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14 Feb 01 - Oregon grants; paper reduction; incineration; cleaner production; global warming; construction ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive --------------------- From David Allaway, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Solid Waste Policy and Program Development, Portland, OR: Several pieces of waste prevention (and reuse) related news from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ): The first is that Oregon DEQ has just announced our Year 2001 solid waste grant awards. This year, for the first time, the focus area of the grants was waste prevention and reuse. This means that waste prevention and reuse projects received additional points in the scoring process. Of the 19 solid waste grants awarded (out of 33 applications), 12 have a significant prevention/reuse element. These include: - Jackson County: $20,000 to expand Ashland's Green Business Program countywide. This outreach program provides technical assistance and promotional incentives for businesses interested in increasing resource efficiency and reducing environmental impacts. - Benton County: $44,309 to help fund a waste prevention and reduction outreach program that links the Corvallis Environmental Center with chambers of commerce and their members in Albany, Corvallis, McMinnville and Newberg. - Lane County: $32,000 to establish a countywide waste prevention awareness campaign. - Jackson County: $29,168 for a countywide "Food Rescue-Food on the Move!" program that will help recover edible food from restaurants and grocery stores and alleviate hunger locally. - The City of Eugene: $24,110 to expand a successful program that diverts edible food from grocery stores, produce wholesalers, restaurants and seasonal markets to a Eugene-based non-profit food bank. - The City of Ontario: $22,924 for an onion recovery program in partnership with Oregon Food Bank and the Snake River Correctional Institution. The program calls for the collection, packaging and distribution of onions from five packers in Ontario for distribution to the hungry. - Marion County: $25,203 to help establish a facility to refurbish computers for resale and donation to low-income families throughout Marion County. - The City of Portland: $41,070 to assist the Portland non-profit organization Free Geek Inc., which specializes in the repairing of old computers using volunteer help. - The City of Portland: $30,000 to expand the deconstruction services program of The Rebuilding Center of Our United Villages, a Portland-based non-profit organization that specializes in recycling used building and remodeling materials. The grant will enable the Rebuilding Center to purchase material-handling equipment necessary to carry out deconstruction services work. - The City of Portland: $31,000 to provide start-up funds for a value-added reuse venture in which old materials from The Rebuilding Center's deconstruction services will be converted into furniture and other useful products. - The City of Milwaukie: $4,400 to establish a Schoolhouse Office Supply Internet Waste Exchange Program on the North Clackamas County Chamber of Commerce's website for exchange of school supplies donated by Clackamas County businesses to area schools. - The City of La Grande: $15,111 to help fund a citywide yard waste management program, including distribution of backyard composting bins. For more information about any of these grant projects, please feel free to contact Judy Henderson, DEQ's Solid Waste Grants Manager at: Henderson [ D O T ] judith [ D O T ] a [ A T ] deq [ D O T ] state [ D O T ] or [ D O T ] us Additional news is that DEQ has two (relatively) new waste prevention staff. Olivia Jonason, who is currently DEQ's Librarian, starts March 15 as a waste prevention specialist. And in September of last year I began transitioning into a similar position from my previous job at the consulting firm of Harding ESE (formerly Harding Lawson Associates). DEQ's solid waste program is also finishing up a strategic planning process that is resulting in an increased emphasis on waste prevention. We expect to announce several new waste prevention (and reuse) initiatives in the next six months or so. Watch this space for more details! E-mail: ALLAWAY (DOT) David (AT) deq (DOT) state (DOT) or (DOT) us --------------------- Also from David Allaway: In the event that you ever work on waste prevention with medical research firms that conduct clinical trials, the following article about the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's move towards paperless data management, and a Seattle-area company's experience with it, might be of interest to you: http://www.office.com/global/1,2724,142-15258,FF.html --------------------- Excerpted from a message from Ann Leonard, Essential Action, Washington, DC (forwarded by Gary Liss) GAIA - which stands for both the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives and the Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance - is an expanding international alliance of individuals, non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations, academics and others working to end the incineration of all forms of waste and to promote sustainable waste prevention and discard management practices. GAIA is the culmination of a series of gatherings about incineration and alternatives held around the world in recent years. The Global Alliance was initially conceived by participants from Africa, Asia, North and South America and the Middle East at an International Clean Production Training at the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production in June, 2000. Two months later, a number of the Lowell participants joined a larger group of civil society representatives in Bangkok to launch Waste Not Asia, a platform linking incineration to broader issues of material policy and citizen participation in governance. In December, 2000, over 75 individuals from 23 countries met in South Africa to develop GAIA's initial structure and goals. GAIA members work both through regional networks and through issue workgroups which provide the opportunity to transcend national and regional borders to collaborate with others around the world. The initial three GAIA workgroups are focused on specific waste streams: Municipal Discards/Zero Waste, Hazardous Waste, and Medical Waste (GAIA's medical waste work is implemented in conjunction with Health Care Without Harm). Each workgroup undertakes projects to prevent incineration and to promote alternatives. In addition, GAIA has identified its first global campaign goal: To stop the World Bank from funding incinerators around the world and to support local communities targeted by the Bank for incineration to instead promote alternatives. GAIA is co-coordinated by a Northern and Southern coordinator and an international Steering Committee. To join any workgroup, or for more information, please email: gaia [ A T ] essential [ D O T ] org You can also contact GAIA at these addresses (your letter does not need to be in English): GAIA, c/o Essential Action, PO Box 19405, Washington, DC 20036 USA. Fax: (202) 234-5176 GAIA c/o Toxics Link, H-2 Jungpura Extension, New Delhi-110014, India. Fax: 91-11-463-2727 --------------------- Link to the website for the 7th European Roundtable on Cleaner Production, to be held in Lund, Sweden, May 2-4, 2001 (forwarded by Bahar Keskin): http://www.lu.se/IIIEE/ercp/ --------------------- Excerpted from Jeff Tumarkin's U.S. Environmental Protection Agency WasteWise program bulletin: - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "Inside the Greenhouse" website is an online publication for state and local governments on global warming, featuring articles on interesting and innovative global warming initiatives. The site also includes a description of online tools to assist states in developing greenhouse gas inventories, a listing of upcoming conferences, and a record of past issues. The website is at: http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/greenhouse/index.html - The Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center in Seattle has compiled a comprehensive list of links to websites providing sustainable/green construction information. The resources include deconstruction and recycling information, green construction rating systems, construction consultants, and case studies by building type. The Green Construction Resource Center is located at: http://www.pprc.org/pprc/pubs/topics/greencon/toc.html - end -