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11 Oct 99 - industrial reuse; business junk mail; pesticides; sustainable business; litter boxes ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive ------------------- >From Jon Ryk, Patrick Engineering, Lisle, IL (forwarded by Christine McCoy, National Recycling Coalition): I am working on a waste reduction program in DuPage County, Illinois. I am looking for any information you have on recyclers or possible reusers of the following items: ballistic woven nylon; Cordura woven nylon; Polyester webbing; Polyfiber batting; polyethylene foam (light blue); polystyrene and polyethylene foam sandwich; reflective Mylar-coated bubble wrap. All of these materials are scrap from a manufacturing facility in Elmhurst, Illinois. They are one of our waste reduction participants. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. E-mail: jryk ( AT ) patrickengineering ( DOT ) com ------------------- The next two postings are in response to the 10/4/99 posting describing the National Waste Prevention Coalition's new Business Junk Mail Reduction project, which includes a soon-to-be-launched website with extensive resources to help businesses reduce unwanted mail. ------------------ >From Matt Fikejs, Business and Industry Recycling Venture, Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, Seattle, WA: The NWPC website to reduce unwanted business-to-business mail sounds great and is definitely needed. I like the idea of the NWPC contacting businesses that prove difficult to work with on issues like name removal and information sharing. Another suggestion that would compliment this is to "cc" the people at the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) in charge of upholding the DMA's Privacy Promise. According to the Privacy Promise, DMA members "must honor any individual consumer's request not to receive solicitations from them, a term known in the industry as 'in-house suppression'." This also goes for requests to prevent one's name, address, etc. from being shared with other mailers. The Promise further states that the DMA will monitor their members through a number of means, including consumer complaints. Those not adhering to the policies risk public expulsion from the Association. Of course, not every direct mailer is a DMA member. However, it still seems appropriate and important to inform the Association about irresponsible mailers -- DMA member or not. E-mail: MattF (A T) seattlechamber (D O T) com ------------------- >From Jeffrey Smedberg, County of Santa Cruz Public Works, Santa Cruz, CA: Good news about the Business Junk Mail Website. We recently set up an office junk mail reduction program for County of Santa Cruz offices and hired a student worker to collect unwanted mail that employees have put in designated boxes. He then spends hours sorting the junk by mailer - lots of duplicates come from a small number of mailers. Then he calls the mailers or sends postcards to ask them to remove names. Sometimes I overhear him talking to a mailer: "Hello, I'd like to have 17 names removed from your mailing list." He has made friends with some of the receptionists at the mailing companies because he has called them so many times. He is keeping accurate records of weights of unwanted mail from each department. It is still a bit early after only a few months, but quantities may be beginning to drop off. E-mail: dpw179 ( A T ) scruza ( D O T ) cahwnet ( D O T ) gov ------------------ This excellent column from the "Sustainable Business.com" website (forwarded by Kinley Deller) lists 10 critical elements for inducing environmental change within a large company: http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/html/insider/oct99/glass.cfm ------------------ Excerpted from a 10/7/99 Associated Press article: City of Seattle and King County governments are taking steps to phase out the use of pesticides containing cancer-causing ingredients that are toxic to birds, fish or animals, or that seep quickly into the ground or surface water. A June 30 deadline has been set for the phaseout of pesticides on city and county properties. The city and county plan to explore less-toxic alternatives in hopes other local governments and private landowners will follow suit. The plan targets the most hazardous insecticides and herbicides. They include Casaron, a possible carcinogen, and products containing 2,4-D, an ingredient in the infamous Agent Orange and one of the most widely used herbicides in the country. The city and county will study alternative weed-controlling techniques that include mulching, weed pulling and killing the plants with steam and heat. For more information, see this City of Seattle website: http://www.cityofseattle.net/oem/pesticides/pesticides.htm ------------------ Excerpted from message from Adam Alabarca, Community Planning Workshop, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR (from the Association of Oregon Recyclers listserv, forwarded by Bill Reed): The 1999 Sustainable Business Symposium, the largest conference of its kind in the western U.S., will be held Nov. 5-7 on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene, Oregon. This event is free to the public! Featured keynote speakers include Paul Hawken, Hunter Lovins and Alan Durning. The symposium will feature panel presentations and workshops, addressing the full spectrum of sustainable business approaches. For more detailed information about the symposium and on-line registration, please visit our website at http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~sbs Or, you can email me at: aalabarc (AT) darkwing (DOT) uoregon (DOT) edu ------------ >From Tom Watson, coordinator, National Waste Prevention Coalition: PRODUCT ALERT I saw an ad for the KatKit, a disposable kitty litter tray sold under the Cat's Pride brand. I believe it is made by the Oil-Dri Corp. in Tecate, CA. Is anyone familiar with this type of product? It looks like it comes with litter, and after it's dirty you're supposed to just throw the whole thing away. I could make a sarcastic remark about this product, but my early New Year's (New Decade's?) resolution is to be less sarcastic. Anyway, if anyone has info on this product - how much it costs, is it widely available, is it popular, are there competing brands? -- I'd appreciate it, and I think others on the list will be interested as well. E-mail: tom [DOT] watson [AT] metrokc [DOT] gov - end -