Happy Earth Day 2011 everyone! With greener grass, leafier trees, tadpoles arriving in nearby lakes, birds chirping a bit louder and, of course, pollen galore, Spring is truly beginning to show itself in most of the United States.  Spring is also the perfect time to remind ourselves that we can have a positive impact on our environment with small, everyday steps like recycling and smart consumerism.

What is smart consumerism you ask?  At AbundaTrade, smart consumerism means putting your unwanted stuff back into the system rather than into a landfill, and getting the stuff that you do want from a socially conscious company that saves you money. When you are a smart consumer, you create a win-win scenario for your wallet and our environment.

How does it work?  Awesome AbundaTrade.com customers like you go through their closets, garages, media centers and bookcases and gather up the used and new DVDs, CDs, Video Games and Books you no longer want.  Next just visit AbundaTrade’s Trade Calculator and enter in the UPC or ISBN numbers you find on your items to get the estimated value that AbundaTrade will pay you for those items.  Box and ship your items to us.  (You may even qualify for free shipping.)  Once we receive and evaluate your trade, you’ll get cash or 25% more value if you choose AbundaTrade.com store credit. You create a win-win scenario for your wallet and the environment!

In addition to smart consumerism,  AbundaTrade.com has always lent itself to recycling efforts.  In our first two years AbundaTrade repaired and recirculated over 100 tons of movies, music, video games, and books. Rather than taking up space in closets, garages, or landfills, these unwanted items provided cash for our trade in customers. By practicing reCommerce, we return these items to the market and reduce the need for raw materials to produce new items.

Combine that with simple things we do everyday like using reusuable, not disposable cups, silverware and food containers. We recycle paper, plastic, cardboard, glass and cans at work.  We also buy refurbished rather than new computers for our company and recycle ink and toner cartridges and batteries.  We reuse cardboard boxes and paper, as well as packing materials like packing peanuts, newspaper and bubble wrap that we receive in packages to pack items we ship out to customers.  And starting in early 2010, through cooperation with our local Whole Foods Market in Mount Pleasant and with the Preserve “Gimme 5” program, we began recycling #5 plastics. Commonly used for yogurt cups and similar containers, AbundaTrade acquires large quantities of #5 plastics in the form of used DVD and video game cases.

All of our recycling efforts even merited us a recent award! This month we were one of 8 companies in South Carolina to be chosen as a recipient of the 2011 S.C. Smart Business Recycling Program ‘Outstanding Waste Reduction & Recycling Program’ Award! The entire AbundaTrade Team says, “Thank you!”  We are truly honored! We also want to take this Earth Day 2011 to thank all of our past, current and future AbundaTrade customers for helping us in our efforts to help our environment each and every day!