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17 Jan 01 - New York City plan; polystyrene; CCA lumber; Bush administration ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive --------------------- Excerpted from message from Nicole Egger, New York WasteMatch program, New York City, in response to the 1/10/01 request for information on local government source reduction programs: New York City just passed a new Solid Waste Management Plan put forth by the Department of Sanitation. This plan was amended at the last minute to include waste prevention initiatives, and one of those includes funding of a City Environmental Purchasing Unit, which will work to increase the City's purchases of recycled-content and waste-reducing products. E-mail: ncegger (A T) itac (D O T) org Note from Tom: The text of the latest version of the plan does not appear to be on the city's website yet, but it probably will be eventually. The New York City website is at: http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us The 12/19/00 press release from New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani announcing his signing of the bill (which authorizes the submission of the plan to the state Department of Environmental Conservation) is at: http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/om/html/2000b/pr477-00.html ---------------------- From Ann Schneider, Ann Schneider & Associates, Mountain View, CA, responding to the recent postings on polystyrene: FreeFlow Packaging International still accepts polystyrene for recycling and I believe they will take food-contaminated polystyrene. Their main office is in Redwood City, California (San Francisco Bay area). My contact with them is Virginia Lyle and her e-mail is: Virginia (D O T) Lyle (A T) fpintl (D O T) com But I agree, this is the time to go back to reusable food trays. And it is a good example of where the "recyclability of the single-use polystyrene trays" was used as an argument for schools to switch to those trays. If I remember correctly this was back in the late 80's and early 90's. Here in California, it was also linked to water use for rewashing (and we were in the middle of a six-year drought at the time). But several school districts did switch back to reusable trays - San Jose Unified School District was one (I think). E-mail: SchneiderAnn [ AT ] juno [ DOT ] com ------------------------- From Tom Watson, National Waste Prevention Coalition and King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA: I was recently asked about CCA-treated lumber and looked into it a little bit. CCA lumber is lumber treated with Chromated Copper Arsenate, a pesticide and preservative. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), wood treated with CCA lasts at least five times longer than untreated wood. CCA became popular in the 1960s, replacing other wood preservatives such as creosote that were deemed less friendly to the environment. CCA lumber is everywhere now. But, in recent years, environmentalists and others have expressed increasing concerns about the risks to human health from CCA-treated lumber. The use and disposal of CCA lumber certainly have major implications for waste reduction and reuse. For those interested in this subject, here are three websites with more information: U.S. EPA Office of Pesticide Programs - Questions and answers on CCA lumber: http://www.epa.gov/opp00001/citizens/1file.htm Long, detailed article by Ron Matus in the 4/1/00 Gainesville (FL) Sun about concerns over the use of CCA lumber: http://www.gainesvillesun.com/news/articles/04-01-00a.shtml CCA lumber technical research website, sponsored by the Florida Center for Solid and Hazardous Waste Management: http://www.ccaresearch.org ------------------------ Excerpted from a message from Sara Pipher, the Center for a New American Dream, Takoma Park, MD (forwarded by Marcia Rutan): ENVIRONMENTAL OUTLOOK UNDER THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION The Center for a New American Dream will host a live on-line chat with author and former New York Times environmental writer Phil Shabecoff. Just log on to www.newdream.org/chat/index.html on Thursday, January 18th, at 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Mr. Shabecoff will field your questions and comments about what environmentalists can expect from the Bush administration. If you'd like to submit a question in advance, please e-mail: sara ( AT ) newdream ( DOT ) org Phil Shabecoff is the author of Earth Rising: American Environmentalism in the 21st Century (Island Press, 2001). For 32 years, he worked as a reporter for the New York Times, and was founder and publisher of Greenwire, the environmental news daily. - end -