Too Wired to Sleep?

 

Written by Jenny Catton

 

Creating a relaxing bedroom environment is one of the best ways to ensure a good night’s sleep. So whether it’s lavender oil on your pillow, comfy blankets or soft colours, it’s a good idea to make your bedroom a sensual and tranquil area.

 

However, many of us are ignoring one thing which could be spoiling our relaxed bedroom environment – electrical equipment. Whether you have a television, computer or simply an electric alarm clock in your bedroom, they may be giving off signals that could be disruptive to natural sleep patterns.

 

This is because electrical appliances create EMFs – electromagnetic fields – which may be harmful to health and have been linked to everything from cancer to depression. And because we spend a large chunk of our time in bed and it’s a place where we should be able to fully relax, it may make sense to try and reduce the number of EMFs in your bedroom.

 

Here are some things to try:

 

Replace Old Appliances

It’s thought that older appliances emit more EMFs than new ones so make sure yours are up-to-date.

 

Keep Your Distance

Make sure all electrical devices are at least 6 feet from where you sleep. In particular, don’t place electrical equipment close to your head.

 

Avoid Unnecessary Gadgets

Swap electric blankets for hot water bottles and keep computer equipment out of the bedroom.

 

Remember to Switch Off

Unplug devices when not in use.

 

Move the Charger

Keep telephone, razor, and toothbrush chargers in other rooms.

 

For more information about EMFs, visit: www.emfsafehome.com

 

 

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Categories: bedroom, bedroom environment, bedroom nbsp, Electrical, electrical equipment, emfs, nbsp, sleep

Boosting Local Recycling Rates with Extra Collections

A UK council is leading the way in helping its residents recycle more batteries and small electrical items. Sandwell Council, a metropolitan borough in the West Midlands that includes the town of West Bromwich, has joined forces with its waste partner Serco in a new, expansive collection scheme.

The scheme is designed to boost the borough’s recycling rates and reduce landfill taxes. Sandwell Council already has one of England’s best recycling rates, up from 29% in 2009 to almost half of all domestic waste in 2012.

Now residents will be able to recycle even more waste products from the comfort of their own home. Each home in the borough will receive a starter pack that contains an information leaflet on exactly what can be recycled, a large bag for electrical items and a small bag for batteries. Any batteries can be left out for recycling on the usual collection days with uplift arranged for the larger electrical items by telephone.

The new scheme is a great opportunity for both residents and the council to improve the borough’s recycling rates. Anyone who has used batteries at home that are just lying at the back of a drawer or in a cupboard can get rid of them with little or no effort. And any broken or unwanted electrical items that might once have attracted a fee when uplifted will be removed at the cost of only one call to an 0845 number.

The Sandwell/Serco scheme has been given funding of £1.06million by the UK Government’s Department of Communities and Local Government to improve the council’s recycling services over a three-year period.

Sandwell Council is also behind a Go Green Reward scheme in which residents are encouraged to boost recycling rates with the carrot of a financial investment by the council in their local community.

 

Boosting Local Recycling Rates with Extra Collections

Categories: batteries, council, Electrical, electrical items, Rates, recycling, recycling rates, sandwell council, scheme

Electric Environment

You know that plastics are not-so-fantastic for your environmental wellness, but did you know that electrical products are also a major issue? In the UK alone, it’s estimated that we produce over one million tonnes of electrical products every year, thanks, in part, to the technology revolution that swept over the world in the last 30 years.

 

You didn’t really know much about recycling in the UK until its first dedicated recycling centre opened in 2001, but in the 12 years that followed only 20% of all electrical appliances were recycled, and the remaining 80% were shipped over to China for disposal. For the wellbeing of current and future generations, more needs to be done – especially as the growing population means staggering implications of where this might lead.

 

Most technology waste is processed in developing countries, and very harmful substances and contaminants like lead, beryllium and cadmium causes a large risk to the workers who sort and dismantle these items. These harmful substances also find their way into the water system as they break down and create heavy metals when they are place in landfills.

 

When it comes to precious metals, you’ve probably seen the series of adverts encouraging you to turn in your gold for cash, and this is because gold has never been higher in value and its current price is around £1000 per ounce, though silver is worth a lesser £30 per ounce. 320 tons of gold and over 7000 tons of silver are used in personal computers, mobile phones, tablet computers and other electrical products every year because gold never corrodes and is highly conductive of electricity. Manufacturers also use other precious metals such as copper, titanium and aluminium in technology production, and mining these metals from goods worldwide could generate over 20 billion dollars a year, or £12 billion.

 

To encourage recycling and reduce goods production, all resellers and manufacturers in European Union have to follow legislation in the WEEE directive in order to place electrical products on the market. Products that conform to WEEE, or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment have the wheelie bin logo displayed on it.

 

Other solutions would be to produce less or keep things for longer and repair them; instead of having the mindset that ‘new is always better’ which is perpetuated by marketing. Manufacturers could also make their products upgradeable instead of changing their whole form, so technology and styles could be updated without scrapping and wasting entire products.

Electric Environment

Categories: Electrical, Information, Waste