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28 Jun 01 - GE paper use; phone books; hospitals; UBMA conference; junk mail; electronics design ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- From Jerry Powell, Resource Recycling magazine, Portland, OR: According to Business Week, General Electric is removing 30,000 copiers and fax machines from the desks of individual employees and requiring workers to use shared machines. Also, the firm is urging employees to "live and breathe the Net culture." As a result, paper consumption has fallen 28 percent this year. E-mail: RESRECYCLE (A T) aol (D O T) com -------------------- Excerpted from a message from Nancy Andrews, St. Paul, MN: I recently received a McLeod USA phone book on my front step. The problem is, I already have a perfectly fine phone book. I guess that with telecommunication deregulation, anyone can publish a phone book. This is fine, but I hate to waste all the paper that goes into a phone book, even if I do recycle it. So, I called McLeod and they agreed to pick it up and not send me another one. For those who receive phone books from McLeod (their distribution area is apparently mainly in the Midwest), their number is 888-400-5914. If enough people protest the mass distribution of extra phone books, maybe eventually this bit of paper waste will end. E-mail: andrews_nancy [ AT ] hotmail [ DOT ] com -------------------- From Stephanie Davis, Waste Reduction Remedies, Berkeley, CA: Waste News is doing an on-line poll: "Should hospitals make waste reduction a priority?" Voice your opinion at: http://www.wastenews.com/qanda/qanda.html What makes healthcare different from other industries in regard to waste reduction is that unless it is regulated, it probably will not happen. That's the short answer. There are many case studies that point to the cost-effectiveness and environmental health and safety of waste reduction in healthcare settings, but they are mostly because of a single person's perseverance around a lot of other unrelated required work. When was the last time you saw a healthcare waste manager want-ad? Please voice your opinion as to the importance of having waste management - meaning waste reduction, reuse, recycling and procurement/lifecycle/contract review - as part of the healthcare industry culture and facility infrastructure - especially those of you who have great case studies to share. E-mail: ScD18 [AT] WasteReductionRemedies [DOT] com -------------------- Excerpted from an announcement sent by Bryce Jacobson, Metro Regional Environmental Management, Portland, OR: The fourth annual Used Building Materials Association (UBMA) conference, "Harvesting the Future," will be held Sept. 5-8, 2001, at the Portland Hilton in Portland, OR. The UBMA is a non-profit, membership-based organization that represents companies and organizations involved in the acquisition and/or redistribution of used building materials. Who should attend the UBMA conference? Building material salvagers; demolition professionals; design students; architects; deconstruction professionals; designers; solid waste planners; general contractors; remodelers; government and municipal recycling coordinators. For more information on the conference and the UBMA, see their website at http://www.ubma.org or contact them at: admin ( A T ) ubma ( D O T ) org -------------------- Link to a 6/27/01 column by Don Oldenburg in the Washington Post about the U.S. federal law that requires financial companies to send their customers an "opt-out" form by July 1, 2001 (sending in this form can reduce unwanted mail): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49337-2001Jun26.html ------------------- Link to "The Greening of Technology," a 5/1/01 article by Russ Arensman in Electronic Business Online (first seen in the WasteCap Wisconsin e-mail bulletin): http://www.e-insite.net/eb-mag/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA72724&pu - end -