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12 Oct 01 - hierarchy; energy; worms; Buy Nothing Day; consumption; Bank of America; tips ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- From Dan Knapp, Urban Ore, Berkeley, CA, responding to the 10/5/01 posting from Donald Van Dyke, suggesting a new hierarchy for solid waste management: (Note - Donald's proposed hierarchy was: 1. Reduce; 2. Buy used/remanufactured/recycled; 3. Reuse onsite; 4. Reuse offsite; 5. Remanufacture; 6. Recycle onsite; 7. Recycle offsite; 8. Recover energy; 9. Dispose as little as possible) I suggest amending Mr. Van Dyke's hierarchy as follows: 8. Recover nutrients 9. Bury or burn as little as possible #8 brings composting and anaerobic fermentation into the hierarchy. Otherwise it is either absent or subsumed under "recycling". Since composting is capable of handling well over 50 percent of the discard supply (putrescibles, plant debris, spoiled and food paper, soils, big chunks of the wood fraction, and more), it should have a clearer slot in the hierarchy. #9 simply describes what is actually happening when things are wasted rather than recovered as useful materials and feedstocks. Besides, the word disposal includes reuse, recycling, and composting. Ask any accountant. Using disposal (or dispose) to refer exclusively to wasting is contrary to established usage by mainstream America. Thanks for the opportunity to comment. E-mail: UrbanOr [ AT ] aol [ DOT ] com -------------------- From David Flora, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7, Solid Waste Program, Kansas City, KS: Here is the website link to an energy white paper developed by EPA: http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/publications/waste/energy.pdf It is in Adobe Acrobat Personal Document Format. This paper summarizes the energy impacts of waste management for common material types, utilizing the life cycle analysis data from our greenhouse gas and municipal solid waste management report. The paper provides a table of energy factors for different waste management methods and a methodology for calculating the energy impacts of different waste management practices. E-mail: Flora (D O T) David (A T) epamail (D O T) epa (D O T) gov -------------------- Excerpted from a message from Larry Warnberg, oyster farmer, Nahcotta, WA: Thursday was a big day for waste reduction in Ocean Park, WA (a small town on the Washington coast). I pedaled my bike with two buckets of worms to the elementary school to inoculate seven worm bins in classrooms (kindergarten through third grade), the result of a grant obtained through our Pacific County Solid Waste Advisory Committee, on which I volunteer. It will be the first phase of vermicomposting in the schools here on the Long Beach Peninsula, a pilot project that I hope will spread to the other schools. The janitor and a few teachers have raised objections about the extra work involved with sorting food scraps from the waste stream to feed worms. I have reassured them that I will be attentive to the process, available to help when necessary. It seems that the biggest obstacle to reducing waste is psychological: "It's not my job, why should I take time to save Humanity from suffocating in its own waste?" Owning the problem of wasteful practices does not come easy when leaders encourage more consumption to overcome economic recession. E-mail: warnberg [AT] pacifier [DOT] com --------------------- Excerpted from an item in the Fall 2001 newsletter for RE Sources, a non-profit environmental education organization based in Bellingham, WA: Buy Nothing Day is an international event held each year on the day after what we in the United States celebrate as Thanksgiving. This year it will be on Friday, Nov. 23. The intent is to turn America's traditional busiest shopping day into a day where, instead, people consider the impacts of "shop-till-you-drop" consumerism and choose to "Buy Nothing." The used building materials stores that RE Sources operates in Bellingham and Seattle (the RE Store) will be closed this year, as always, on Buy Nothing Day. RE Sources encourages our supporters to spend time with friends and family on Nov. 23 and to enjoy the bounty of our natural environment. -------------------- Link to an opinion piece by Jackie Alan Giuliano called "Spend, Spend, Spend - Patriotism or Disconnection?" on the Environment News Service website (forwarded by Marcia Rutan): http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-05g.html -------------------- Link to Michelle Singletary's personal finance column in the 10/4/01 Washington Post, about her family's efforts last year to reduce Christmas spending, because they had found themselves "getting stressed out over spending so much for stuff nobody really needed": http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2729-2001Oct3.html -------------------- Excerpted from the Bank of America website (related information was first seen on the GreenBiz.com website): The Bank of America's Environmental Progress Report for 2000 includes this information on their reuse programs: Bank of America is an advocate for the reuse and refurbishment of existing furniture and equipment. This policy has saved millions of dollars in new capital purchases for the bank and lessens the amount of additional raw materials and energy required in making new furniture and equipment. BANK OF AMERICA FURNITURE REUSE STATISTICS - Reconditioned and reissued 64,434 pieces of surplus furniture, saving natural resources and also realizing a significant cost avoidance of $10,197,165. - Partnered with vendors, selling 54,045 pieces of used furniture for a total of $455,382. - Donated 11,279 pieces of furniture the bank no longer needed to schools, government agencies and nonprofit organizations. BANK OF AMERICA EQUIPMENT REUSE STATISTICS - Reconditioned and reissued 23,646 pieces of equipment, realizing a cost avoidance of $3,373,685. - Sold 16,671 pieces of equipment from our warehouses for a total of $67,999; also processed 1,296 sales directly from various bank sites, with multiple pieces each for a total of $283,770. - Donated 25,315 pieces of obsolete equipment. - Recovered and donated, through the bank's Livermore (CA) Operations site, approximately 86 tons of used desktop office supplies; donations were primarily to a nonprofit organization. For more from the Bank of America's 2000 Environmental Progress Report regarding their reuse, reduction and recycling programs and results, see this web page: http://www.bankofamerica.com/environment/2000epr/section7.html This website has additional information on the company's environmental programs: http://www.bankofamerica.com/environment Bank of America, which has its headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, has more than 4,300 banking centers in the U.S., offices in 38 countries, and about 144,000 employees. -------------------- From Gail Baasch, City of Richland, environmental education program, Richland, WA: I'm looking for some GREAT Christmas energy-saving tip ideas. Does anyone know of any good websites? Of course, I don't want, "Don't turn on your Christmas lights," but I would like a balance of turning them on, but not overdoing it. This is in regards to some paid advertisements and promotions we plan on doing. Thanks for your consideration! E-mail: GBaasch (AT) CI (DOT) RICHLAND (DOT) WA (DOT) US Note from Tom: If your reply deals solely with energy conservation tips, reply directly to Gail. If you know of a good website that also includes Christmas waste prevention tips, we can run it on the Forum. - end -