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22 Sep 99 - junk phone books; cloth diaper revival ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive ------------------- >From Margaret Kitchell, Seattle area resident, following up on her 8/25/99 posting (and the subsequent replies) asking how to stop companies from distributing unwanted Yellow Pages phone books: I liked the advice about unwanted directories, though at first wasn't sure what felt most effective. I have called the number GTE provides "to order additional directories", and instead I asked that my name be removed. The person getting my call described it as a "complaint" however, and thus I am considered complaining, when I think it should be easier to remove your name. I think it would be good for municipal solid waste staff (I say this because I am not one, and hope they would have more authority than me) to talk with the companies to make sure the phone numbers to remove your name are available, and also to let them know that some people may want the directories picked up, especially if the company hasn't made it easy enough to get off the list. E-mail: kitchell ( A T ) Seanet ( D O T ) com ------------------ Excerpted from an article by Lisa Moricoli Latham in the business section of the 9/19/99 New York Times: CLOTH DIAPERS MAKING COMEBACK ON THE INTERNET Tiny companies with names like Kinderbottoms and Fuzzi Bunz have sprung up to sell cloth diapers, mostly over the Internet. Cloth diapering had all but disappeared in the United States, driven to the brink by the steady advance of disposable diapers in the 1960s and 1970s. There was a modest revival in the late 1980s, based on environmental concerns about disposables piling up in landfills. Diaper services briefly surged in popularity. But the boom did not last. Membership in a national trade group for diaper services dwindled from 200 to 50. Many cities no longer have diaper services. For parents who wanted to wash their own, supplies of high-quality diapers became hard to find. But recently small companies, mostly run by mothers, have had some success sewing diapers of their own design and selling them on the Internet. Darla's Place is one of these businesses, owned by Darla Sowders in Imlay City, Michigan. "My diapers fly out the door," said Sowders. "I can't keep them in stock." The cloth diaper market is in a growth spurt. One retailer, Absolutely Diapers, said sales had more than tripled since 1995 at its store in Vancouver, British Columbia. Ecobaby, a specialty catalogue, said its customer list grew tenfold in 1998. But the growth comes on a tiny base, and cloth diapers seem a long way from making a dent in disposable sales. "We're not aware of any resurgence in the use of cloth diapers or any change in the 95 percent of infant diaper changes in the United States that still involve disposable diapers," said a spokesman for Kimberly-Clark, maker of Huggies. "New births are increasing by just under 1 percent a year, and the category is growing at essentially the same rate." ------------------- >From Tom, Waste Prevention Forum moderator: I'll be out of the office Sept. 24 through Sept. 29, so there will be no installments of the Forum then. Most of that time I'll be at the National Recycling Congress (NRC) in Cincinnati. If you're attending NRC, please stop by and visit us at the joint National Waste Prevention Coalition/Reuse Development Organization (ReDO) booth (#222). Also be sure to attend some of the reuse and source reduction sessions and tours that are planned! - end -