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11 May 99 - e-bills; newspapers; junk mail; healthcare waste resources ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition --------------------- >From Steve Goldstein, Snohomish County Public Works, Everett, WA, in response to 5/3/99 press release about how Microsoft and other companies are developing "e-bills," a system to allow people to pay bills electronically: And, like Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs), they will either charge for what used to be free immediately (I looked into electronic bill paying and all the programs I found charge, and it's much more than the 33 cents postage), or they'll wait until we're in the habit of using the service, and then charge. E-mail: Steve [D O T] Goldstein [A T] co [D O T] snohomish [D O T] wa [D O T] us --------------------- >From Darin Cosgrove, Reuses.com, Brockville, Ontario, following up on his 5/3/99 posting: Thanks to everyone who responded to my query about newspapers that assist local reuse programs. (I believe I wrote back to everyone who responded... but if I missed anyone, 'thanks'.) For the interest of others on the list, posted below is a brief summary of what I found out. The following are examples (in no particular order) of newspapers assisting reuse programs by printing free or 'cheap' ads for items to be given away: ----- THE YUKON NEWS Whitehorse, Canada (publishes reuse needs in an ad once a month for free in cooperation with a local recycling center). ----- THE SANTA CRUZ COUNTY SENTINEL Santa Cruz, CA, daily owned by Dow Jones. THE GREAT EXCHANGE Capitola, CA, weekly want-ad paper. This paper has two headings: "Under $50," and "Free Exchange." Both are no cost, limited to 15 words, and printed on a space-available basis. -- both from Jeffrey Smedberg, County of Santa Cruz Public Works, CA ----- ANN ARBOR NEWS Daily newspaper in Ann Arbor, MI runs "freebie" ads for things that are free or under $60. -- from Susan L. Todd, Solid Waste Coordinator, Washtenaw County, MI ------ NEW MEXICAN Santa Fe - Trash to Treasures column, once a week. It is operated by the City of Santa Fe (Nancy Judd) and the space is given for free by the paper. People list all kinds of things, print their first name and their phone number. Nancy reports that it has been quite successful. -- from Julie Rhodes, Reuse Development Organization (ReDO) ----- BOULDER VALLEY BARGAINS Published by FreeAdz Publishing Inc. Performs a valuable service for the Boulder, Colorado area. -- from Jack DeBell, Director, University of Colorado Recycling Services ------ THE CHAPEL HILL NEWS/ADVOCATE CLASSIFIEDS North Carolina - Has a special reduced-rate category enabling advertisers to sell items valued at "$50 or Less" for $1 per issue, compared to $12 for 3 issues in other categories. -- from Blair Pollock, Town of Chapel Hill, Solid Waste Management Department ----- CALMAX NEWSLETTER (lists business reusables) The California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) publishes a quarterly edition of the CalMax newsletter, which promotes both reuse and recycling of unwanted/surplus items generated by California businesses. The newsletter lists both "Available Materials" and "Wanted Materials" ads for free. For the full scoop on CalMax, see our Web site at http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov./calmax/, or call/e-mail Kevin Taylor, CalMax Coordinator, at 916-255-2487/ ktaylor [ A T ] ciwmb [ D O T ] ca [ D O T ] gov [ D O T ] -- from Brian Foran, CIWMB Background: The reason I requested this info was to prepare for an upcoming meeting with my city's daily newspaper. Several weeks before the launch of our community reuse web site, everyone involved in the project was shocked to read an editorial criticizing the municipality for getting involved in the 'classified advertising business'. I believe the editorial was a knee-jerk reaction meant to protect what the paper (incorrectly) perceived to be a threat to its classified ad revenues. The paper simply misunderstood the project. As with other reuse initiatives of this kind, all listings on the web site are 'free', and only 'wanted' items or items 'to be given away' may be listed. I am somewhat happy to report that since the launch, the paper has done some deeper investigation and seems to have changed its tune. They sent a reporter over last week and now say they are planning to run a feature article about the reuse web service in next weekend's paper. The next step is to go back to them with the suggestion