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31 Jul 00 - Portland Goodwill; mailing lists; goddess; stats; churches; purchasing; job ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- >From Charlotte Becker, Association of Oregon Recyclers (AOR), Gresham, Oregon, responding to the 7/20/00 news item about the chain of Goodwill Industries stores based in Portland, Oregon, having the highest revenues of any Goodwill in North America: Thanks for passing along the piece on the Portland-area Goodwill. Their TV ad campaign looks like a Target or Gap ad. Lots of movement and color. You'd never think of it as an ad for something used. That's why it's so successful. I think it's helping to remove the stigma that shopping at Goodwill is somehow beneath many of us. The stores look the same way. Nice displays, nice exteriors, etc. Just because something is used, doesn't mean it's second-rate. Also, I wanted to pass along a thought on how a business or organization can keep down the bad addresses on its mailing list. Many people may already know this, but here goes anyway - If you're sending bulk mail, print "ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED" under the return address on each piece. The first time or two, you'll get a bunch back, then it slows to a trickle and your mailing list stays updated. For a standard piece of one ounce or less, the post office charges $.50 or $.55 for each returned item. You get them back with the corrected address or not deliverable as addressed, and you can deal with recycling the undeliverable pieces and update your mailing list too. If you don't want to do it all the time, do it at least once a year. AOR has been using this method for several years, and it really minimizes the deadletter junk. Plus, we get address changes even when the addressee forgets to tell us. Hope someone finds this useful. E-mail: aor ( A T ) mindspring ( D O T ) com -------------------- >From Carol Tanzi, the "Goddess of Garbage," A.S.I.D. & Associates (interior design), Burlingame, California: It was interesting to see the 7/20/00 item about the Portland Goodwill. There was an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about that. I just completed a 580-square-foot showcase room at the main San Francisco Goodwill Store. It was quite a success. Everything was reused and recyclized by the Goddess of Garbage. People could not believe it. The living room, dining room and library showed how upscale a room could look. Pictures will appear on my website next month. There was a silent auction of everything in the room to raise money for Goodwill. An article with pictures will be published internationally in a magazine titled COLORS and nationally in Women's Day magazine. Most exciting! The mission of the Goddess of Garbage is to show a new approach to the way we can recycle and to teach people how to do it. It's fun and a stress reliever and hopefully shows people another way to save our environment and our natural resources. I am a pioneer in this field and with my credentials I hope to spread the word. Goodwill and I hope to work on another project soon. E-mail: catan [ AT ] earthlink [ DOT ] net Note: Carol's "Goddess of Garbage" website is at: http://www.goddessofgarbage.com/ ------------------- Excerpted from a message from Lynn Rubinstein, Northeast Recycling Council (NERC), Brattleboro, Vermont (forwarded by Stephen Long): NERC will soon release the results of its "Recycling Economic Information Study." This is an extremely comprehensive multi-year project that surveyed businesses in the recycling, reuse, and remanufacture sectors in the ten Northeast states. We have data on the number of enterprises, number of employees, annual payroll, gross receipts, and annual throughput. These numbers are for the Northeast as a whole and in addition, state-specific data for DE, MA, NY, NJ, PA, and VT. I'll post the press release on EPPNet (the Environmentally Preferable Purchasing listserv) in the next week or so. The full report as well as a summary document will be posted on the NERC website, probably in late August or very early September. Our website is at: http://www.nerc.org/ -------------------- Excerpted from a message from Yen Chin, City of Seattle, responding to the 7/26/00 posting from Blair Pollock, about how they did a mailing to churches in Orange County, North Carolina, to try to get the churches involved in recycling, but the mailing did not get much of a response: I think Blair encountered the challenge that comes out of a strong separation between the sacred and the secular. Here in the West the barrier between these falsely dichotomized concepts has dissolved some. Hence we see churches in California advocating Green electric power purchases from the pulpit (among other places). Here in Seattle we have organizations like Earth Ministry that foster such ideas as Franciscan spirituality that goes beyond advocating earth stewardship (which retains many vestiges of patriarchical domination) and promotes fraternal relationships between humans and the environment. And then there's the question of the nature of the appeal that was sent out. Man discovers his own wealth when God comes to ask gifts of him. -Rabindranath Tagore E-mail: Yen ( D O T ) Chin ( A T ) ci ( D O T ) seattle ( D O T ) wa ( D O T ) us -------------------- >From a 7/26/00 news release from the Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center (PPRC), Seattle, Washington (forwarded by Jennifer Auletta): The PPRC has posted an on-line resource guide that will help businesses and government agencies implement environmentally preferred, or "green" purchasing programs. The guide is at: http://www.pprc.org/pprc/pubs/topics/envpurch.html -------------------- Excerpted from a job posting (first seen on the Reuse Development Organization listserv): Recycle Ann Arbor is looking for an experienced Retail Manager to run its ReUse Center. The ReUse Center is a growing retail operation specializing in the resale of donated furniture, building materials and supplies, and household items. Candidates should have experience managing sales staff and inventory; knowledge of building materials and used furniture is preferred. Duties include: Oversee a sales staff of five; maintain a 20,000-square-foot sales warehouse; develop and maintain an operations plan for recruiting, accepting, and selling a diverse inventory of goods ranging from building materials to furniture, appliances, books and small electronics (Home Depot meets Best Buy). This is a salaried position with commission. Compensation is $34,000 to $38,000, dependent upon qualifications and experience, with a full benefit package. Interested candidates should submit resume and salary history via fax or mail to: ReUse Center Manager, Recycle Ann Arbor, 2420 S. Industrial Hwy., Ann Arbor, MI, 48104. The fax number is (734) 662-7749. If you have questions, contact Melinda Uerling, executive director, Recycle Ann Arbor, at 734-662-6288. - end -