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26 Dec 01 - diapers; e-forms; privacy; purchasing; refurbishing ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- Letter to the editor from Anne Wile-Lasker, Marina del Rey, CA, in the 12/24/01 New Yorker magazine: (This letter is in response to an 11/26/01 New Yorker article about disposable diapers.) Malcolm Gladwell's article on the new technology of disposable diapers, which poses them as a sort of modern miracle product, ignores another side of the debate. Each year, we Americans dump eighteen billion disposables in landfills, where they enjoy an unbiodegraded stay of up to five hundred years. We consume a quarter of a million trees and 3.4 billion gallons of oil annually to make disposables. As far as comfort is concerned, rates of diaper rash have actually gone up in the decades since they were introduced, and other questions have been raised about their effects on children's health. Gladwell laments the fact that the two men who perfected the disposable diaper were never celebrated. The real shame is that we as a nation do not take responsibility for our egregious consumption of the world's resources. ------------------- Excerpted from an article by Tom Byerly in the December, 2001, online version of Government Technology magazine: ELECTRONIC FORMS CHANGING THE WAY GOVERNMENTS DO BUSINESS A few years ago a bumper sticker appeared that went something like this: "Save trees - trim government." Paperwork has long been the bane of civil service. Thankfully, recent years have seen an explosion of Web-based front-end applications aimed at making the public's contact with government agencies as painless as possible. Unfortunately, in many cases, information collected electronically up front was still being processed using paper-intensive procedures. Back-end solutions were lagging behind. Recent advances in integration and development are allowing agencies to create, deploy and process electronic forms, or e-forms, across an enterprise network, taking them a step closer to a paperless environment. Yet, despite these strides, paper forms still clutter many government offices. The Gartner Group reports that the average American worker still spends 2.5 hours per week filing, moving and fetching paper. Perhaps more surprising is that less than 1 percent of the paper documents kept in this country are captured electronically. "Paper-pushing," it seems, is a hard habit to break. "We get tripped up over our own language because we keep talking about a 'paper trail,' but we need to start thinking in terms of a 'digi-trail' because there are transactions for which paper simply isn't necessary," said Paul Taylor, deputy director of the Washington state Information Services Division. By conservative industry estimates, about 33 percent of the 30 billion original documents used annually in the United States are forms. The use of cost-cutting electronic forms has grown in recent years, particularly in government enterprises. However, in many cases, convoluted methods for moving e-forms through a system can negate their benefits and drive users back to old paper processes. Making a system efficient and user-friendly from end to end is critical. That need has spawned some new approaches to e-forms deployment. One is an e-forms platform that allows users to organize many forms in a single Web-based point of access. Form designers can store their creations and users can fill out, sign and send the forms via standard Web browsers. The platform allows form designers to maintain an online inventory of forms, which can be updated instantly, and supports the use of intelligent e-forms that can perform database queries, calculations and automatic formatting. Officials in Cabarrus County, N.C., have successfully implemented a system to create e-forms to replace paper travel vouchers, accident reports, purchase requests and personnel evaluations. The Kansas Department of Transportation is employing e-forms to handle a host of administrative functions ranging from processing travel payment vouchers to tracking print shop requisitions. From a Web-based form warehouse, employees can select, fill out and file forms. Despite the availability of technology and numerous successful case studies, the migration to paperless processes has been met with some resistance. History has shown that quantum leaps in technology have typically been followed by periods of social adjustment, as users slowly learn to accept the new technology and integrate it into their culture. Similarly, government officials have had to cope with the cultural acceptance of new technology applications, not only by constituents but also by staff, many of whom cut their teeth in government service on decades-old paper processes. Washington state, an acknowledged pioneer in digital government, realized early on that effective implementation would require fundamental cultural changes behind cubicle walls. To that end, the state put line managers and IT (information technology) supervisors from two dozen state agencies through its Digital Government Applications Academy, where staff worked together and with private-sector experts to define the state's approach to advanced electronic forms. Case studies were developed which ultimately became a template for other agencies to follow. However, obstacles remain. "An unfortunate place you can find yourself in is to have a thoroughly electronic process end to end and then have to print out the product for some statutory reason," said Washington state's Taylor. "We have legislation and agency rules that represent the best thinking at the time they were created, but they were created at a time when paper was the dominant way of doing things. That needs to change." Despite the inertia of government, most government officials believe the need for paperless processes, coupled with continued advances in technology, will ultimately break down any remaining legislative barriers. "Five years from now there will be an expectation that government lose the paper and over time there may have to be legislative change," noted Taylor. "The public's business can be done in a way that has integrity without killing forests worth of paper." The full text of this article is at: http://www.govtech.net/magazine/story.phtml?id=3030000000003962.0 -------------------- Link to ConsumerPrivacyGuide.org, a new website sponsored by the Center for Democracy & Technology and other organizations (first seen in the New York Times): http://www.consumerprivacyguide.org This on-line guide helps people guard their privacy and reduce unwanted mail, e-mail and telemarketing calls. -------------------- Link to the website for the Center for a New American Dream's Procurement Strategies Program (first seen in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's WasteWise bulletin): http://www.newdream.org/procure This program helps state and local governments and other large purchasers incorporate environmental considerations into their purchasing decisions. -------------------- Excerpted from a 12/26/01 article by Joel Millman in the Wall Street Journal: UNWANTED OR DAMAGED GOODS GET NEW LIFE IN MEXICO IN REFURBISHING PLANTS When customers return broken or unwanted products to stores - especially home electronics items - many manufacturers now have those items shipped to companies in Mexico. These companies refurbish or repair the products and resell them in Mexico and other countries. This so-called refurbishment industry is becoming big business in Mexico. It also helps manufacturers reduce costs. For example, it costs Radio Shack $2 to send to a landfill a returned telephone that might just have a loose part. But the Topp Group in Mexico will give Radio Shack $4 for it, betting that with a few tweaks they can resell it for a profit. Japan's Uniden Corp. trucks tens of thousands of returned cordless phones each month from its Dallas processing center to Topp's factory in Mexico. "About 90 percent of the phones we get are reusable, and only about half of those need any major repair work," says Topp's factory manager. Topp's best technicians earn $60 a week, and repair 25 to 30 phones a day. After repair, each phone is cleaned with a toothbrush soaked in rubbing alcohol, and then tested. Many Topp employees have a starting wage of $6 a day. Topp pays Uniden $15 a phone and resells them for $20. Refurbished products such as these phones are popular in Mexico, where they are sometimes sold by major retailers such as Wal-Mart. - end -