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18 May 00 - Oregon order; trays; job; school paper project; conference ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- >From Tim Honadel, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality: Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber today signed Executive Order 00-07, outlining strategies to improve the sustainability of internal state operations. The Executive Order states that Oregon will "develop and promote policies and programs that will assist Oregon to meet a goal of sustainability within one generation - by 2025." It provides general goals and guidelines, and specifically orders actions by two Oregon agencies: Oregon Department of Administrative Services - Early action in areas of vehicle use and maintenance, information systems operations, and publications. - Development of "green building" standards and guidelines, and use of the planned North Mall Complex in Salem as a test project. - Development of green procurement policies and implementation of joint bidding agreements with other governments to increase market leverage. Focus will be on paper products, office furniture and vehicles. - Immediate action on purchase of green power, and plans to purchase more after market deregulation in Fall, 2001. - Development of mechanisms to assist other state agencies in efficiently achieving sustainable internal operations. Oregon Economic and Community Development Agency - Promote and support sustainability efforts in Oregon businesses and local governments. - Develop resources to accomplish this support. - Evaluate incentives for investment in sustainability-oriented businesses. Other significant actions of the Executive Order include: - Creation of a work group to advise the Governor on options for additional steps toward sustainability. The group will be chaired by Bill Wyatt. Membership will be private/public organizations, and will include 2 senators and 2 representatives (tentatively Derfler, Brown, Westlund and Hansen). - Direction to the Oregon Progress Board to evaluate options for measures and benchmarks of sustainability. - Develop public outreach tools. This Executive Order is intended to be a start, with additional orders to follow. The Governor will start an award program to recognize innovators (primarily inside state government), probably on a monthly basis, in part to recognize the good work already underway. E-mail: HONADEL ( DOT ) Tim ( AT ) deq ( DOT ) state ( DOT ) or ( DOT ) us -------------------- >From Julie Rhodes, Reuse Development Organization (ReDO), Indianapolis, IN: I have received an inquiry from a school teacher requesting concrete information about the environmental impact of the polystyrene trays used in their school cafeteria, versus reuse of plastic trays. The school already has the reusable ones, but has abandoned them for the disposable. In looking at the Jobs Through Recycling listserv and Waste Prevention Forum archives, I can find information on how to locate recycled-content plastic trays and the evaluation of disposable poly versus disposable molded paper trays, but no information regarding disposable poly versus reusable plastic. Can anyone help steer me to a resource that can assist this teacher in his plight? This is a school, but resources for food service reuse of any kind would likely be helpful. In advance, thanks. E-mail: info ( AT ) redo ( DOT ) org -------------------- >From Jan Whitworth, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Portland, OR: The Waste Prevention Management Division of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has an immediate opening for a limited-duration (18-24 months), part-time (20-40 hours per week) position, located in Portland. The salary range is $40,824 - $57,264. The purpose of this position is to provide technical research, analysis, training and education for waste prevention program development and implementation statewide in Oregon. This is an open competitive recruitment, which closes on June 9, 2000. For details concerning the job duties, qualifications and instructions for applying, please refer to the job announcement on the DEQ web site at: http://www.deq.state.or.us/msd/hr/joblist.asp Scroll down to announcement 000710 and click on that number. For questions regarding the position, please contact Jan Whitworth at (503)229-6434. For questions regarding the recruitment, please contact Patty O'Connor at (503) 229-5119. Jan's e-mail: WHITWORTH [ DOT ] Jan [ AT ] deq [ DOT ] state [ DOT ] or [ DOT ] us -------------------- >From the online newsletter of the Center for Ecological Technology (CET), Pittsfield and Northampton, Massachusetts (forwarded by Julie Rhodes): SIXTH-GRADERS PLOT AGAINST PAPER WASTE Question: What do sixth-grade science students suggest be done to reduce paper waste in schools? Answer: Wooden reusable library and hall passes, boxes for scrap paper in every classroom, and asking teachers to accept homework assignments prepared on paper that has already been used on one side. In January, sixth-grade students at the JFK Middle School in Northampton, MA, participated in a Waste Reduction Forum where each class presented their ideas for saving paper. The Forum involved Northampton's waste management coordinator, teachers, school administrators and a guest from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. JFK is now implementing these ideas and will track paper-purchasing trends over the coming months to gauge the effectiveness of the project. The ongoing paper waste reduction project, designed and coordinated by CET, began with lessons and activities led by classroom teachers and CET staff. For more information, contact Jim Desmond in CET's Northampton office at (413) 586-7350, or write to CET's main e-mail address at: cet [ AT ] cetonline [ DOT ] org -------------------- >From Bahar Keskin, International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden: A call for papers has been announced for the Seventh European Roundtable on Cleaner Production, which will be held in Lund, Sweden, on May 2-4, 2001. The theme is: "Sustainable Production and Consumption Systems - Co-operation for Change." Abstracts of papers are due by Nov. 15, 2000. For more information, see the conference website at: http://www.lu.se/IIIEE/ercp/ Scroll down to "Call for Abstracts." E-mail: bahar (D O T) keskin (A T) iiiee (D O T) lu (D O T) se - end -