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29 Mar 00 - simplicity; conferences; Kingdome; new jobs ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- >From Susan Salterberg, Center for Energy and Environmental Education, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA, responding to Marcia Rutan's 3/27/00 comments about the recent New York Times article by Joe Queenan about simplicity: Thanks, Marcia, for your two cents on the simplicity movement. I agree - lots of great things are happening, and such exciting discussions about how we can improve our quality of life AND reduce waste. Also, the simplicity concept reaches beyond the "choir" - the already converted - which most programs have difficulty doing. With that said, I saw a copy of the new magazine RealSimple. The first 20 or so pages are ads for very upscale designer clothes and other products. One two-page ad shows a baby. The only copy in the ad is: "He'll make you laugh. He'll make you cry. He'll make you buy him lots of stuff." babystyle.com Definitely counter to what we are trying to accomplish. E-mail: ssalter [ AT ] netins [ DOT ] net ------------------- >From Marcia Rutan, Snohomish County Solid Waste Management Division, Everett, WA, following up on her 3/27/00 comments about the New York Times article by Joe Queenan: Someone handed me the full article after I wrote my response, unfortunately, and I definitely got a different feel from it than I had gotten just from the excerpt that ran in this Forum. Queenan seemed to be consciously pointing out the shallow end of the simplicity movement and the media machine in motion to profit by it, rather than slamming Voluntary Simplicity specifically. It was a more legitimate comment than I interpreted from the excerpt. E-mail: marcia ( D O T ) rutan ( A T ) co ( D O T ) snohomish ( D O T ) wa ( D O T ) us ------------------- >From Christine Byrch, Waste Management Unit, Christchurch City Council, Christchurch, New Zealand: One of our elected members, Councillor Sally Buck, will be in the U.S. from the end of May to the end of June. Sally is very interested in waste minimisation education and programmes to change behaviour and attitudes towards waste. She has asked me to find out if there are any conferences on this topic in the U.S. during this time that she could attend. I would really appreciate any replies. E-mail: Chris [D O T] Byrch [A T] ccc [D O T] govt [D O T] nz -------------------- >From Yen Chin, City of Seattle, responding to Charlotte Becker's 3/27/00 posting about the demolition of the Kingdome: I think you misunderstand the situation here in Seattle. Designing the Kingdome a generation ago is not analogous to decisions to put toxic waste in landfills. The stated desire to have (more and better) luxury boxes for the new football stadium arises out of perceived changes in the market place rather than a new-found appreciation for conditions that exist independent of time, as is the case with burying toxic waste. Therefore, better planning back then would not have prevented the obviously conspicuous consumption of the recent implosion. In addition, the destruction of the Kingdome must be seen in its full context, so we should consider the effect of the new baseball-only stadium on both the monetary worth of the Kingdome and the egotistical need of Paul Allen and football fans. For the record, King County's own study (now about half a dozen years old) reported that the market for luxury boxes was over-saturated, a conclusion substantiated by the poor sales of these boxes in the newly reconstructed basketball arena. I contend that conspicuous consumption is one of the central threads of this unfortunate debacle, and poor decision making - especially when that earlier decision contained a class-consciousness that addresses such kinds of unconscionable consumption - had nothing to do with the building's demise. The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team. - John Wooden E-mail: Yen (D O T) Chin (A T) ci (D O T) seattle (D O T) wa (D O T) us -------------------- >From Tom Watson, National Waste Prevention Coalition and King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA: I don't know if it's because it's spring or what, but it seems that a lot of people who have been nationally known and active in the waste prevention field are changing jobs. Here are some of the recent job changes I've heard about: - Jana Haskins, who had been involved in a number of waste prevention projects in her job for the Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County, Florida, is now the director of the Resource Depot, a new reuse center in Palm Beach County. - Dave Kleckner had been very active in waste prevention in his supervisory position in the New York City Department of Sanitation's Bureau of Waste Prevention, Reuse and Recycling. Dave has left the Department to become associate director of the Center for Environmental Communication at Rutgers University, Cook College, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. - Edgar Miller, the National Recycling Coalition's director of programs and policies, is leaving NRC to join the American Steel Institute as a lobbyist. Edgar was instrumental in launching NRC's Source Reduction Forum. - Suzette Riley, who was one of my co-workers here at King County Solid Waste Division, has left the Division to join Pacific Rim Resources, a Seattle consulting firm. She will likely be working on transit issues at Pacific Rim. Suzette developed King County's Waste Free Fridays program and was one of the organizers of a regional, multi-agency program to provide residents with rebates for mulching lawn mowers. To Jana, Dave, Edgar and Suzette - Whether you're continuing in waste prevention work or are moving on to new challenges, thanks for all the great work you've done to advance waste prevention! - end -