be green or be gone

So maybe caring about the planet is not an either-or thing where you're either for environmental protection or against it. Often, most of us do care about the Earth a lot - we enjoy our beach holidays and our forests. Time and again, we just need a kick up the pants to change our habits, no?

An easy start is eDay, a cars-only drive-through recycling event which gives you the opportunity to recycle old computers or mobile phones in an environmentally sustainable way. For more info, click here.

eDay will be held on the 4th* of October 2008 in regions around New Zealand.

Computer collectables charity auction, live from Sat 4 Oct.

The event was launched in Wellington in 2006 with an extremely successful pilot sponsored by Dell. Fifty-four tonnes of unused computer hardware were collected in one day. In 2007, eDay was extended to 12 locations throughout New Zealand where a total of 6,900 cars dropped off 415 tonnes of e-waste. This included more than 26,000 computer items including monitors, CPUs and printers....

• mobile phone chargers can be recycled to recover copper
• handsets and accessories can be recycled to recover the plastics
• circuit boards inside handsets can be recycled to recover precious metals such as gold, silver and other materials like copper, lead and zinc
• rechargeable batteries are recycled for their nickel, iron, cadmium, lead and cobalt.

On average, over 95% of the materials collected on eDay will be diverted from landfills.

Volunteers are required for eDay to assist with logistics at each eDay drop off site. Volunteers are needed to help direct traffic, interview drivers about their awareness of e-waste issues and remove computer equipment from cars. Sign up here.