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03 Jul 00 - Oregon job; ketchup bottles; electronic signatures ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- Excerpted from a June 28, 2000, job announcement from Bob Doppelt, director, Center for Watershed and Community Health, Portland State University, Springfield, OR (forwarded by David Flora from a pollution prevention listserv): PRODUCT TAKE-BACK PROGRAM MANAGER The Center for Watershed and Community Health (CWCH) is seeking an entrepreneurial manager to develop and oversee a program to assist private firms and public agencies to apply product take-back strategies. The Product Take-Back Program will promote, train and establish partnerships between for-profit, public and non-profit organizations to accomplish its goals. It is a component of The New Economy Network, a new program to assist public, private and non-profit organizations to adopt environmental sustainability practices, with a special emphasis on product take-back, zero emissions, waste management and reuse/recycling strategies. The CWCH is a non-profit organization affiliated with the Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University. This program will provide web-based technical information and advisory assistance to public, private and non-profit organizations on strategies to eliminate emissions (waste) and to capture, reuse and recycle end-of-life products through process and material changes, total productivity management, the development of industry clusters and waste exchanges, and partnerships with non-profits focused on low income populations. The program will place a major emphasis on appliances, mattresses, electronics, tires, packaging, construction debris and other waste materials. The program will also provide technical assistance to non-profits on how to establish and operate reuse/recycling businesses. Philanthropic foundations have provided initial start-up funding for the program. The program manager will be responsible for building and directing the overall program and for generating on-going operating funds from contracts and grants. Qualifications: Candidates must have a minimum of three years successful private sector or non-profit business management experience in waste management, reuse or recycling, or be able to clearly demonstrate the applicability of business experience to this endeavor. Salary: Depends on experience, plus excellent benefits. Closing Date: When filled. To Apply: Send resume and references to Product Take-Back Job Search Coordinator, CWCH, 5729 Main St., PMB #248, Springfield, Oregon, 97478. Bob Doppelt's e-mail: bdoppelt ( DOT ) f10 ( AT ) worldnet ( DOT ) att ( DOT ) net CWCH Springfield office phone: (541) 744-7072 ------------------ >From Sharon Aller, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, Washington, responding to the 6/29/00 news item about how the Heinz Co. is trying to replace the refillable glass Heinz ketchup bottles used in restaurants with nonrefillable plastic bottles: Well, the Heinz article is interesting considering Mrs. Heinz, the major name behind the company, is a forefront environmentalist. Her money sponsored the 1994 Yale College Summit on Sustainability. Perhaps someone should let her know what the company is planning. On the other hand, I don't like those icky bottle tops much, and I like even less not being able to see into an opaque but refillable container. I thought we had all switched to salsa. E-mail: sharon [ D O T ] aller [ A T ] metrokc [ D O T ] gov ------------------ Excerpted from a June 30, 2000, Reuters news service article, and from a July 1, 2000, article by Marc Lacey in the New York Times: On June 30, President Clinton signed into law a bill that makes electronic signatures as valid as their ink counterparts. The bill, officially known as the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, gives electronic signatures and documents the same force in law as those done with ink on paper. The act eliminates legal barriers to using electronic technology to form and sign contracts, collect and store documents and send and receive notices and disclosures. By giving electronic signatures legal standing, the new law will enable consumers to sign contracts for bank loans, new cars and other business deals from home. Many transactions are already conducted over the Internet, including the filing of tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service, although an actual signature has to be sent separately. That requirement will disappear once the new law takes effect Oct. 1. The law's backers say businesses will save billions of dollars a year by using phone lines instead of paper for routine transactions. Computer records will also do away with the need to store tons of paper files. -------------------- Note from Tom: I will be out of the office July 4 and 5 this week, and I also will be gone July 10-17, so there will be no editions of the Forum during those times. Hope you're all having a great summer! - end -