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05 Apr 01 - New junk mail opt-out law; disposable car; pay-as-you-throw ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- From an article in the May, 2001, Consumer Reports, and the website for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, San Diego, CA: NEW LAW HELPS REDUCE JUNK MAIL - LOOK FOR OPT-OUT FORMS Under a new federal law, financial companies are required to send their customers a form that allows the customer to "opt out" from having the company share your financial information with other companies. By filling out this opt-out form and sending it in, consumers can reduce the unwanted mail they receive, and prevent their personal financial information from being exchanged by these companies. Under the new law, financial institutions - which include banks, credit card companies, insurance companies and brokerage houses - must send an opt-out request form to their customers by July 1, 2001. Some companies have already begun sending out these forms. They may be titled, "Privacy Notice" or "Privacy Policy." The American Bankers' Association has estimated that the average household will receive about 18 notices. For more information, see this Privacy Rights Clearinghouse fact sheet: http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs24-finpriv.htm ------------------- Link to a 4/4/01 article about a new disposable car, in the Onion, a humor newspaper in Madison, WI (forwarded by Marcia Rutan): http://www.theonion.com/onion3712/disposable_car.html ------------------- Excerpted from an announcement sent by Carl Hursh, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Harrisburg, PA: The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection is producing a two-hour videoconference on the "pay-as-you-throw" (PAYT) concept of volume-based garbage collection, next Tuesday, April 10, from 10 a.m. to noon, Eastern time. It will be simultaneously webcast through GreenWorks.tv. Viewers must have RealPlayer to see the videoconference on their computers. A free version of RealPlayer is available from the GreenWorks.tv site. The videoconference is also sponsored by the Professional Recyclers of Pennsylvania (PROP). It will feature three Pennsylvania municipalities who use the pay-as-you-throw system. All three use contracted haulers and pay for their services through the sale of special trash bags required for waste collection in their communities. The videoconference will also feature Lisa Skumatz of Skumatz Economic Research Associates, Seattle, WA, a national expert on PAYT programs. The downlink site locations in Pennsylvania and registration information are available from the PROP website at: http://www.proprecycles.org The free simultaneous webcast of the program will be available at: http://www.GreenWorks.tv E-mail: chursh ( AT ) state ( DOT ) pa ( DOT ) us - end -