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15 Jun 00 - business reuse; electronics; home tour; composting; eco-industrial park ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- >From Sandra Thorp, Hennepin County Environmental Services, Minneapolis, MN: The Twin Cities (Minnesota) regional waste management planning group, The Solid Waste Management Coordinating Board, has hired a consultant to research and evaluate successful programs that facilitate the reuse of materials that can be redirected from the commercial waste stream. The primary focus is municipal solid waste and some hazardous wastes, but not industrial waste or construction and demolition waste. Many programs, materials exchanges and others, have been identified thus far, but we are unsure if we have missed some key programs that are successfully operating in the U.S. or Canada. If anyone would like to share details of a successful business reuse program that you are involved with, it would be much appreciated. E-mail: sandra (DOT) thorp (AT) co (DOT) hennepin (DOT) mn (DOT) us Phone: 612-348-3563 -------------------- Excerpted from a message from Ann Schneider, University of California Santa Cruz Extension, Business Environmental Assistance Center (BEAC), Santa Clara, CA: The set of principles below was drafted for the April 28, 2000, workshop on extended producer responsibility (EPR) for electronic equipment, held in Mountain View, California. The principles have been modified based on comments received following the workshop. We are now seeking final comments, before asking local governments and organizations to adopt and work toward these principles. Please review these principles and share any comments or concerns. Speaking as co-chair of one of the California Resource Recovery Association's technical councils, the Repair, Resale and Reuse Council, we are planning our first campaign to push for EPR for electronics waste at our annual conference July 23-26, 2000, in Sacramento. We want the best set of principles to base our campaign on, so please read and send comments to me, Ted or Sheila by July 15, 2000. You can find our e-mail addresses at the bottom of the set of principles. Thanks in advance for your time. Final Draft ERIT Principles of Extended Producer Responsibility for Electronics Waste Electronic Responsibility Initiatives Taskforce (ERIT) - June 15, 2000 Zero Waste Principle: Set a goal of zero waste of electronic products going to landfills or burning by 2006. Polluter Pays Principle: Internalize "end-of-life" management cost into the costs of producing products. Design for the Environment: Producers must accept environmental and health responsibilities proportional to technical innovation goals; and phase out persistent, bioaccumulative toxics from their products. Products should be designed to minimize resource consumption during use, e.g., a photocopier should easily and with few errors run double-sided copies and should conserve energy when not in active use. Turning products off should not shorten the life of the product. Infrastructure Development: Develop effective infrastructure for reuse, recovery, and recycling. Work with all stakeholders to develop and demonstrate best practices. Encourage investment in domestic re-use, recovery and recycling processing systems. Ban Waste Trade: Prohibit shipping hazardous materials overseas that violate the Basel Convention. Implement Improved Environmental, Health and Safety Practices: Develop improved worker health and safety and environmental protection standards for vendors throughout the product chain in the U.S. as well as in facilities overseas. Close the Loop: Design products to be easily repaired and upgraded to extend life of the product. Incorporate recovered materials into new products. Develop closed materials cycles. Avoid designing "disposable" products. Green Procurement: Develop "green procurement" strategies and Environmentally Preferable Purchasing programs within government and throughout the entire product chain. For more information, contact: Ann Schneider, California Resource Recovery Association E-mail: schneiderann [A T] juno [D O T] com Phone: (650) 962-0404 Ted Smith, Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition E-mail: tsmith ( AT ) svtc ( DOT ) org Phone: (408) 287-6707 Sheila Davis, Materials for the Future Foundation E-mail: sheiladavis (AT) materials4future (DOT) org Phone: (415) 561-6530 ------------------- >From Karen Higgins, City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, responding to the 6/13/00 posting about the Used Building Materials Home Tour sponsored by a non-profit organization in Bellingham, Washington (the item noted that tickets for the tour were $5 per car, or $5 per person for a seat on a shuttle bus): Not to be picky, but! - Nice to encourage carpooling, but nicer still would be to encourage the shuttle use by making it free or less expensive. E-mail: khiggi (A T) dwp (D O T) ci (D O T) la (D O T) ca (D O T) us ------------------ >From Peter DuBois, Clark County Public Works, Vancouver, WA: I am working on a pilot project to compost organic materials from schools. The goal is to make the program as simple as possible. We would like the option of dumping the entire meal waste (food scraps, utensils, milk cartons, napkins, paper towels, waxed cardboard, etc.) into a biodegradable can liner. The organic waste bags would then be collected for composting. Does anyone know of competitively priced biodegradable food service products (utensils, can liners, etc.)? What if any has been your experience composting these materials? E-mail: Pete ( DOT ) Dubois ( AT ) co ( DOT ) clark ( DOT ) wa ( DOT ) us Note from Tom: In general, we define waste prevention (the topic of this listserv) to include on-site composting, but not large-scale off-site composting. If your replies are more pertinent to off-site composting, please respond directly to Pete. Thanks! ------------------- >From Rocio Condor, Environmental Science Department, Wageningen University, the Netherlands (forwarded by Tom Watson): I am from Peru, and am a student of Environmental Science at Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Presently, I am going to start field work in Peru, where I am going to work with an Industrial Park in Lima. I would like to work on the idea of an Eco-Industrial Park. For this reason I am writing to you. One option for the industrial park where I am going to work is to start with a network of recycling and reusing material, in order to minimize the residues they are producing. The companies that are involved in the industrial park are: - Carpentry - Artisans (ceramics, stone, wood and metal) - Footwear production - Food industry - Metal mechanic - Melting industries - Cloth confection I would like your support, because I know that there are several programs and articles related to this. I know that your suggestions and support will be very useful for my research. I look forward to hearing from you. E-mail: rociodanica (AT) yahoo (DOT) com or rocio ( DOT ) condor ( AT ) msc ( DOT ) student ( DOT ) wau ( DOT ) nl - end -