I don’t get it. Here we are trying to get biofuel vehicles mainstream, electric vehicles are scheduled to come off assembly lines next year, and hydrogen-powered vehicles have just faltered off to the side. Now, all of a sudden, car companies are going to have a network of fueling stations ready to service hydrogen-powered vehicles by 2015? And, over 1 million miles have already been logged in the Chevy Equinox fuel-cell car? What’s going on here?

While all of this is great for emission reduction, think about some of the problems we face. If we transform too quickly to a society of electric cars, we face too large hurdles – electricity supply being well short of the demand and lack of recharging facilities. Biofuel faces the same lack of fueling stations as well as supply problems. Now, add hydrogen to the mix and neither consumers or car companies will know what to do.

Don’t get me wrong, I think hydrogen fuel cell cars are a fabulous idea too long in the making. It’s just that the cost to build the infrastructure for three different technologies will be astronomical and what it leaves is rural Americans holding the short end of the petroleum stick since they will be the last to get refueling/recharging stations for any of those technologies.

I have asserted before that convenience is one of the most important things to getting people to recycle. This makes it difficult to implement any long-term recycling program that works because convenience costs money. The biggest factor causing this necessity for convenience is the ease of getting what we want when we want it. We have become so used to convenience in everything we do, it has bred a sort of “laziness” in us all so that even when faced with obvious good decisions such as recycling or not being wasteful, we only make the “best” decision when it is convenient or if we get something in return right now. And if you think the rising generation is more in tune with issues of conservation of resources, read this article. If we could just get most people to stop looking at every action with the “what’s in it for me” syndrome, I think we could finally take huge leaps forward in reducing waste, poverty, illness, greed, etc.

So, tell me how this is equitable? Demand is way down and a company already struggling has to bring workers back to do what work? There’s only so much cleaning and maintenance that can be done. How is that right? If you do the math, the possible severance works out to almost $19,000 for each employee! Cut that in half and it’s still more than most would get. Two to four weeks severance is quite common in the “real” world the rest of us live in. And we wonder why steel mills and other manufacturing plants have been moved to other countries. Our society has tumbled so far into the abyss of entitlements, we may never be able to extricate ourselves.

Proper e-waste recycling is something we all should be trying to do. Without it, tons of toxic materials make it into landfills or even worse, overseas where they are dismantled in an extremely hazardous way to salvage the precious metals inside, all without thought of the damage to thousands of human lives.

The sad thing is, that even when a municipality contracts with a “reputable” recycler, sometimes it still ends up overseas. This web site has a “60 Minutes” segment that shows how this happens. Before you take your e-waste to a collection event, encourage your city to fully investigate where material is sent and by whom it is processed. Otherwise, it could just end up in some foreign country, polluting and destroying the lives of thousands.

The process of building awareness and rememberability (I know, it’s not really a word but you know what I mean.) for a company or person begins with the name. Choosing a name which will be easily recalled, spelled, written, talked about, associated with something – all of those need to be considered in the process. Coolness or trendiness are the very last reasons to choose a name.

Think back to the “Artist Formerly Known As Prince” and the symbol he used to represent himself. While it might have seemed cool, it was way too awkward and he had to go back to Prince. Such is the case of  Technology Recycling Group and  National Technology Resource Group changing their name to 2trg. This name isn’t easy to write, spell, remember nor does it lead to any association with something. Are you supposed to say it “two turg”,  “two trig”, “two T R G” or perhaps some completely different way?

I don’t claim to be an expert in naming but I have read a few articles on the subject and all of them seem to agree. And, rather than just rely on expertise, I conducted a non-scientific poll around our office and didn’t have one single duplication in the attempt to pronounce it or associate it with anything. As a marketing person with almost 20 years of experience, I find very little “marketing reasoning” behind the choice of the name, which generally proves to be a hindrance to the brandability of the company.