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21 Apr 00 - exchanges; new job; pallets; contract; business tips; phone books ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- >From Maggie Clarke, Rutgers University Geography Department (and New York City resident), responding to the 4/14/00 posting about a U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) research project to look at establishing a national, coordinated effort to link waste exchanges: I'm responding to the inquiry re a new national network of waste exchanges. This is the ultimate irony, since I was part of a team from the City University of New York in May of 1994 that applied for a grant from the New York State Department of Economic Development (DED) to integrate a state network of waste exchanges. Individuals desiring an item that couldn't be found locally would easily be able to access listings of other exchanges (via faxback and other technologies of the time). The University had (and still has) the capability to do it, and though the idea made it to the final cut, it was not funded. The New York City Department of Sanitation told DED that they were already doing such a project (which, as it turned out, they were not). Before our time once again! I'm sure we could get the team back together if the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or the EDA, wanted to resurrect the concept. E-mail: mclarke [A T] shiva [D O T] hunter [D O T] cuny [D O T] edu -------------------- >From Christine McCoy, National Recycling Coalition (NRC), Alexandria, VA: As some of you may or may not know, today is my last day at NRC. I've taken a position with the American Forest and Paper Association as the Program Manager for their Paper Recycling Group. I can be reached via e-mail, starting May 1st, at: christine_mccoy ( A T ) afandpa ( D O T ) org I will still be a member of NRC and I will likely be involved in the Recycling Works Project and possibly the Source Reduction Forum. It's been a pleasure working with all of you and I hope that our paths will cross again in my new position. -------------------- >From Jerry Powell, Resource Recycling magazine, Portland, OR: Some news from the north: Home Depot in Canada has entered into an agreement with CHEP International (New York) to have the big home improvements firm use CHEP's durable and reusable wooden pallets. CHEP owns and maintains a pool of 35 million reusable pallets in the U.S. and 7 million in Canada. According to an article in the Toronto Star, the blue CHEP pallets are specifically designed to allow multi-uses. E-mail: RESRECYCLE [A T] aol [D O T] com -------------------- Excerpted from message from Patricia Jatczak, Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction Program, Washington State Department of Ecology, Olympia, WA (forwarded by Curtis Durrant from the Environmentally-Preferable Products Procurement listserv): After over a year of hard work, the State of Washington has recently awarded an "Environmentally Responsible Cleaning Products" contract. A set of environmental criteria was established, with eight mandatory criteria and 20 ranked items. This contract represents a collaboration between the General Services Administration's Office of State Procurement and the Department of Ecology. We borrowed heavily from cities and states who had already developed cleaning products criteria, including the City of Santa Monica (CA), the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the State of Minnesota. THANK YOU! Two companies meet the criteria: Quick n' Brite (glass cleaner, toilet bowl/urinal cleaner, tub & tile cleaner, concrete cleaner, oven/grill cleaner, hand dishwashing soap, liquid handsoap, spot and mildew remover, and vehicle soap), and SOQ Environmental Technology (multipurpose cleaner/degreaser). The contract is available to all members of the Washington and Oregon State Purchasing Cooperatives. The contract can be viewed at this website: http://www.ga.wa.gov/pca/contract/11399c.doc (If you get lost in web-land, search for contract number 11399). E-mail: pjat461 ( AT ) ecy ( DOT ) wa ( DOT ) gov -------------------- Just in time for Earth Day, here are the links to two excellent articles from the April 11, 2000, edition of "FSB," Fortune Magazine's website for small businesses. Both articles have some great ideas and links related to reuse and reduction. Creating an Earth-Friendly Company: http://www.fsb.com/fortunesb/articles/0,2227,694,00.html The Five Hottest Environmental Niches for Small Business: http://www.fsb.com/fortunesb/articles/0,2227,693,00.html -------------------- >From Tom Watson, National Waste Prevention Coalition and King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA: Kinley Deller here in my office at King County has developed a terrific resource for businesses who want to reduce their consumption of phone books. Kinley thought others might be interested, so we are running it below. If you'd like to contact Kinley about this, his e-mail address is: kinley (D O T) deller (A T) metrokc (D O T) gov Feel free to adapt this info to distribute to businesses in your area (making the necessary changes to make it correct for your area, of course). If you do, please credit King County (WA) Solid Waste Division as the source of the info. (But please don't ever use a King County e-mail address or phone number on any of your public education materials without checking with us first. Thanks!) ----- TELEPHONE BOOK WASTE PREVENTION TIPS FOR BUSINESSES (Seattle area version) 1) Use the Internet Instead Web-based telephone directories have become quite prevalent and easy to use. They offer several benefits over traditional paper phone books: They are constantly being updated, and they don't use up resources for production, transportation, or recycling. One set (yellow and white pages) of local phone books weighs more than 10 pounds. This means that every 200 employees who receive a set of phone books consume ONE TON of paper in phone books alone every year. Here are three of the more widely-used online directories: GTE Online Directory http://superpages.com/ US West Online Directory http://uswestdex.com/ AT&T Online Directory http://www.anywho.com/ 2) Tell the Directory Companies If You Don't Want Their Phone Books To eliminate or reduce telephone directory deliveries to your business, you need to call the telephone directory request lines: (These numbers are for the Seattle area) GTE 1-800-888-8448 US West 1-800-422-8793 You can either: - ask that your business be removed permanently from their list; - ask that your business not receive the next issue of their phone directory; or - ask that your business receive a limited number (which you have determined) of directories, when the next edition comes out. If this does not work for some reason, and you end up receiving directories, immediately call the directory request line again and ask that the phone directory company have their sub-contractor who is delivering or mailing out directories in your area come and collect them. 3) Don't Be a Lone Ranger (Work Well With Others) Please remember that there may be someone at your business who is responsible for contact with the telephone companies. This person may put in an order every year for the number of phone directories they think the office will need. If you wish to eliminate or reduce the number of directories received by your office, it is essential that you communicate your intentions with this person. Also be aware that many people are very attached to their paper phone directories. To reduce or eliminate paper phone books in your office, you'll need a lot of tact and patience! Good luck! - end -