Starbucks Recycles Old Cups Into New Ones
Posted on 06. Dec, 2010 by admin.
SEATTLE, WA — Starbucks has completed a test showing its ubiquitous coffee cups can be recycled into new cups, and although only one facility can currently make that happen, Starbucks hopes this and other tests push more recyclers to accept trashed cups.
Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) wants to provide only recyclable or reusable cups by 2015, and has run various recycling projects to see what its cups can be turned into. “For paper to be a valuable, marketable product, generally you have to find regionally-relevant solutions,” said Jim Hanna, Starbucks’ director of environmental impact.
The recent six-week project took about 8,000 pounds of cups collected in Ontario, where Starbucks already recycles cups and other materials, and sent them to Mississippi River Pulp, the company that provides the post-consumer content that’s been in Starbucks’ cups since 2006. All of the companies’ cups, including the new ones made partially with old cups, have 10 percent recycled content.
Mississippi River Pulp is the only company that can provide pulp for products that will come into contact with food or drinks, because its the only one to have gotten the OK from the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA doesn’t approve companies and their processes, per se, but it basically says it has no objections. Mississippi River sends the pulp to various paper product companies, including International Paper and others that make Starbucks’ cups.
Read more: http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2010/12/01/starbucks-recycles-old-cups-new-ones#ixzz17LcMmDkc
Continue Reading
Facebook as Important as Facetime
Posted on 29. Nov, 2010 by admin.
Uncertain at first, and still somewhat reluctant overall, small businesses are increasingly implementing social media into their marketing strategies. A recent survey conducted by Constant Contact revealed that 63 percent of nearly 1,500 small business owners cited Facebook as an important element of their activities during the fall, while more than 30 percent said the same about Twitter. Those numbers were up from 50.5 percent and 25.6 percent, respectively, when the survey was last conducted in March 2010.
The Fall 2010 survey also showed modest increases in more traditional small business marketing strategies such as email marketing, event marketing and online surveys, while direct mail, telephone conversations and in-person interactions all saw modest declines.
In fact, 62 percent of the respondents stated that a Facebook presence is now as important to their small businesses as face-to-face interactions with consumers.
While 2010 was a difficult year for small businesses, most respondents have high hopes for 2011. More than 50 percent of those surveyed have reduced their operating expenses in 2010: 39.7 percent have reduced their travel and entertainment budgets, and 39.4 percent have reduced their marketing expenditures. Nearly 75 percent expect their businesses to grow in the next year.
Continue Reading
Malware Up, Spam Down
Posted on 22. Nov, 2010 by admin.
It seems every bit of good news received about Web security is tempered with some bad.
McAfee unveiled its McAfee Threats Report for the Third Quarter (2010) today, which revealed that while spam levels decreased in volume this quarter (hitting a two year low) malware is soaring with an average of 60,000 new pieces of malware identified each day – quadrupling since 2007.
“Our Q3 Threat report shows that cybercriminals are not only becoming more saavy, but attacks are becoming increasingly more severe,” said Mike Gallagher, senior vice president and chief technology officer of Global Threat Intelligence for McAfee.
“Cybercriminals are doing their homework, and are aware of what’s popular, and what’s insecure. They are attacking mobile devices and social networking sites, so education about user activity online, as well as incorporating the proper security technologies are of utmost importance.”
One of the most sophisticated pieces of malware in Q3 was the Zeus botnet, the malware at the root of U.S. small businesses losing $70 million at the hands of Ukrainian cybercriminals. Recently, a Zeus botnet was unleashed that is aimed at mobile devices and designed to intercept SMS messages to validate transactions, putting at risk consumers bank accounts. McAfee also saw an increase in email campaigns attempting to deliver the Zeus botnet, under the disguise of organizations like eFAX, FedEx, Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration, United States Postal Service and Western Union.
Botnet activity also remained strong in Q3, the most popular of which, Cutwail, accounted for more than 50 percent of traffic in every country. Cutwail bots engaged in distributed denial-of-service attacks against more than 300 websites, including United States government departments such as the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation, and businesses websites such as Twitter and PayPal.
