WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ARCHIVE   BACK TO ARCHIVE INDEX

07 Aug 00 - Oregon goals; auto repair; Stuff Exchange; suitcases; college castoffs; Hummers ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- Excerpted from an 8/1/00 e-mail from Langdon Marsh, director of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), to department staff, with specific objectives for complying with the Executive Order on Sustainability issued in May by Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber (forwarded by Tim Honadel): The executive order requires agencies to focus on sustainability issues created by their internal operations. The time frame for meaningful and measurable change is within one generation. A very ambitious goal! Over the next 2 years, we will be doing our part by demonstrating meaningful and measurable successes in reducing the ecological impact of our operational footprint. This effort is called "DEQ InnerGreen" and is led by Tim Honadel through the Pollution Prevention office. Through InnerGreen, I hope to reduce our ecological footprint by 50 percent before 2002. Another very ambitious goal! I have identified the objectives listed below as DEQ's best opportunities for successfully addressing some of DEQ's biggest environmental impacts. >From these starting points DEQ will be able to share important successes with other state agencies, create the demonstration of a successful resource efficiency project, and provide examples to the public of how we are creating successes aligned with the DEQ's environmental priorities. The InnerGreen Objectives are: - WATER TOXICS. Before 2002, reduce the purchase of office paper processed with elemental chlorine technology by 50 percent. - FOREST HABITAT. Before 2002, reduce the purchasing of office paper containing virgin wood pulp from non-sustainably managed forests by 50 percent. - OFFICE RESOURCE EFFICIENCY. Before 2002, direct 50 percent of office furniture and supplies purchases to "sustainable" selections. - AIR TOXICS. Before 2002, reduce mercury releases from DEQ light bulbs by 50 percent. - GASOLINE SAVINGS. Before 2002, reduce single-occupancy-vehicle business commutes by 50 percent. - CLIMATE CHANGE. Before 2002, mitigate 50 percent of the carbon dioxide released during the annual production of electricity for DEQ offices. The primary methods for addressing these issues will be by reducing the consumption of products and choosing "greener" products. In addition to these objectives, Tim will be working with DEQ headquarters and each region to identify area specific opportunities, e.g., alternative transportation support for headquarters and sustainability lease agreement language for Western Region. I think these objectives represent great opportunities for DEQ to demonstrate environmental leadership, change the way we spend money on resources and supplies, and collaborate with our state agency partners. Tim Honadel's e-mail: HONADEL ( D O T ) Tim ( A T ) deq ( D O T ) state ( D O T ) or ( D O T ) us ---------------------- Link to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9, website on Pollution Prevention for Auto Repair and Fleet Maintenance (forwarded by Kinley Deller from a pollution prevention listserv): http://www.epa.gov/region09/cross_pr/p2/autofleet/ ---------------------- First seen in the July 2000 Environmental News, published by Colorado Hospitals for A Healthy Environment, Englewood, Colorado: The Stuff Exchange is a new program in Denver that lists people's free reusable items in a monthly column in the Denver Rocky Mountain News, and on a website. The column is the main focus of the program; apparently the website just lists items that get called in between publication days and need to be moved quickly. Here are the Internet addresses for the most recent Rocky Mountain News column, and the website: http://www.insidedenver.com/news/0803stuf9.shtml (scroll down) http://thestuffexchange.org/ (for background on this program, scroll down and click on "Executive director Sally Kurtzman would like to say a few words") ---------------------- Link to the website for "Suitcases for Kids," a national program started in 1996 by 11-year-old Aubyn Burnside in North Carolina to collect suitcases to give to foster children, after Aubyn heard that the average child in foster care moves three to four times, and that they traditionally carry their personal belongings from home to home in black garbage bags (this program was mentioned in the Rocky Mountain News article on the Stuff Exchange, cited above): http://www.suitcasesforkids.org The website provides information on how people can start this type of program in their community. --------------------- Excerpted from an article by Julie Flaherty in the education section of the 8/6/00 New York Times: Lisa Heller, who this fall will be a teacher at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, has started Dump & Run Inc., a nonprofit service to collect college students' castoff items in the spring and sell them to incoming students in the fall (she calls these events Recycle Sales), with the proceeds going to charity. She is currently running the program at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, where she collected items last spring. She is storing the items in her barn and will sell them to incoming students on Labor Day weekend. Heller got the idea when she was teaching at the University of Richmond. Last year, this program raised $2,700 for charity there, and cut the university's post-student-evacuation garbage pickups in half. Examples of the items sold and the prices they charged include: Half-full bottles of laundry detergent for $1; working hair dryers for $5; and mini-refrigerators for $25 to $50. Heller said her goal is to have 10 colleges doing Dump & Run collection programs and sales by next spring. -------------------- Excerpted from an article by Keith Bradsher on the front page of the 8/6/00 New York Times: The Hummer, a type of super-Jeep that was originally a military transport vehicle called the Humvee, is now being manufactured and marketed by General Motors. GM is trying to appeal to customers looking for larger and more aggressive-looking sports utility vehicles. Although GM plans to introduce at least two smaller models of the Hummer, its current Hummer is taller, much wider and a full ton heavier than even GM's largest sport utility vehicle, the Suburban. The Hummer, which seats only four, weighs as much as three small cars. Retailing at $93,000, the Hummer gets gas mileage of 13 miles per gallon in the city and 15 on the highway. Hummers emit far more air pollutants than cars. Current federal rules allow large sport utility vehicles to emit 5.5 times the smog-causing nitrogen oxides that cars do. While Ford has improved its sport utilities and pickups so they pollute no more than cars, GM does not plan to reduce air pollution from its Hummers and its other large sport utility vehicles until required to do so by federal regulations in 2004. - end -