The 2008 US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Stats on Electronics Recycling and E-waste are now out. Find a summary of them and the full factsheet (PDF) to learn more about how electronics and computer equipment are handled and recycled.

Discarded electronics still make up around 2% of the municipal solid waste stream, and remain among the fastest growing solid waste streams.

This is some of the best online content I've seen recently on the environmental issue of paper with stats on how many trees we're consuming to create the paper we use, and finally some ways to minimize paper use in the office, recycle more, and adopt recycled content paper use more fully.

In The Secret Life of Paper, a five-minute video about paper waste from the New York City based nonprofit Inform we learn that in the US, we recycle only about half the paper

As is often stated, reusing discarded goods of any type is the highest and best form of recycling them. This is especially true for electronics. Reuse is the highest form of recycling in that it retains the intended function and materials of electronic equipment with very little wasted, while end-of-life electronics recycling recovers just a portion of the metals, plastics, and glass that go into the manufacture of electronic devices. Shredding and smelting computers, for instance, loses 10% to 30% of the materials and energy in any given item.

If you’re looking for a very easy way to cut your computer energy use and save money, Verdiem Software and the Climate Savers Computing Initiative have released a free energy-saving software application called Edison.

The simple to use software tool works with Windows XP and Windows Vista machines and you dictate which hours you use your computer most, choose the level of energy savings you want to achieve (using a sliding scale), and then it calculates your estimated savings based on the setting you choose. You can find and download the 28 megabyte application at their Web site.

As a nonprofit manager looking for good places to buy IT equipment that meets our ever-greening needs, Softchoice is one of the best commercial green IT sites I've seen. What is Softchoice? They're an online computer hardware and software vendor, but one with particularly good green IT content and products in the EcoTech portion of their Web site.

National Geographic's Greendex is a study measuring and monitoring consumer progress toward environmentally sustainable consumption in 14 countries around the world. Consumption as measured by the Greendex is determined both by the choices consumers actively make—such as repairing rather than replacing items, using cold water to wash laundry, choosing green products rather than environmentally unfriendly ones—and choices that are controlled more by their circumstances, such as the climate they live in or the availability of green products or public transport.

TreeHugger is one of the top environmental information portals on the internet and is a great resource for individuals and organizations working to go greener at home and at the office. Its particular mission is drive sustainability mainstream. It is designed to be a one-stop-shop for green news and product information so it covers many areas like transportation, science, technology, design, architecture, culture, travel, food, business, politics, fashion etc etc.

GreenNonprofit.org is a cool organization whose sole mission is to create and support the global movement that educates, assists, and certifies Nonprofits/NGOs in becoming environmentally friendly. So, if your organization is looking to (or has become) greener, this could be a great resource to help encourage buy-in, as well as a convenient way to get certification as a Green Nonprofit.

Cisco Systems is emerging as one of the leaders in green IT among the big high-tech companies. They’re leading a project in cooperation with the cities of Amsterdam, San Francisco, and Seoul Korea in a project called the Connected Urban Development.

Most people don’t think of them as office equipment, but almost certainly the one of the most expensive pieces of equipment in your office is your refrigerator.

According to the US Department of Energy, refrigerators are one of the most expensive home or office appliances to operate. The average refrigerator uses 1,000 to 1,500 kilowatt hours per year at a cost of over $100 per year.