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07 Apr 00 - take-backs; electronics; climate change; simplicity; garage sale; stores; old buildings ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- >From Brian Fuller, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, responding to the 4/4/00 posting of the Associated Press article where Alec Rosen, a spokesman for Apple Computer, is quoted as saying, "I don't think that (product take-back legislation) is realistic. It's about as realistic as Detroit being responsible for taking cars back.": After just attending the Products and the Environment Northwest Conference in Seattle, I have to respond to Alec Rosen's comment. Didn't the European Union just pass legislation requiring auto manufacturers to take back their vehicles? I'm sure Apple has to deal with the many take-back and stewardship programs in Europe, Asia and Canada. E-mail: FULLER [DOT] Brian [AT] deq [DOT] state [DOT] or [DOT] us -------------------- Excerpted from a posting on the Reuse Development Organization (ReDO) listserv: A workshop, "Electronics Innovations - Solutions, Strategies, & EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) for E-Waste," will be held April 28, 2000, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Mountain View (CA) City Hall Council Chambers, near San Jose. It will be hosted by: Materials for the Future Foundation; the Repair, Resale and Reuse Council of the California Resource Recovery Association (CRRA); Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition; and the Electronics Responsibility Initiative Task Force. Sponsors include Alameda County Waste Management Authority, City of Mountain View and City of San Francisco. Goal of the Workshop: To develop a menu of actions that will stimulate EPR in the design and disposal of computers and electronics, including local purchasing resolutions, city ordinances and purchasing guidelines, and state and federal legislation such as landfill bans, take-back programs and chemical or product substitution. Ideas from this workshop will become the blueprint for working collaboratively to establish more EPR programs in California and in the United States. The registration fee is $35. For more information, contact CRRA by e-mail at crra [AT] aol [DOT] com or by phone at (916) 441-2772. -------------------- Excerpted from message from Christine McCoy, National Recycling Coalition (NRC), Alexandria, VA: The first online discussion for the NRC Source Reduction Forum's Climate Change and Waste Program will take place on Tuesday, April 11th, at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The program's online forum offers two ways in which you can seek assistance on issues related to climate change and waste reduction. The first is through an online message board where you can post questions for our panel of experts and others to answer when they visit the Climate Change and Waste Reduction webpage. The other option is to log on to our real-time online discussions that will be held at a predetermined date and time over the next six months. The topics to be addressed during the online discussions will include the following: 1. Why Climate Change is Relevant to Recycling and Waste Prevention Professionals. 2. Climate Change Impacts of Recycling and Waste Prevention. 3. Calculating Reduced Greenhouse Gas Emissions Resulting from Recycling. 4. Calculating Reduced Greenhouse Gas Emissions Resulting from Waste Prevention. 5. Using the EPA "WARM" Software. 6. Integrating Waste Reduction into Climate Change Action Plans. To access either of the program's online forum options, please visit the program webpage at: http://www.nrc-recycle.org/programs/climchange/climchange.htm Since there have been some difficulties with firewalls and other technical issues related to the online forums, we STRONGLY encourage you to test the online forum and your ability to enter both the message board and discussion features. Unfortunately, we will not be able to provide technical assistance once the real-time online discussions begin. If you have any questions, please feel to contact me directly at 703/683-9025. E-mail: ChristineM [A T] NRC-Recycle [D O T] org -------------------- >From Susan Salterberg, Simple Living Initiatives, Center for Energy and Environmental Education, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA: I meant to send this op-ed piece, written by Vicki Robin of the New Road Map Foundation, to the listserv a few weeks ago when the discussion on simplicity occurred. I forgot then, but here it is now. SIMPLICITY IS NOT FOR SALE By Vicki Robin Watch out. Marketing double-speak is hitting a new high (or low, depending on your point of view). Time Inc., recognizing a trend, is launching on March 27 a new magazine for the harried called RealSimple. They have cleverly reworked the perennial insight of "less is more" into "Do less. Have More." - replacing the true grit of the first with yet another engraved invitation to self-absorption. What's the harm? It's a free country. "Simplicity" is just a word. Words belong to everyone. If someone wants to call a soap "joy", a tampon "freedom" or underwear "love", why do I find myself bristling when a magazine wants to commandeer "simplicity" and "reality" to sell Gap clothes and Cadillac cars (over half the magazine is devoted to ads)? Really, shouldn't I be flattered that the kind of shedding of excess I've been promoting for 2 decades has now hit the jackpot? Shouldn't I declare victory that simplicity is now mainstream, not marginal? Shouldn't I even be busy writing articles for RealSimple rather than biting the hand that may feed common sense to millions? I mean, the thought