of printing a once-weekly summary of items from the web site. From what I have seen from the examples sent in, it will prove to be a popular feature that could possibly *improve* the bottom line. Thanks again to all who responded. E-mail: darin [ A T ] newpublishing [ D O T ] com ------------------------ Here is one more response to Darin's original posting on 5/3/99 seeking newspapers that assist local reuse programs, from Jeannie Roberts, Snohomish County Public Works, Everett, WA: The Everett (WA) Herald has a free ad section. They have been advertising our paint giveaways for years. E-mail: Jeannie (D O T) Roberts (A T) co (D O T) snohomish (D O T) wa (D O T) us --------- Excerpted from an article in the May 7, 1999, Chapel Hill News, Chapel Hill, NC (forwarded by Blair Pollock): -- This article was written by Andrew Webster, a Chapel Hill sixth-grader. Over the last seven-and-a-half months, my family has collected and cataloged our junk mail as part of my research for a three-year environmental project during the time I am in Culbreth Middle School. Junk mail usually ends up in our landfills. Our mailboxes are filled daily with advertisements sent by direct marketers. Measures must be taken to reduce this waste. My research attempted to identify sources of junk mail and to determine what percentages can and cannot be recycled through our community programs, thus reducing the amount going into our landfills. The first year, my family and I are just collecting and sorting the mail into categories. Next year we will try various measures to reduce our junk mail and measure the impact these methods have on reducing our waste. In the third year, we will continue to monitor the results of our waste-reduction efforts to see if they are effective long-term. The results of this research show that our household of four living in Chapel Hill receives an average of 2.75 pounds of junk mail per month, based on seven-and-a-half months of collection. This is less than our original hypothesis based on information we got from the North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance, and from an Ogden Corp. website for schools called "Waste World." However, this is not the full year of data. Data indicate that in September, October and March, the catalog numbers increased significantly due to seasonal changes. Taking this into account, data can be extrapolated out to show July and August would follow the same pattern. This would result in our household receiving three pounds of junk mail per month. This would result in a closer margin between hypothesis and actual data. Orange Community Recycling notes that the projected range for junk mail as part of solid waste is from 31.5 pounds per year to 84 pounds per year per household. My family categorized our junk mail as follows: Credit card applications: 4 percent; Catalogs: 15 percent; Local advertisements: 79 percent; Miscellaneous: 4 percent. Continued research on this subject will attempt to identify ways junk mail can be reduced and how effective these programs are. ------------------------ Excerpted from e-mail from Stephanie Davis: As many of you know, I am the Coordinator of the 1999 California Resource Recovery Assn. Healthcare Waste Workshop (June 9, 1999 in San Francisco) and also a member of the Hospitals for a Healthy Environment Resource Directories Workgroup (one of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency/American Hospitals Assn. workgroups). Working with colleagues at EPA Region IX, we are collecting a list of resources to compile as a handout at the CRRA Healthcare Waste Workshop and later to be submitted to the Resource Directories Workgroup. Send me your entries ASAP for the Workshop, but keep sending entries as you find them. Below is a template for your use should you have a resource you want incorporated. A resource can be a handout, academic paper, publication, video, web site, you name it. Adept the template as needed. The criteria is anything remotely related to healthcare wastes, even if out of print (but note if it is out of print, please!) Send your information to me: Stephanie C. Davis, ScD18 [A T] aol [D O T] com and note if you have two hardcopies to send. Please DO forward this e-mail to colleagues. Below is a a blank template for your use to reply back to me. Put NA for not applicable, where appropriate. Thanks! HEALTHCARE RESOURCE Title: Author(s): ISBN: Telephone Orders: Web Page: Formats: Book Cost: CD-ROM Cost: Updated? Annotation (description): E-mail: ScD18 [AT] aol [DOT] com - end -