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31 Aug 99 - governors endorse reuse; compost; Swiffer; booth ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive ------------------- >From a 8/30/99 press release from the Reusable Pallet and Container Coalition, Washington, DC (from the EnviroLink News Service): The Reusable Pallet and Container Coalition (RPCC) announced its strong support for the actions taken by the nation's Governors to encourage reusable products as a means of alleviating the nation's solid waste problem. At its recent annual meeting in St. Louis, the National Governors Association (NGA) amended its existing solid waste management policy to recognize the significant potential of reusable systems. "We are greatly encouraged that the nation's Governors have unanimously recommended that the federal government promote and stimulate markets for reusable products and materials. This should give a significant boost to our efforts to promote a federal pollution prevention tax incentive," said Bob Reivik, President of the Reusable Pallet and Container Coalition. "The Coalition is urging Congress to embrace a proposal to stimulate capital investments necessary to accommodate reusable pallet and container systems. This small business-oriented tax cut would generate savings in avoided waste disposal costs that are three times the tax cut's cost to the U.S. Treasury over its seven-year lifetime." Previous NGA policy had called for recycling 40% of the nation's waste by 2000. The new policy calls for 50% waste reduction through reuse and recycling by 2010. With recycling efforts largely topping out, reuse will have to make up the difference. The new NGA policy also calls for the states to remove barriers to reuse. The reusable industry is actively pursuing a bill in the California legislature (SB 1210, Baca) that would eliminate a current state sales tax bias against reusable pallets and containers. The RPCC said the National Governors Association also endorsed voluntary industry efforts to develop standards for reusable packaging, and declared that the federal and state governments should "lead by example" in their procurement practices as a means to achieve solid waste reduction. The Reusable Pallet and Container Coalition (RPCC) is a 501(c)(6) association representing manufacturers, poolers, and users of pooled and reusable pallets and containers in North America. The Coalition advocates the use of reusable pallets and containers as a way to reduce the volume of the waste stream and improve the system-wide productivity of industries employing these products and services. The RPCC's annual meeting will be held in Washington, DC, on September 22. For more information on the RPCC, call 202-554-RPCC (7722). Note: The EnviroLink News Service, where this release was posted, is on the Internet at: http://www.envirolink.org/environews/ ------------------- >From Barb Sherf, Sherf Communications, Flourtown, PA, responding to the 8/27/99 posting that listed the winners and runners-up in a City of San Jose contest for slogans promoting home composting: I really liked the compost contest. My favorite compost saying (and I say it often) is "Compost Happens." E-mail: Bsherf [ A T ] aol [ D O T ] com -------------------- >From Tom Watson, coordinator, National Waste Prevention Coalition: PRODUCT REVIEW -- SWIFFER "Swiffer" is a heavily-promoted new product by Procter & Gamble. It's an innovative concept: A sweeper that will replace the dustmop or broom-and-dustpan methods of sweeping floors. The Swiffer sweeper, which was priced at $14.99 in a Seattle supermarket this week, comes in a box, in five sections that you screw together. The waste prevention - or anti-waste prevention - angle is that the Swiffer uses disposable "electrostatically-charged" cloths. The cloths easily clip on to the bottom of the Swiffer sweeper. Dust, hair, etc. clings to these cloths when you sweep, and when the cloth is dirty you throw it away. Replacement cloths sell in packs of eight, 16 or 32. I'm not sure how much these packs cost. You can also use the cloths alone, to dust furniture by hand. I bought a Swiffer to try it out, and it worked okay. The cloth got dirty pretty fast though. I think it would be quite a bit more expensive and wasteful than the old method, where you use a dustmop and shake it out outside or over a trash can, or you use a broom and dustpan. The disposable cloths and their packaging are a brand new addition to the waste stream. On the plus side, it does seem to work, it doesn't get dust in the air as much as the broom or dustmop, and it may make cleaning more convenient for some people. I think it will have particular appeal for the kind of person who freaks out when they see a little dust bunny in the corner of their living room. But I believe it's a step backwards: Yet another disposable product designed to replace reusable products that have done the job for years. For more details on this product, see Procter & Gamble's Swiffer website at: http://www.swiffer.com/ -------------------- >From Tom Watson, coordinator, National Waste Prevention Coalition: The National Waste Prevention Coalition will be sharing a booth with ReDO (the Reuse Development Organization) at the National Recycling Congress (NRC)in Cincinnati Sept. 26-29. We did this at NRC last year in Albuquerque and it worked out great. We'll have a couch and table and chairs so people can stop by, take a load off, and chat. Most of the furniture will be loaned to us by the Community Resource Center, a Cincinnati non-profit. Our booth will also have an example of artwork made from reused materials, provided by Crayons to Computers, another Cincinnati reuse program. The booth will also showcase some good and bad new products in terms of waste prevention (I'll bring my Swiffer!), and waste prevention posters, educational materials, etc. We could really use some jazzy new posters for the booth this year. If you have any new posters or materials for your programs that you'd like to share (reduction and reuse only, not recycling), please send them to me (Tom Watson, King County Solid Waste Division, 400 Yesler Way #600, Seattle, 98104). We can't promise that we can use everything you send in the booth. One last thing - We do need volunteers to help staff the booth. Exhibit hall hours are 12:30 to 5 Monday, 12:15 to 6 Tuesday and 8 to 12 Wednesday. If you'd like to take an hour shift, please let me know. Thanks! E-mail: tom [ D O T ] watson [ A T ] metrokc [ D O T ] gov - end -