Tag: canada

Are your dead cell phones collecting dust in a spare drawer?   Looking for a company to recycle to your batteries? Despair no longer.  A website called Earth 911 will provide you with the names, addresses, phone numbers and directions to your local recycling provider for specialty items such as compact fluorescent light bulbs and computers.  Earth 911 is the largest online clearinghouse of recycling information in the United States and Canada.  It is currently trying to expand its coverage to Europe.  Having spent several frustrated nights doing blind internet searches in Northfield, MN for CFL recycling locations, I came across Earth 911. Simply type in “CFL” or “batteries” and your zipcode, or city and state and choose the nearest location!

If you find that there is no place in your community that recycles your item, I have a few suggestions for you.  See whether the vender will process the old product, check with your municipal government, contact your trash collection company, or work to get larger companies such as Target or K-Mart which sell the product to provide the recycling service for the local community. 

Last week, several vans of Carleton students journeyed up to Minneapolis to participate in the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy’s conference, Lessons from NAFTA: Building a New Fair Trade Agenda. Citizens of Mexico, the United States and Canada gathered to reflect on the tragedies that NAFTA hath wrought and share hope for change in the future.

According to the USDA’s website, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) began to remove barriers to trade and investment among Canada, the United States and Mexico with the strike of the clock on January 1, 1994. Many tariffs were removed immediately, while others were phased out in a process that ends in 2008. The goals of NAFTA include reducing barriers to trade, increasing cooperation and working conditions throughout North America, creating jobs, creating a safe tri-national market and mutually advantageous trade rules and stimulating investment. Many argue though that NAFTA has had intensely negative impacts on small family farmers and consumers, while reversing many previously high standards for labor, the environment and food safety and sovereignty as the investment-stimulating aspect of NAFTA has been taken advantage of by multinational corporations.

Acclaimed liberal writer John Nichols of The Nation gave the keynote address of the conference, beginning with a sweeping criticism of North American media and the danger of general American (or perhaps Unitedstatsian) ignorance about the world beyond their borders. Moving into the topic at hand, Nichols stated, “The missing factor in debates about trade policy is people rather than elites.” He stated that trade should be “based on humans and human values” before diving into a critique of each Democratic Presidential candidate’s stance on the issue, essentially concluding that no candidate but the “fringe” candidates are willing to be critical of Free Trade. He highlighted the core problems with trade as a campaign issue, noting first that campaigns are financed by “Wall Street, not Main Street.” Additionally Nichols noted that political parties don’t like trade issues because they don’t bring in contributions and they vary significantly by region across the country.

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