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12 May 00 - wedding invitations; laundry rooms; events ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- >From Jesse White, Resource Management Group, Tallevast, FL: A while back, there was discussion on how to be less consumptive in weddings. I recently received a wedding invitation which achieves this elegantly. The invite is a four- or five-panel folded cardstock. The whole thing is mailable with just the tape tabs on the ends (reduces envelope use and stickies). The last panel is the response card, which is a mailable postcard. The cardstock is recycled content. I can't wait to attend the wedding and see how else my friend has chosen to walk the talk. E-mail: jwhite ( AT ) recyclesmart ( DOT ) com -------------------- The next six postings are in response to the 5/10/00 posting from Yen Chin, seeking insights on how to promote the idea that apartment buildings should have common-area laundry rooms, rather than washers and dryers in each unit: -------------------------- >From Meg Lynch, Metro, Regional Environmental Management, Portland, OR: About laundry rooms: I think it has to do with convenience, not status. For me, one of the best things about buying a house was having my own washer and dryer, so I could wash and dry clothes, etc., when I wanted to - not when the machines happened to be unoccupied, and not necessarily after 8 a.m. or before 10 p.m. Not to mention the fact that I no longer have to worry about my clothes, such as they are, being "liberated" for someone else's use. E-mail: lynchm [AT] metro [DOT] dst [DOT] or [DOT] us ------------------ >From Jesse White, Resource Management Group, Tallevast, FL: Here's a way to leverage in favor of communal laundries: They allow for more personal space in the dwellings - even if it's just an extra closet per condo. That's a benefit, right? Everyone needs an extra closet for their, um, extra stuff (that they're saving for a garage sale or to donate to charity). E-mail: jwhite (A T) recyclesmart (D O T) com --------------------- >From Susan Kinsella, Susan Kinsella & Associates and Conservatree, Novato, CA: This question really got to me because it seems to be missing awareness of the reality of many people's lives. I recognize the common sense, waste prevention and savings in having community washers and dryers, and theoretically I agree. But, unfortunately, this idea no longer works for me, for reasons having nothing to do with status and everything to do with having to keep ten balls in the air at the same time. In fact, when I moved into my unit six years ago, I made installing a washer/dryer a requirement. It helps me put my energy (which, alas, I've had to face sometimes has limits) into the things that are most important to me: being a good mother to my child, keeping us supported, having a little bit of time with friends, and having a minute or two occasionally to think my own thoughts. As a single mother, I do a lot of my laundry at two in the morning and would not want to be running out at night, leaving my child, to do that. When my child is at school or in childcare, I need those short hours to earn income, not do housework. When I work at home during the day, I need to stay focused and professional, not run back and forth between the laundry room and my office. When my son is home, our time together is precious because there's never enough of it, so I would not want to spend it running out to wash clothes, even together, as frequently as that needs to be done. With my own washer/dryer, laundry can be something that gets done in the background, not another task that I have to specifically focus on, as it would be if I ran back and forth or had to hang out in the laundry room. Before I had my own washer and dryer, using a community laundry facility meant frantically chasing after my then-toddler to keep him with me and out of the parking lot (people going in and out always left the door open, no matter how many times I closed it), while also carrying in big baskets of clothes, shifting them between washers and dryers, and carrying big baskets out one at a time. (Babies create a LOT of laundry and I already had too little time to keep up with it.) Now that he's older, it helps enormously to be able to throw a load of laundry in at home on our way out to his baseball game, then throw it in the dryer a few hours later. (When it gets folded is iffy, but at least everything's clean.) I couldn't do that with a common laundry room - from long experience, I know that others would be taking my clothes out of the machines, misplacing them, dropping them on the floor and losing them. I'm finding that some of the kinds of actions that used to make sense - when I was a kid, when our lives were slower, when families were not so fragmented, before I had a child, before I was a single mother, when neighborhoods were safe enough to send kids out to play without supervision all day - don't work today. People who rent often don't have enough money to buy the support services they may need so they have to do extra labor just to keep their lives going, they're often parents and/or other types of caretakers, they're frequently working more than one job and many times at odd hours, and they're often in pressured situations from which people who have more money and resources can insulate themselves. Sometimes they're elderly or in poor health. For some people having their own washer and dryer may have to do with status and consumption. But for me, and for many people, I find it has more to do with how we have to wear so many hats and meet so many needs without adequate support that even seemingly minor choices can make enormous differences between successful juggling and dropping the ball. E-mail: seek [ A T ] susankinsella [ D O T ] com -------------------- >From Sharon Aller, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA: Regarding laundry rooms, one of the earliest studies I ever read regarding doing the wash and changing cultural behavior had to do with the building of laundry facilities for women who traditionally had done the wash by (or in) the adjacent river. The new laundry room had all the wash tubs lined up against the walls, and women could only do the wash with their backs to each other. So they wouldn't use the tubs, despite the convenience. Carry that forward and if you have communal laundries, it needs to meet the needs of the users. Would that be privacy? Would it be more than a couple of plastic chairs and minimal tables to fold on? What would it take for people (men and women) to use a communal laundry area? Interesting idea. E-mail: sharon [D O T] aller [A T] metrokc [D O T] gov -------------------- >From Vanessa Hinkle, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Division of Air Pollution Control, Columbus, OH: In response to Yen Chin's request for info on common-area laundry rooms: You could start by communicating the advantages of common laundry rooms: 1. The apartment management may be willing to invest in higher quality machines. Maybe even those front-load washers that are easier on your clothes, get them cleaner with less detergent, and use less water and energy. Make a poster to communicate these benefits and hang it in the laundry room. Maybe they could make it a recycling center also! 2. If a machine breaks, you won't have some greasy, butt-crack guy in your apartment when you are not home - or worse yet, when you are. 3. You won't have extra humidity and heat in your apartment when you are doing your laundry. There are probably more. I hope this helps. And if you decide to do some posters, let me know, and I may be able to hook you up with some pro-bono advertising (writing and designing) services. E-mail: vanessa (DOT) hinkle (AT) epa (DOT) state (DOT) oh (DOT) us ------------------- >From Jeff Gaisford, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA: I have to respond to Yen Chin's comments about in-unit or common area washer/dryers. I don't know if he's got his own washer and dryer, but here are my thoughts: I don't believe having a washer/dryer is about status, it's about convenience (which I honesty don't believe are the same thing). I've never gone to anyone's house and asked if I can wash my clothes in their cool Miele washing machine. Hummers, Rovers, and Ferraris are about status. Having someone else do your laundry is more about status (whether it's at your home, their home or the cleaner's). I'm sure it's probably more efficient and less costly to have one common laundry area versus in-unit washer/dryers. The developers have to figure out who their market is. I have spent many hours in laundromats, many hours running my laundry down to the laundry room, and many hours using my own washer/dryer in my apartment. The energy used has got to be about the same for all three. And as far as human interaction, there's very little that goes on at the laundromat and laundry rooms. You could even say that you have more time to spend with your loved ones if you have your own washer/dryer. I think if you want people to interact more with each other and save lots of energy (and improve our air quality), we'd focus our attention on encouraging people to get out of their cars and walk, bike, or take public transportation. On another note - I love the job description (5/10/00 posting) from North Carolina: Public events such as Apple Chill, Fiesta del Pueblo, Hog Day. Diversity at its best! E-mail: jeff [DOT] gaisford [AT] metrokc [DOT] gov - end -