Your green gadget how-to

From The Planet Green blog this week, three top tips for going green with your electronic choices:

Buy Used: Don’t stop at used. Think: recycled, refurbished, and free. The idea here is to lessen your impact by opting out of the vicious consume-dispose-consume cycle.

Avoid the Vampires: Also known as phantom load, idle current, and wall wart, vampire power describes the extra energy that is sucked from the grid by electronics not in use (or even turned out). Simply by being plugged in, a lot of your gadgets are sinking their teeth into your carbon footprint.

Use it Before You Lose it: When was it decided that it was our birthright to upgrade gadgets long before they’ve outlived their usefulness? Replacing your gear just because of a clever TV commercial is not only a scam, it’s also a blight on the planet. Go ahead: wear that laptop into the ground. That’s the green way.