that time-starved house-and-office wives might commune with their inner lives after commuting from their harried lives is really quite wonderful. It is. Why, then, do I cringe when Madison Avenue starts selling "simplicity"? It's because words are important. Words mean something. They are alive, almost as alive as flowers and forests and finches. They make up the DNA of our living culture. Marketers muck with the genetic material of our souls when they manipulate our emotions by appropriating the very language we use daily to express our highest aspirations and deepest desires. So, sorry folks. I'm drawing the line. I'm declaring a quixotic war on the language looters. I'm arching myself backwards in those canyons of skyscrapers where the best minds of our generation are writing ad copy, and I'm shouting out a big "Yoo hoo. You can't have 'simplicity' to sell your stuff." Simplicity isn't something you buy. You create it by chipping away the unreal, the useless and the meaningless until, like Michaelangelo's David, you are left with a life that is breathtakingly beautiful. Simplicity is about loving something more than you love "more." It isn't yours by buying a car or a laptop computer or a cigar or a spa-vacation. In fact, simplicity is far more challenging and rewarding than anything e-commerce can offer. It's about "living simply that others may simply live." It's not about having more and doing less. Just the opposite. It's about "having less and being more" - more quiet, more honest, more compassionate, more real. Oh dear. Real. There's another word headed for oblivion as marketers co-opt it to sell magazines and, you guessed it, cars. Real isn't something you buy. It's, well, real. It's like the breath that sustains you. The blood in your veins. The soul that remains once everything else is indeed shed. And yes, in case you were wondering, RealSimple is also dispensing soul in easy-to-swallow insight bites. Hello! No one can sell you your soul. It's yours already. Sure, soul work can go more smoothly in certain circumstances. Quiet. Solitude. Nature. Other seekers. Inspiring teachers. Access to these, in today's world, might mean spending a bit of money. But souls light up just as often in bad times. Achieving equanimity amidst gridlock, crises and loss often expands the soul in ways that don't disappear the Monday morning after that high-buck vision quest. For peace of mind, watch your breath go in and out. Watch your desires rise and fall. Talk to God. And watch your pennies to see if spending them is getting you any closer to an authentic life. So watch out for the side-show barkers dressed up like Martha Stewart who promise to simplify your life for a pretty penny. It's like thinking that a cell phone will simplify your life and then finding that everyone can find you 24/7. It's like buying a palm pilot and losing hours trying to figure out all its features. It's like getting on-line while you are exercising to do your e-mail and web searches. Simplicity is slow. It's a bit shy, coming out only in moments of silence, solitude and sanity. You can't get it at the mall. You won't find it on the web. And it sure won't flutter out of an advertising loaded magazine like a bounce-back post card for a free trial of the latest "beautiful you" hair rinse. So what's my prescription for simplicity? First, if you must now see the real RealSimple, glance through it at the magazine stand but get it at the library. Second, ask yourself what really matters to you, and then coil your life around it and don't let go. Third, tell your children Seuss-like tales of the loony language looters and teach them to know the difference between needs, wants and advertising-induced desires. "Real" and "simple" cost nothing more than attention to our beautiful world. Can you "buy" that? - Vicki Robin is co-author with Joe Dominguez of "Your Money or Your Life," president of the New Road Map Foundation (http://www.newroadmap.org) and on the board of the Center for a New American Dream (http://www.newdream.org). -------------------- Excerpted from an article by Dorlene Russell, City of Sunnyvale, in the March, 2000, Waste Age (forwarded by Karen Hamilton): Sunnyvale, in the Bay Area of California, is a city of 130,000 residents. For the past eight years, the City of Sunnyvale has sponsored a city-wide garage sale each spring. In 1999, 2,290 households participated. Based on past quantities sold at an average-sized sale, sellers sold an estimated total of 229 tons of materials in 1999. The city pays for the promotion of the event. Residents hold the participating sales at their homes and keep their proceeds. The city's expenses, for advertising and staff time to coordinate the event, were about $10,000 in 1999. There are a number of partners who assist with promotion, including the Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce, 7-Eleven, Goodwill Industries and Coldwell Banker. For information, contact Rich Gurney, recycling coordinator, City of Sunnyvale, by e-mail at rgurney (AT) ci (DOT) sunnyvale (DOT) ca (DOT) us or by phone at (408) 730-7277. --------------------- Link to a great article on used building materials stores in the Seattle area, by Rob Carson in the 4/2/00 Tacoma News Tribune (forwarded by Bill Smith): http://www.tribnet.com/ Click on "Search" near the top of the page, and search for: Salvaged Values Article includes tips for shopping for used building materials. --------------------- Link to a fascinating article on the challenges of renovating old buildings, by Adam Katz-Stone in the 4/3/00 Baltimore Business Journal (from the ReDO listserv): http://www.amcity.com/baltimore/stories/2000/04/03/focus1.html - end -