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25 Jan 00 - irony; kid stuff; McDonald's; postal rates; websites ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive --------------------- >From Heather Sandner, North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance, Raleigh, NC: Sunday I read an article in the New York Times about new housing being built on Mercer Island near Seattle. The article said that these new, 7,000-plus-square-feet homes average nearly a million dollars each. Who is buying these monstrosities? Young couples and empty-nesters who have cashed in their stock options with the Microsofts and Dot-Coms of the world. This is not an isolated phenomenon, either. Here in the Triangle region of North Carolina, developers are building huge, expensive homes on every patch of accessible, open land they can get their greedy hands on. In the face of this unprecedented explosion of building and conspicuous consumption, why are we spending our time rallying the public about the virtues of recycling aluminum cans and cloth vs. paper plastic bags? The amount of energy and resources saved by recycling the few materials generated by the average household each year pales in comparison to the amount of waste generated, energy consumed, and resources lost with the tens-of-thousands of luxury homes sprouting up everywhere, and the materialistic lifestyles evolving to fill them. Picture the irony of the brand-new 1,000-square-foot kitchen fully equipped with over-sized commercial appliances, exotic hardwood cabinetry, huge windows overlooking the in-ground swimming pool, and on the Italian marble counter sits one of those plastic-bag-drying whatcha-ma-callits. We are losing sight of the forest through the ever-dwindling number of trees! Who cares if Starbucks coffee is served in a cup with a recycled-paper sleeve if the person buying it lives in a house the size of an airplane hanger built on a golf course (formerly a cow pasture), drives a Mercedes SUV, and commutes 50-plus miles to work and back! Just needed to get that off my chest. Thanks. E-mail: heather ( DOT ) sandner ( AT ) ncmail ( DOT ) net -------------------- >From Christine Byrch, Waste Management Unit, Christchurch City Council, Christchurch, New Zealand: Our council has the opportunity to contribute to an interactive science and technology exhibition for school children on the topic of waste management/waste minimisation. I would like to include a lesson about the importance of shopping - how to make consumer choices to reduce/avoid waste - and thought it would be really cool to incorporate this into a computer game or quiz. This would require a lot of work, so I wondered whether anyone had already done something similar that I could use? Or whether anyone had any other cool computer games about waste that would appeal to school children that they wouldn't mind sharing? E-mail: Chris [D O T] Byrch [A T] ccc [D O T] govt [D O T] nz -------------------- Excerpted from "The Greening of McDonald's," an article by Scott Allen in the 1/24/00 Boston Globe (forwarded by Stephen Long): With 12,500 McDonald's restaurants in the United States, most Americans live within three miles of one. McDonald's waste problem had gotten so bad in 1989 that he company proposed installing incinerators at restaurants to burn trash, rather than having it hauled away. Instead, the restaurant chain has reduced waste by more than 30 percent over the past decade, mostly by making subtle changes in the way the food is packaged. In April, the company expects to announce a timetable for cutting energy use by 10 percent at its 12,500 restaurants. McDonald's waste prevention successes include: - "Happy Meal" bag contains 20 percent less paper, and is made from recycled paper. Brown bags have not been treated with chlorine, which can be toxic to fish and other animals near paper mills. - Straws are 10 percent lighter, and napkins are one inch shorter. These two measures have eliminated two million pounds of waste annually. - The "Big Mac" sandwich no longer comes in a polystyrene shell, but in a specially-designed paper box that is half the weight of most fast food boxes. And the company insists that none of its beef was raised on cleared Latin American rainforest land, a common rumor of the past. - French fry cartons are one-quarter inch shorter. - Sundae cups are lighter and thinner. - Plastic serving tray is lighter and contains 40 percent recycled plastic. (McDonald's has spent $3 billion on recycled materials since 1990, making it one of the leading purchasers of recycled material in the U.S.) The entire article can be found at: http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/024/science/The_greening_of_McDonalds+.shtml (Note from Tom: I highly recommend the full article. It does a great job of covering the good things McDonald's has done, along with the concerns over issues such as the environmental problems with fast-food hamburgers in general, and the claim that McDonald's locations have encouraged sprawl. ------------------- The next two postings are in response to the recent messages about postal rates and unwanted mail: ------------------- >From David Wollner, BRING Recycling, Eugene, OR: The Postal Service does distinguish between commercial bulk mailings and nonprofit bulk mailings. They have a special nonprofit rate that is a bit below the other rate and is given to groups who have provided bona fides of their nonprofit status. E-mail: bring ( A T ) efn ( D O T ) org ------------------- >From Renee Kimball, waste prevention advocate, Portland, OR: Regarding sending back unsolicited/unwanted bulk mailings: Unfortunately, if it is mailed at bulk rate, YOU have to pay the postage back. You can't just write on it "Return to Sender." However, flagrant abusers of direct mail nearly always include an envelope for your reply. You would be AMAZED how heavy you can make those envelopes when you send them back, if you catch my drift. E-mail: rrrRenee [AT] aracnet [DOT] com ----------------- The next two postings are in response to the 1/21/00 posting from Ellen Harrison seeking good "how-to" waste prevention sites (focusing on things people can do at home): ----------------- >From Brian Foran, California Integrated Waste Management Board, Sacramento, CA: The California Integrated Waste Management Board maintains several Web pages that you might want to link to for your "Greener at Home" Web site. Most of the Web pages are included under our Web page "Waste Prevention at Home": http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/WPW/Home/default.htm. Topics include: * Grasscycling http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/organics/grasscycling/ * Holidays and parties http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/publiced/holidays/default.htm * Home composting http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/organics/homecomp/ * Reducing junk mail http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/WPW/Home/junkmail.htm * Worm composting http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/organics/worms/ * Xeriscaping http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/organics/xeriscaping/ Since this is public information, you can link to any of it without seeking permission. E-mail: bforan ( AT ) CIWMB ( DOT ) ca ( DOT ) gov ------------------- >From Carl Hursh, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection: Pennsylvania has a regular half-hour TV show produced monthly on various environmental topics. It's called GreenWorks for Pennsylvania, and it has dealt with recycling issues in three episodes. The most recent "feature" is a "Buy Recycled" show, its second. The show can be viewed on line through the http://www.GreenWorksChannel.org site using RealPlayer, a free download. The GreenWorksChannel is said to be the largest web repository of environmental videos. I realize the focus of this forum is on waste prevention - we hope that topic can be covered on a future show. E-mail: Hursh (D O T) Carl (A T) dep (D O T) state (D O T) pa (D O T) us - end -