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29 Oct 99 - printer testimonial; cereal in a carton; smart trash can ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive ------------------- >From Chris Murphy, Pierce County Information Services, Tacoma, WA, responding to Bruce Nordman's 10/26/99 posting about a new Hewlett-Packard printer ("the first inkjet printer that I am aware of that includes automatic duplexing"), asking anyone who has used this printer to let us know how it works: I recently purchased the HP 970CSE printer. I made my purchase decision based on the print speeds being that of some personal laser printers, the print quality for both text and graphics, and lastly for the built-in duplexing unit. The printer was extremely easy to set up, with good documentation. The unit is fast and quiet. Regarding the quality, I printed out a scanned photograph of my daughter onto glossy paper. The printout looked like a photograph. It did take some time to print out, but the quality was amazing. The standard supplied ink cartridges are adequate. There are high-capacity cartridges available. The software that is included also shows a representation of the remaining ink levels. HP has two models, the CSE and the CXI. The only difference I can find is the CSE model includes some additional fonts. The machine requires a IEEE-1284 printer cable. The printer can easily print out a single envelope without removing the paper supply tray. There is even an option to reverse the printing job so that the final product is ordered correctly and ready for stapling. I have had good luck with other HP products and hope this printer is no exception. E-mail: cmurphy [ A T ] co [ D O T ] pierce [ D O T ] wa [ D O T ] us ------------------- >From Tom Watson, National Waste Prevention Coalition coordinator: PACKAGING NEWS In the breakfast cereal section of the supermarket, I noticed that Kellogg's Special K Plus is packaged in a milk carton-type box, instead of the traditional rectangular cereal box. It looks exactly like a milk carton, and appears to be made of waxed paperboard, like milk cartons. I have seen a few other dry food items packaged in milk carton-type boxes (Pepperidge Farms fish crackers, for example), but never cereal before. So, what I'm wondering is -- Is this package better in terms of waste prevention, or worse? It does not have an inner plastic bag (as opposed to regular cereal boxes), so that's a plus. It does not have a layer of foil on the inside either. It does have a small plastic clip on the top, which it calls a "reclosable plastic slide." I guess we'd have to talk to the paperboard companies to see which type of box uses the most paper. Another question is whether any source reduction benefits would outweigh the recycling negatives. I believe that most recycling programs that accept mixed paper do not want waxed or coated paper. Also, my understanding is that most standard cereal boxes have a high recycled content, and this waxed paperboard carton appears to have no recycled content. For many cereals, the best container might be just a plastic bag. I know that Quaker and the Malt-O-Meal company use just a bag for their Cheerio-type cereals and some other cereals. Some types of cereals may need more protection than the bag alone. What do you guys think? (Please try to keep your comments - for this Forum, anyway - focused on waste prevention or waste prevention AND recycling, but not just recycling. Thanks!) E-mail: tom [ D O T ] watson [ A T ] metrokc [ D O T ] gov ---------------------- Excerpted from a 10/28/99 Reuters news service article by Clelia Oziel (forwarded by Barbara Frierson): LONDON - NCR Corporation, on a mission to inject online technology into mundane household chores, is working on a new product for the kitchen - a "smart" trash bin. Following the launch of a revolutionary Microwave Bank last year, the Ohio-based computer and cash register maker has designed a sleek, large stainless steel bin that offers consumers much more than meets the eye. It recognizes the type of waste as it hovers above the bin, reads bar codes, and swallows junk into one of its four compartments where bottles, paper and food waste are tucked away separately -- facilitating environmental disposals. Like the Microwave Bank, which cooks meals as well as giving access to online banking, shopping, e-mail, and TV, the rubbish bin forms part of NCR's strategy to enable firms to "be there" for the customers. Stephen Emmott, director of NCR's London research center Knowledge Lab, said the bin recorded consumer habits and printed regular shopping lists at the touch of a button, showing what groceries the house was running out of. Tracking consumption trends has become a commodity for Britain's fiercely competitive supermarkets. Emmott reckons the bin would give them access to a wealth of household information, which they could use to gain an edge over rivals. The bin recognizes, for example, that a family consumes three bottles of Chardonnay wine per week. It passes the information to the supermarket linked to the bin, which would then send leaflets telling the customer of its latest Chardonnay deals. "Because it's so appealing to a supermarket, they may be willing to subsidize the bin," Emmott said. The bin is some way from the retail market at the moment, but NCR believes supermarkets could subsidize the cost -- bringing the price down from over 100 pounds ($164). Emmott said NCR did not intend to manufacture the rubbish bin, but it could license it and had already received interest from one company with alliances with supermarkets. The entire article is on the Yahoo! News website at: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19991028/tc/trash_bin_1.html - end -