AFCU Money Matters - Fall 2007 - (Page 4)

member tips kids’ view e-Waste That computer was amazingly advanced — until last month. That bells-and-whistles PDA seemed utterly progressive — until the upgrade was released. That MP3 player was the coolest gadget on the planet — until you saw it in lime green. As technology soars, the lifespan of electronics is falling in direct proportion. It is estimated that 500 million personal computers will be taken out of service between 2000 and 2007. That’s an enormous amount of bits, bytes and bots falling by the wayside. When you factor in all the additional unwanted cell phones, fax machines, DVD players, stereos and televisions, the numbers are staggering. Quantities aside, another major issue is hazardous waste. Batteries and electronics contain toxic materials such as lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium that create serious environmental problems when they end up in a landfill. So what can we do about it? dispose of, along with your ZIP code. You’ll automatically receive a list of nearby places that reuse, repair and recycle the item you’ve indicated. It’s easy to recycle batteries and cell phones, since many retail stores now serve as drop-off centers for both. To find the store near you, log on to www.rbrc.org, click on Find a Drop Off Site Near You, and enter your city and state or ZIP code. What’s an example of something that is bad for the environment? Fire, smoke and litter. —Kate, 6 Polluting the water by putting oil in the rivers. —Miranda, 11 How do you take care of the earth? By planting stuff. —Braedon, 5 By not wasting water and running over your flowers. —Austin, 10 What happens if we don’t take care of the earth? The earth will look bad, and people will get sick. —Austin, 10 It will be dirty. —Emily 10 What does it mean to recycle? To throw your garbage in the blue garbage can. —Skyler, 5 If you used it once, you can use it again. —Emily, 10 Purge Personal Files from Your Computer Before recycling your computer, it’s important to know that simply deleting files and cookies from your hard drive does not guarantee the information may not be recovered. You need to go one step further and overwrite your data. Back up everything you want to keep from your hard drive and then run wiping software, which will overwrite your information with random ones and zeros. You may also use programs such as Active@KillDisk or Softpedia/ DP Wiper, which will overwrite your data more than once. The more it’s overwritten, the harder it is to recover. Visit www.microsoft.com/protect for more information about protecting yourself against identity theft. Local Solutions, Global Effects Many of our communities are making recycling almost effortless. To find a recycling center in your area, log on to www.earth911.org. At the top of the page enter the type of item you wish to 4 FALL 07 http://www.rbrc.org http://www.microsoft.com/protect http://www.earth911.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of AFCU Money Matters - Fall 2007

Money Matters - Fall 2007 Contents e-Statements e-Waste Live a Greener Life! Motley Fool: Hybrid Cars Looking More Attractive Jean Chatzky: Reduce, Reuse and Simplify Saving Energy, Saving Money It’s Easy Being Green Five Common Money Mistakes

AFCU Money Matters - Fall 2007

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