GREEN BUSINESS SITES

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Green Business Sites, plus updates
by JANE BOGNER
SUNDAY, May 20, 2007

To help local companies become green, there is a new website called www.iReuse.com. iReuse is an online group designed for businesses to “Find Stuff, Post Stuff, and Get Rid of Stuff locally.” Founded in 2005 in Marin County, iReuse helps businesses save time, money, and energy by making it easy to be green.

Companies, individuals and nonprofits can use this free site. To find office items that you need, just sign up and when another company posts that item on the site, you will get an email notice. Companies can sell or donate unwanted items such as desks, chairs, file cabinets, etc.

iReuse offers a CleanSweep service where they will help coordinate the sale, donation or recycling of surplus material. To date, iReuse has kept over one million pounds of materials out of landfills. Thanks to Lisa Lefebvre, Vallejo Garbage Recycling Coordinator, for alerting us to this great site.

Other web sites for businesses to use for unwanted supplies include www.napamax.org, www.craigslist.com, www.calmax.org, www.freecycle.org, and the VALCORE site.

New Battery

I hold that the fate of our planet hangs on a high capacity sustainable battery. With that in mind, the new usbcell battery caught my eye. This normal looking AA battery flips open to reveal a usb connector. The Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery is simply plugged into a usb port on your computer for recharging.

This method eliminates the need for a separate charging unit. The charge takes about five hours but if you are using your laptop away from a power source, that may deplete some of the computer’s energy. The cost is about $19 for two AA batteries. The company also has AAA, 9 volt, and PDA batteries in development. For more information go to www.usbcell.com.

Recycling Crayons?

The school year is almost over and students are cleaning out their desks. I found a source for recycling old crayons. Crazy Crayons was founded in 1993 by LuAnn Foty in Pelican Lake, Wisconsin. She has collected over 34,000 pounds of unwanted crayons and remolds them into fanciful multi-colored crayons that she sells on her website www.crazycrayons.com, 1 800 561-0922).

Lynch Canyon

Congratulations to the Solano Land Trust on their grand opening of Lynch Canyon Open Space. This canyon originally belonged to General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo who lost it in a title dispute in 1863. The land was owned by several cattle grazing families over the years until it was sold in the early 1980s for use as a landfill. That idea was rejected by voters and now these 1039 acres are owned by the Solano Land Trust and jointly managed with the Solano County Regional Parks Department.

Lynch Canyon is located between Vallejo and Fairfield adjacent to I80. Take American Canyon/Hiddenbrooke exit then east on McGary Road to the underpass. Open hours are Wednesday through Sunday from 8 am to the closing time posted at the gate. There is a $5 parking fee and maps are available showing trails which are open to hikers, bicyclers and horses. Information is at www.solanolandtrust.org or 707 432-0150.

The local Sierra Club provided biodegradable coffee cups for the opening ceremony and one savvy gardener, Carol Berman, quickly snatched used cups for starting vegetable seeds that can be transplanted, cups and all, into her garden.

VALCORE Recycling Board Member Jane Bogner's "A Sorted Affair" is published every other week in the Times-Herald, Community Outlook Section. For recycling information call her at 645-8258 or visit www.VALCORErecycling.org.