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19 Nov 01 - workshop materials; EPA vision; zero waste; mercury; electronics ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- From Steve Long, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Boston, MA: WORKSHOP RESOURCES NEEDED Massachusetts DEP is seeking resources to help us run professional recycling/source reduction workshops. The resources could include, but are not limited to: Video tapes or slide presentations; guidance documents or workbooks; curriculum or syllabi. Workshop topics requested by municipalities include: transfer station planning; swap shop development; multilingual outreach strategies; multi-family recycling; business recycling development; drop-off/curbside assessment and evaluation; source reduction; difficult-to-manage materials (food, construction & demolition, bulky). We are also interested in any other workshops not mentioned above, including commodity-based workshops that help municipalities better understand quality assurance, contamination and end-uses. We do not anticipate having funds to hire consultants to run these workshops, so we need to use the resources ourselves with minimal adaptations. Our state recycling organization is in a transitional phase and unable to act as a vehicle for such courses. Thanks. E-mail: Stephen [ D O T ] Long [ A T ] state [ D O T ] ma [ D O T ] us Phone: (617) 292-5734 Mailing address: Steve Long, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, One Winter Street, Boston, MA, 02108 ------------------- Link to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) web page about upcoming public meetings in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco on a new EPA policy document for the future (forwarded by Gary Liss): http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/vision.htm This page includes a link to the full document, in Adobe Acrobat Personal Document Format. This "draft white paper" is called, "Beyond RCRA (the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) - Prospects for Waste & Materials Management in the Year 2020." Note from Gary Liss: We need to get out the troops to testify on this! Wouldn't it be great if we could get EPA to adopt Zero Waste nationally?! ------------------- Excerpted from a message from Gary Liss, Gary Liss & Associates, Loomis, CA, following up on the 11/5/01 posting about industry opposition to the California Integrated Waste Management Board's draft strategic plan: In a stunning victory for advocates of Zero Waste, the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) has adopted Zero Waste as one of its seven goals in the adoption of its Strategic Plan on Nov. 13, 2001. The draft Strategic Plan (November draft) posted on the CIWMB website (http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/agendas/mtgdocs/2001/11/00006552.doc) was adopted with only some minor word changes. Once those changes are incorporated, the final adopted Strategic Plan will be posted to the CIWMB website. Thanks to all those who wrote in support of Zero Waste! For more information, contact the CIWMB Public Affairs Office at (916) 341-6300. E-mail: gary [ A T ] garyliss [ D O T ] com ------------------- Excerpted from an article by Jim Motavalli in the 11/18/01 New York Times: GRASS-ROOTS EFFORT TO REMOVE MERCURY LIGHT SWITCHES Benna Ford, a dealership in Superior, Wisconsin, is doing its part to remove mercury from car light switches. In the last month, it has replaced seven switches. The mercury removal is part of a nationwide "Switch the Switch" effort by the Clean Car Campaign, a coalition of environmental groups. The coalition supplies free nonmercury switches. The replacement process takes about 15 minutes. Mercury, a highly toxic element, was declared a hazardous air pollutant by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1971. Most carmakers no longer use mercury switches for hood or trunk convenience lighting, although it is a component in some headlights and brake parts. Clean Car Campaign estimates that there are 150 tons of mercury in cars on the road or in junkyards, and that some or all of it could be released into the atmosphere when the cars are crushed or melted down. Switch the Switch has participants in 13 states, including eight dealerships and seven local and state fleet managers, but the ultimate aim is to persuade the Big Three automakers to take on the task. Gregory Dana, vice president for environmental affairs at the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, says that a voluntary mercury removal program by carmakers is unlikely because there is no credible evidence that the switches leak in service. But Tom Corbett, an environmental chemist with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, says he has personally removed more than 8,000 mercury switches from junked cars, and that 1 to 2 percent of them were corroded to the point of leaking. Still, Mr. Dana says that mercury switch removal should occur at the end of a car's life. --------------------- Link to the web page for the National Safety Council's fifth Electronic Products Recovery and Recycling (EPR2) Conference March 12-13, 2002, in Washington, DC: http://www.nsc.org/ehc/epr2/2002epr2.htm - end -