Likely effects of higher temperatures:

Some of the likely effects of global warming are as follows.

- Smoggy days and extreme weather conditions

- Melting glaciers

- Increased sea levels with possible flooding

- Intense hurricanes like Katrina

- Extinction of some species

- Imbalance in ecosystem

- Droughts or shortage of water resources

- Increased illnesses and related deaths

Greenhouse gases:

Greenhouse gases are the gases that trap the heat in the atmosphere thereby causing a warmer earth or global warming. While some greenhouse gases occur naturally in the atmosphere, certain human activities cause to increase them to higher levels. The principal greenhouse gases that cause global warming or climate change are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases. Carbon dioxide is the major component of the greenhouse gases and deserves the most attention.

Carbon Dioxide: We use fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas to produce electricity, run our factories, manufacture products, heat our homes, and run our cars. When fossil fuels containing carbon are burnt, carbon dioxide is formed thereby increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

We all know that trees absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen through the process of photosynthesis. Thus, trees are very beneficial to mankind in maintaining a balanced atmosphere. Unfortunately, deforestation is another major cause for increased carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

Americans produce about 25 percent of the carbon dioxide pollution from fossil fuel burning even though we make up just 4 percent of the world population. Ours being the most advanced country, we need to take lead even in controlling and reducing the greenhouse gas emissions.

What can I do?

How can an individual reduce greenhouse gases? Well, it is not difficult. You can list out your daily normal activities and analyze to see if you can do something different to reduce consumption of oil, natural gas, electricity and/or water. The energy saving ideas can be relating to cars, appliances, lighting, home heating & cooling, water heating, etc. Planting trees is also a great way to reduce greenhouse gases.

In addition to the above, recycling is one area that would help in a significant way in reducing the greenhouse gases. Items that can be recycled include cans, bottles, plastic bags, paper, cell phones, printer cartridges, etc. By recycling, you send less trash to the landfills and help to save natural resources like oil, gas, trees, aluminum, plastics, etc. Printer cartridges are one area where we can put the cartridges to recycling to reduce the greenhouse gases while saving money.

Printer cartridges:

A decade ago there were some predictions that there would be less usage of paper ultimately leading to a paperless society. Contrary to those predictions, computers, printers, fax machines and other information technologies have created an increased demand for paper for printing photos, recipes, school work, web content, etc.

Most of ink cartridges and toner cartridges that we use for printing can be recycled and put to use again. The recycled (or remanufactured) cartridges cost less and perform just as well as OEM cartridges. The savings to the consumers can be up to 50% or more.

Effects on environment:

More than a million empty cartridges are thrown away every day into trash. The environmental impact of throwing away about 400 million cartridges in a year is substantial. The approximate breakup is 280 million inkjet cartridges and 120 million toner cartridges. These cartridges contribute to about 400 million pounds of solid waste to our landfills.

The printer cartridges contain plastic, metal, rubber, etc. The plastics are non biodegradable and may take up to 1000 years to decompose while other materials may take hundreds of years. Additionally, each inkjet cartridge requires two and half ounces of oil and each toner cartridge requires 3 quarts of oil to manufacture them.

While the above figures are estimates, we can get a reasonably good idea about the need to save our precious natural resources and to reduce greenhouse gases.

We can make the difference:

If we can recycle just 10% more printer cartridges, 40 million less cartridges will go to landfills. The greenhouse gas emissions will be less by about 100 million pounds which is equivalent to taking 20,000 cars off the road for one year. Act now and help to reduce greenhouse gases. Let us make our planet a wonderful place to live, not only for us but for all future generations.