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08 Feb 99 - greening the mail; junk mail info; reuse ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition ----------------------------------------- >From Tom Watson, National Waste Prevention Coalition (NWPC) coordinator: The United States Postal Service's National Task Force on Greening the Mail issued its final recommendations on Jan. 29, 1999. This report has been years in the making. In fact, Ellen Harrison, director of the Cornell University Waste Management Institute and an active member of the NWPC Junk Mail Reduction Campaign steering committee, spoke to the task force in New York City in September, 1996 about the NWPC's concerns and proposals. It took a long time, but I think Ellen's presentation, and the NWPC's continued work with the Postal Service on these issues, has had a real impact! In the task force's recommendations, the first section is, "Encourage Waste Prevention." One of the specific major recommendations in this section is, "Donate undeliverable product samples and periodicals." This is something that the NWPC has been urging for years that the Postal Service do, on a systematic basis. Our name for the project is "Samples to Shelters," with the idea that undelivered product samples -- medicine, shampoo, diapers, kids' books and many other items -- should be donated to homeless shelters or other charities. Some are donated now, "under the table" by caring Postal Service employees, but many aren't. So, with this new report, their own task force is saying the Postal Service should finally start donating all this stuff, and they give specifics about how the regulations should be changed. They even say that the Postal Service should work with us, the NWPC, on a pilot project to donate the samples. The task force also came up with an impressive stat -- there are 164,000 tons of undeliverable product samples a year. I take all this with a grain of salt -- A report is just a report. Nothing has really happened yet! But, on the other hand, it is down on paper, from their own task force, that they SHOULD do something, and that they should work with the NWPC on it. Now we have some really good ammo to use to encourage them to figure out the details, work with us, and get this done. It will take a lot of work, but I think this could be one helluva reuse success story! (Or maybe we should call it a "use" story -- stuff that was going into the garbage unused will now actually get used!) Other recommendations listed in the "Encourage Waste Prevention" section of the Greening the Mail report are: -- Promote optimization of materials used in mailings. -- Reduce misdirected mail. -- Encourage mailers to use target market strategies in their mailings. -- Encourage use of biopolymers in place of non-biodegradable mail materials. -- Promote reusable mail materials (including the use of two-way envelopes) and reuse of mail transport equipment. There are also sections of recommendations titled "Improve Recyclability of Mail" and "Increase Recycled Content in Mailings and Paper Use." For more information on the report, contact Charles Vidich, task force chair, at: cvidich [ A T ] email [ D O T ] usps [ D O T ] gov Full copies of the report are apparently very limited right now, but possibly if you are interested Charles can send you an executive summary. E-mail: tom [D O T] watson [A T] metrokc [D O T] gov ------------------------------------- >From Jeffrey Smedberg, County of Santa Cruz (CA) Public Works, responding to the 2/2/99 posting about a local government's "Stop Junk Mail" kit: In their Stop Junk Mail kit, I'm glad they're now promoting the Opt-Out phone number for the credit reporting agencies. I like to promote the least-cost options: a toll-free number instead of a 20 cent stamp. I found an 800 number for Val-Pac, now a part of Carol Wright/Cox Direct. Residents can call their Address Information Department at 800/237-6266, extension 3362. I also have an almost local phone number for ADVO Mailbox Values. For the San Francisco Bay Area and California Central Coast, residents can call their Deletions Department at 510/505-6500, extension 523. I suspect that effective phone numbers can be found for other regions as well. E-mail: dpw179 ( AT ) scruza ( DOT ) cahwnet ( DOT ) gov ---------------------------------------- >From Karen Higgins, City of Los Angeles (CA) Integrated Solid Waste Management Division: I just updated our information sheet on how to reduce unwanted mail. If anyone is interested in seeing it, they can E-mail me and I'll forward it to them.... I like focusing on getting rid of junk mail because most people seem to find it annoying. Sometimes I get the feeling people get tired of hearing about recycling, so if we talk about it in different ways, it keeps it fresh. E-mail: KMHiggin [ A T ] GROUPWISE [ D O T ] SAN [ D O T ] CI [ D O T ] LA [ D O T ] CA [ D O T ] US ---------------------------------------- >From the website for The Surplus Exchange, Kansas City, MO: Since early 1984, The Surplus Exchange has been serving the equipment needs of the charitable community in Kansas City and the surrounding areas. Donated office furniture, computers and other equipment are collected, in some cases refurbished, and then passed on to member charities, churches, and service organizations at as low a cost as possible. The organization kept about 7,000 tons of business equipment out of the landfill in 1997. The Surplus Exchange provided reused business equipment to about 1,500 non-profit organizations, saving them about $375,000 on their purchases. The Exchange also offers computer training and job training programs. For more information, see their website at: http://surplusexchange.org - end -