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21 Mar 01 - "Be Smart"; events; incentives; ReDO; new appliance; treated lumber; "Got Junk?" ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- Link to the website for "Be Smart," a comprehensive waste prevention campaign sponsored by the BeSmart Waste Reduction Coalition in Wisconsin: http://www.besmart.org This site has many levels of useful information. Be sure to scroll down and click on the colored logos at the bottom, including "Household," "Business" and "Education." Partners in the BeSmart Waste Reduction Coalition include more than 50 businesses, schools, non-profits and government agencies in Wisconsin. -------------------- Link to "The Event Planner's Guide to Waste Reduction," also from the BeSmart Waste Reduction Coalition in Wisconsin: http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/besmart//festival/festival_frame.html ------------------- The next two postings are in response to recent postings about ideas for incentives to give consumers, as part of a waste reduction campaign. -------------------- From Sandy Grant, City of Santa Monica Task Force on the Environment, Santa Monica, CA: Regarding the posting about creative ways to get people's attention in promoting waste reduction: There are case studies at http://www.cbsm.com - the web site for Doug McKenzie-Mohr's Community-Based Social Marketing. Doug is a co-author of Fostering Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community-Based Marketing (New Society Publishers, 1999). His site has a collection of case studies that describe the use of the tools of community-based social marketing, which include ways to get people's attention. E-mail: sgrant51 ( AT ) earthlink ( DOT ) net -------------------- From Susan Salterberg, Van Buren County Solid Waste Commission, Keosauqua, IA, and the Center for Energy and Environmental Education, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA: In my county we have offered four $50 savings bonds (cost is $25/bond) as prizes. We tell them that to be eligible to win, they must take a pledge to reduce waste in one of four ways (and we list the four ways). They must complete the form, send it to us, or drop it by a county office to be eligible to win. Of all the entries, we draw four winners. Works well. People are motivated by money! E-mail: ssalter (AT) netins (DOT) net -------------------- Excerpted from a message from Julie Rhodes, Reuse Development Organization (ReDO), Indianapolis, IN, responding to a previous message on the "Jobs Through Recycling" listserv (forwarded by Erv Sandlin): (Note from Tom - I thought this was a nice summary of what ReDO does, and it includes some useful information on the number of reuse centers in the U.S.) The Reuse Development Organization, Inc. (ReDO) is a non-profit that is solely dedicated to helping reuse programs start up and operate. We offer a lot of resources along those lines, including publications and other technical assistance. We have a database of 6,000 reuse centers and organizations across the country, which we eventually hope to put on-line. In the U.S., there are probably 100 building materials reuse centers (some non-profit, some for-profit); about 52 materials-for-schools/education/arts programs; and about 40 furniture banks. ReDO publishes a quarterly newsletter that provides information on news, trends and in-depth reporting on reuse organizations - how they started up, how they operate, how they fund themselves, and so on. We also have an on-line forum for those interested in reuse efforts. The goal of ReDO is to help others avoid reinventing the wheel - to be a clearinghouse for all reuse information, so that every time someone wants to start a reuse center, the story doesn't have to be told over and over again. For information on joining ReDO, or if you have questions, contact: Julie Rhodes, executive director, Reuse Development Organization (ReDO), P.O. Box 441363, Indianapolis, IN, 46244 Phone: 317/631-5395 E-mail: info [AT] redo [DOT] org Website: http://www.redo.org/ -------------------- Excerpt from an article by Julian Barnes in the 3/16/01 New York Times: Sometime this fall, in an undisclosed test market, a new type of appliance will be introduced: the Personal Valet, a cabinet-size clothes refresher made by Whirlpool that removes odors and wrinkles using a chemical formula developed by Procter & Gamble. The Valet is the first new category of home appliance in 30 years, the companies said. The Valet will not remove stains, but it will take out wrinkles and deodorize clothes in 15 to 30 minutes. Whirlpool says only 20 to 30 percent of garments brought to cleaners have stains, and most clothes just need to be pressed or refreshed. Consumers who have tested the product say they reduced their dry cleaning bill and also used the Valet on everything from jeans to T-shirts to bedding. The idea for the Valet came in 1996, when a study by Whirlpool showed that ironing was the second-most-hated household task (after window cleaning). According to Whirlpool, Americans spend an average of $10 a month on dry cleaning, but 20 percent of Americans account for 80 percent of that spending. Whirlpool executives say they have not decided what to charge for the appliance. But the Valet is intended to be a high-margin machine that costs more than the $400 consumers might pay for a washer or dryer. Note: The article does not say what the Personal Valet will be made of. From a photo, it looks like it could be metal, plastic or both. -------------------- Link to letters to the editor in the 3/18/01 St. Petersburg (FL) Times, responding to articles by Julie Hauserman in that paper on 3/11/01, on the dangers of arsenic-treated lumber: http://www.sptimes.com/News/031801/Perspective/Get_the_full_story_on.shtml The original articles (which were linked to in the 3/16/01 Forum), and related articles, are at: http://www.sptimes.com/News/webspecials/arsenic/ -------------------- Link to a 3/9/01 article on the Yahoo News Service about "1-800-Got-Junk?", a trash-hauling company: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/sddt/20010309/lo/franchise_aims_for_top_of_heap_1.html According to this article, the San Diego, CA, franchise of this company is able to keep some of the stuff out of the landfill. The drivers do this by trying to keep good furniture and other usable items on top of their loads, and then dropping off those items at charities. - end -