HoundsGood: Chronicles of a Virtual Volunteer

Most everyone is on the recycling wagon these days. It is very easy to remember to save your bottles, as you usually get a deposit back. What about electronics? Landfills have areas where they have electronics and people can come to the “junkyard” and buy scrap aluminum, etcetera, for an additional use. What happens to all the gizmos that can’t be easily salvaged for steel or other metals? Old and newer electronics have the potential to contain lead, cadmium, and mercury. While they may not be harmful inside a working electronic, if they are not disposed of carefully, they can cause problems for an unsuspecting animal, or even the water table. These substances can be very useful, but they don’t belong going through the regular flow of trash.

I have recently learned that there are groups like Elmar’s, at http://www.elmars.org, that have addresses this very problem. They offer a pickup and recycling service of various electronic components to keep them out of the general trash population. Unfortunately, they only pick up in the San Francisco bay area. They do bulk pickups in perimeter areas. Examples of items that they handle are items with broken LED displays, batteries, toner, and printed circuit boards. There are organizations that take working items to use for projects or to send them to someone who could use them. Elmar’s is a non profit that takes items that are beyond use, and receives funding such as private donations to be able to do so.

If you have used Elmar’s, please comment and tell us about your experience. Of course, they are not to be confused with Elmer’s, who makes glue. You wouldn’t want a motherboard melted down and eaten by your preschooler!

The Lions Club is always doing a drive for used and new eyeglasses, to send to people that are not able to obtain then, mostly overseas.  If you have glasses that you don’t use, it is a nice way to recycle.  The subject of eyeglasses has got me thinking about my own eyesight.

I haven’t worn glasses in quite awhile, but now that I am traveling in a different part of town, I have been really noticing the astigmatism in one of my eyes.  I think it is because before, my brain would sort of “fill in” the names of streets if I couldn’t see them sharply.  I would sort of read the first or last part, or the length of the name, and having my bearings of where I was, my brain somehow checked out the map in my head and I was pretty spot on  At first, I thought I was just quickly glancing, but now I know that I really couldn’t see them very well.

Money is always tight around the holidays, but I have heard how economical the Holiday frames at Zenni Optical are.  I can even afford to get something red or green for the holidays and buy something more conservative the rest of the year. (Look at the glasses below…they are actually green and red or green and burgundy if you can’t make up your mind!)   Or, maybe I will buy myself a pair and buy a second pair to donate to the Lions Club.