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23 Feb 01 - plant pots; pill bottles and film canisters; disposable floor mats; Unimog SUV ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- The first two postings are in response to the 2/21/01 posting seeking ideas on what a parks department could do with their two-and-a-half-inch and four-inch plastic plant pots, or ideas for low-cost, no-waste alternatives to bedding hundreds of plants. -------------------- From Vanessa Hinkle, Ohio Small Business Assistance Program, Columbus, OH: In response to Steve Fisher's request for solutions to his plant pot problem: It wasn't clear whether you are growing the plants from seed or buying them from a grower. If you're growing them yourself, it will be easier to make a switch to a biodegradable option. If you're buying them from some other place, you will have to work with them to find a solution. There are many biodegradable alternatives to plastic seed-starting pots. These also will save labor because the pots can be planted directly in the ground. I use the jiffy peat pellets and they work great. At http://www.gardeners.com you can see paper pot makers (make pots from newspaper), fiber starting trays, and a paper pot system. At http://www.burpee.com you can see jiffy peat pellets, kord fiber packs, and peat pots. E-mail: vanessa (DOT) hinkle (AT) epa (DOT) state (DOT) oh (DOT) us -------------------- From Carl Woestwin, Seattle Public Utilities, Seattle, WA: About eight years ago the Association for Women in Horticulture (AWH) proposed and was awarded a grant from Seattle Public Utilities to hold collection events for plant pots and plastic sheeting. I think they were all held at nurseries. All sizes of pots were accepted, but less popular sizes were discarded. The pots were first distributed among nurseries willing to clean and reuse them. Pots that were not claimed but were recyclable were taken down to, I believe, a Vancouver, Washington, plastics recycler. Sheeting that was clean enough went there also. It was a popular event and a lot of people brought in a lot of pots. It was also a huge amount of volunteer labor. AWH, which has a solid environmental focus, carried the events out another year after grant funding ended, but then people just burned out on the work of it. One difficult thing was the great variety of containers. If different sizes of plant containers were more standardized, it would have been considerably easier. After all the collecting and sorting, quite a lot of the containers had to be discarded. As Steve Fisher noted, smaller sizes are particularly unpopular. Some of them are made of very thin plastic that does not stand up well to reuse. E-mail: Carl ( D O T ) Woestwin ( A T ) ci ( D O T ) seattle ( D O T ) wa ( D O T ) us ------------------- From Jennifer Gregg, City of Auburn recycling program, Auburn, WA: Does anyone know where to recycle or who can reuse prescription bottles and film canisters? I have heard that animal shelters may use the prescription bottles for the animals, but so far I have not found anyone interested. If you have any ideas, please let me know. E-mail: Jgregg (AT) ci (DOT) auburn (DOT) wa (DOT) us Phone: (253) 931-3047 Note from Tom: If your reply deals only with recycling, please respond to Jennifer directly. If you have reuse ideas or information, we can run it on the Forum. -------------------- From Paul Dunn, City of Omaha Public Works Department, Environmental Quality Division, Omaha, NE: I saw this ad in the February, 2001, issue of Government Product News, complete with a color photo. Just what the world has been waiting for! "DISPOSABLE FLOOR MATS KEEP RESTROOMS FRESH Disposable, scented UriGard floor mats keep urine drips and splashes from staining restroom floors and grout. Eliminate need for labor-intensive mopping. Choose UriGard U for urinals and UriGard C for commodes. Spartan Chemical Co., Maumee, Ohio." Paul's e-mail: PDunn [ AT ] ci [ DOT ] omaha [ DOT ] ne [ DOT ] us -------------------- The next two postings are in response to the 2/21/01 news item about the Unimog, the new sport utility vehicle made by Freightliner (DaimlerChrysler), which will be 20 feet long and 9 feet 7 inches tall, and gets about 10 miles to the gallon of diesel fuel. -------------------- From Marcia Rutan, Snohomish County Solid Waste Management Division, Everett, WA: Sounds more like UniHog to me. E-mail: Marcia ( D O T ) Rutan ( A T ) co ( D O T ) snohomish ( D O T ) wa ( D O T ) us -------------------- From Marc Hill, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA: I heard a piece on National Public Radio recently that discussed the Unimog. A group called Conservation International (Washington, DC) actually had a prototype of this vehicle when they did some work in Chile and Argentina. The woman who was commenting on behalf of the organization didn't go as far as to "endorse" the Unimog, but she did give a rather glowing report of its performance. I find it troubling that an organization that has a mission devoted to conservation would discuss a vehicle like this on the air. Perhaps they needed a rugged vehicle for their particular excursion (or perhaps it was donated by Freightliner - they didn't talk about that), but I think it is poor to have a mixed message like this being broadcast on a national radio program. There was no discussion about its impact on the environment, much less its penchant for gas guzzling. The comment made that I found most disconcerting was when she said, "You don't have to worry about other cars, they have to worry about you." So those of us who try to conserve and drive fuel-efficient smaller cars (or bicycles, etc.) now have to make way for a gigantic waste machine that will crowd out everything under the sun. Shame on Freightliner and DaimlerChrysler for even considering developing this type of vehicle for public consumption. What's next, submersible tank-like vehicles for the family on the go? And that's my two cents! E-mail: marc [ DOT ] hill [ AT ] metrokc [ DOT ] gov - end -