processing of your materials and then bring them to a certified recycling facility.

Call Go Green Mobile Shredding today to learn how your office can protect its data and save the environment.