I first learned about GreenCitizen several years ago when I was trying to figure out what to do with old CDs and DVDs.  Since then, Michael and I have taken several dead gadgets to them: our old rice cooker, our old blender, and some obsolete computer equipment.  So I was excited to take a tour of GreenCitizen’s […]
On Blog Action Day, bloggers around the world all post articles on a single topic. Â This year, the topic is human rights, and as I sit here typing (or Swyping) this post into my Android mobile phone, I’m acutely aware that having a smartphone is very definitely NOT a human right. (Okay, this is going […]
It’s frustrating when electronic gadgets break, and not just because you have to go through the hassle of fixing or replacing them but because in doing so, a lot of waste is created. So when the headphone jack on my phone stopped working intermittently, I put off doing anything about it for several months. But […]
Another day, another broken gadget. Â Plastic-free rule #1 when something breaks is to try and fix it instead of replacing it. But that’s not always easy since so many appliances are built to be tossed instead of repaired. Â Well Easy Schmeasy. Â Fixing things is fun. Â Saves money. Â Makes you feel like a Super Hero […]
If you use a cell phone, you should wear a headset, right? I got my first cell phone in 2000 and have known for years that it might be dangerous to hold the phone right up to my head. Nevertheless, year after year, I did exactly that and felt the heat cooking my brain. I […]
What is an LCD monitor made of? And what do you do if it breaks? I learned the answers to these questions the hard way. The Stupid Thing I Did Laptop monitors break easily, as I discovered a couple of months ago after closing the lid down on a couple of earbuds I had left […]
Back in January, I posted on my Facebook profile: The foam pads (read: plastic) on my headphones are wearing out. Motivation to learn to crochet because I hate round knitting. Well, this weekend, April 23, I finally summoned up the motivation to learn enough crochet basics to fix my headphones. See, even though I use […]
Dear Toshiba Satellite S105 Laptop Computer: I’m sorry I never gave you a better name in the 9 years that we were together. I was so sad last week when I traded you in at CeX in Berkeley for a bigger, faster, more powerful computer. For a second, I thought I might jump across the […]
One of the strategies I use to acquire less new plastic is to fix stuff that breaks instead of replacing it with new gadgets and to use resources like Craigslist, Freecycle, and thrift stores to get it secondhand. So I get really irritated when despite my best efforts, I find that my broken gadgets are […]
I’ve been looking for a webcam for a while because I want to be able to meet with people via Skype rather than travel to meet up in person. I’ve done way too much flying this year, and all those emissions are weighing hard on my conscience. IÂ hoped to find a secondhand webcam rather than […]