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13 Oct 99 - disposable litter box; exchanges; supermarket kudos; Kellogg's; business junk mail ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive ------------------- >From Glenn Meyer, Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance, St. Paul, MN, responding to the 10/11/99 posting about the KatKit, the disposable kitty litter box made by the Oil-Dri Corp.: By coincidence, I was just looking into Oil-Dri on Monday; my interest was in their products made from recycled paper. The disposable box thing is a misstep, but it's been out for a while. I know E! the Environmental Magazine did a little thing on it in on of their "consumer news" or "in brief" sections. We have long planned to use it in our "smart shopping" program, comparing it to regular cat litter, but we haven't pressed on in months. The fact that they're using recycled content in several of their products makes it a bit awkward to mock them. I'm afraid that it's another example of the sometimes contradictory relationship between "recycling," "waste reduction," and "buying recycled." Oil-Dri's web page for the KatKit is at: http://www.oildri.com/catspride/3f.htm E-mail: glenn ( D O T ) meyer ( A T ) moea ( D O T ) state ( D O T ) mn ( D O T ) us Note from Tom: I said in my posting about this that I thought the Oil-Dri Corp. was based in California. It turns out their headquarters is in Chicago. Also, their web page points out that their disposable litter box is made from 100 percent recycled plastic. ----------------- >From Stephen Long, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Quality Engineering, Boston, MA: Hope this isn't too generic in response to Jon Ryk's 10/11/99 inquiry on industrial reuse, but you can find a list of waste exchanges compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's WasteWise program at the following Web address: http://www.epa.gov/jtr/thirds/jtrnet/waste.htm (Scroll down.) Perhaps the waste exchanges could help you get more specific information. E-mail: Stephen ( DOT ) Long ( AT ) state ( DOT ) ma ( DOT ) us ----------------- >From Michelle Portman, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Waste Prevention, Boston, MA: I just noticed that Bread and Circus Supermarket in Brookline, MA has added something new to their produce department which encourages sustainable/organic agriculture. They have signs above the produce which give a short bio on the growers themselves and practices they use. Most of the ones I've read are organic growers or those using integrated pest management. This, at least in my mind, promotes purchase of these products and improves the producer-consumer connection. It attracts attention and makes it clear who is who and who does what. There is usually a picture attached as well. Kudos! E-mail: michelle [ D O T ] portman [ A T ] state [ D O T ] ma [ D O T ] us ----------------- >From Charlotte Becker, Association of Oregon Recyclers, Gresham, OR, following up on past postings about Breakfast Mates, a single-serving product complete with cereal, milk, plastic spoon and bowl: BREAKFAST MATES GO BYE-BYE A couple of weeks ago, I was reading an article about the new CEO of Kellogg's. The bad news: the company is closing its Battle Creek, Michigan, plant and laying off many people. The good news: Breakfast Mates were a failure, and one of the new exec's money-saving decisions was to stop producing them. Not sure if people saw through the ruse of an overpriced product, or if the waste prevention message is getting out, or both, or none of the above. At any rate, now we can take on Lunchables - another cute overpackaged, overpriced consumer-gouger. E-mail: aor [AT] mindspring [DOT] com ---------------- >From Natalie Sullivan, Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center, Seattle, WA, responding to the recent postings about 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: This web site sounds great! Good luck with it! Unfortunately, I don't really have any fantastic stories for you. I just make it a habit to call the 1-800 numbers on catalogs or mailings and ask the service representative to remove us. Sometimes it works. This is a time-consuming approach because you can be put on hold for so long with those customer service lines, but I usually just put the hold music on speaker phone and enjoy it while I do my other work. I can't figure out why we keep getting catalogs that have nothing to do with our organization, such as ones for lab safety equipment and food service uniforms. You'd think those marketing people would do their homework a little more carefully, as it seems like it would save them money in the long run. E-mail: office (A T) pprc (D O T) org - end -