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27 Feb 02 - computers; California; Christmas; caterers; EPA forum; pesticides; e-mail lists ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- From Betty Patton, Environmental Practices, Portland, OR: I am working with the Western Electronic Product Stewardship Initiative on opportunities to reuse PCs (personal computers). I have interviewed Free Geek and Students Recycling Used Technology (StRUT) here in Portland. But I am interested in knowing if other non-profits or businesses are set up to accept hardware donations, refurbish it, reconfigure it into a working system, and make it available to the public. Any contacts would be appreciated. E-mail: EPractices [ AT ] spiretech [ DOT ] com -------------------- From Sarah Weimer, California Integrated Waste Management Board, Sacramento, CA: ANNOUNCEMENT OF CALIFORNIA REUSE ASSISTANCE GRANT AWARDS The California Integrated Waste Management Board is awarding the following six applicants with a 3rd Cycle Reuse Assistance Grant. The grant recipients, amount awarded, and project descriptions are as follows: City of Los Angeles - $50,000 Grant funds will be used to replace the small, outdated, inadequate library of the Kenter Canyon Charter School, a public elementary school in the Los Angeles Unified School District. A 1,600-square-foot California Craftsman-style house that was built for a movie set and slated for demolition was donated to the school and all of its parts were disassembled, catalogued, and put in storage. Kenter Canyon School, through the volunteer work of its Parent Support Group, is seeking funds to reconstruct the building on school property, reusing the materials with virtually no reprocessing so the house will become a new library to provide a better and larger learning environment. This project will have a multiplier effect because it will showcase the out-of-the-box thinking that transformed an existing building, destined for a landfill, into a children's library and will inspire the school district to explore many other avenues of adaptive reuse. City of Modesto - $20,981 Grant funds will be used to develop a quarterly newsletter for all businesses in the City to promote the reuse of various materials. Each newsletter will highlight reuse ideas of a particular material or product (e.g., food waste, office furnishings, etc.) as well as businesses that already successfully reuse their waste products. The newsletter will also act as a forum to further promote the City's Business Recycling Awards Program to encourage more businesses to think creatively about their waste reduction programs. City of Napa - $38,930 In cooperation with Solano-Napa Builders' Exchange, grant funds will be used to reform, expand, and promote NapaMAX (its local materials exchange program) starting in March of 2002 to improve the effectiveness of the program. Funds will be used to develop and support a new, Web-based system with extensive outreach and technical assistance to solicit listings from the entire Solano-Napa region. City of San Jose - $50,000 Grant funds will be used to assist Resource Area for Teachers (RAFT), a San Jose nonprofit organization, to expand their materials reuse activities by increasing the number of businesses that are aware of and utilize RAFT's reuse services, increasing the types of items donated to RAFT by businesses, increasing the volume of materials donated to RAFT, and increasing the number of school districts, teachers, and students utilizing and benefiting from RAFT's services. El Dorado County - $49,990 Grant funds will be used to expand a successful local reuse facility, the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, and jumpstart a county-wide construction and demolition material reuse education program. The project will directly result in increased diversion from landfill disposal. Kern County - $40,099 Grant funds will be used to kick off an electronics reuse program for commercial businesses in Kern County. Kern County Waste Management will administer the pilot program. Commercial businesses will participate by donating dated electronics (computers, printers, etc.) to Merit Corporation, a 5-01 (a)(3) qualified nonprofit, which operates an electronics refurbishing program at the Women's California Correctional Institution in Stockton, California, through the State Corrections Joint Venture Program. In addition to the Reuse Assistance Grants, the California Integrated Waste Management Board has an ever-growing list of reuse resources, which are available on the Board's Reuse Web site at: http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/reuse/ E-mail: sweimer (AT) ciwmb (DOT) ca (DOT) gov -------------------- Excerpted from a message from Dwight Mercer, waste diversion program, City of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada: The city of Regina operates a "Tinsel Mulch" program where we collect Christmas trees (residents put them on the curb after Christmas), then compost them and give away the material as "Tinsel Mulch." Based on statistics from our most recent collection, we estimate that 12.9 percent of the households in Regina used natural Christmas trees for Christmas 2001 - about 20 percent less than the previous year. E-mail: DMERCER [AT] cityregina [DOT] com Note from Tom: If you would like the full e-mail report and statistics on Regina's Christmas tree collection program, e-mail Dwight directly. ----------------------- The next two postings are in response to the 2/22/02 posting seeking waste reduction information to provide to caterers. ---------------------- Excerpted from a message from Brian Foran, California Integrated Waste Management Board, Sacramento, CA: Recycling Advocates in Portland, OR, publishes a booklet, "Recycling at Events: A Guide to Reducing Waste at Any Event." It includes good waste prevention info as well as recycling info. It is available online at: http://www.recyclingadvocates.org/currentissues.htm Scroll down. E-mail: bforan [A T] CIWMB [D O T] ca [D O T] gov ---------------------- From Susan Salterberg, Center for Energy & Environmental Education, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA: I think two other criteria could be added to the "Waste Reduction for Caterers" issue - the most important, in my mind, is to get them to try to buy as many locally-grown foods as possible. Ideally, it would be nice if the food was organic, too, but you can only do what you can do. There is a Community Supported Agriculture network out there, and if you typed that into a Google.com search, I think you would find some contacts. State Department of Agriculture and/or local extension offices may also be able to help. In Iowa, restaurants are now joining organizations where they can network with local growers. I'm trying to get caterers to my sponsored events that cook with local foods, and have had good success - and good food! E-mail: ssalter [A T] netins [D O T] net ----------------------- Link to information about a May 1, 2002, satellite forum sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency called, "Communities: Setting Trends in Waste Prevention and Recycling" (forwarded by David Flora): http://www.epa.gov/wastewise/forum/index.htm This forum is aimed at state, local, and tribal solid waste managers. The forum will share lessons learned about successful government waste prevention and recycling programs. ----------------------- Link to information about the 20th National Pesticide Forum, "Streams to Schools: Finding Alternatives to Pesticides," which will be held April 26-28, 2002, in Seattle (forwarded by Gerty Coville): http://www.beyondpesticides.org/main.html Scroll down and click on "National Pesticide Forum Web Page." ---------------------- From Kivi Leroux Miller, EcoScribe Communications, Lexington, NC, responding to the 2/22/02 posting asking about e-mail forums dealing with recycling, so that people with recycling questions can be referred to those forums (rather than this one, which deals with reduction and reuse): Here are three recycling lists that I'm on. There's some overlap, but not too much. - GreenYes. Sponsored by the GrassRoots Recycling Network. Activist oriented. Subscription info at: http://www.grrn.org/general/greenyes.html - JTR Net. EPA's Jobs Through Recycling List. Market development and city/state program oriented. Subscription info at: http://www.epa.gov/jtr/netshare/index.htm - Recycle @ EnviroLink Network. A more general list. Send a message to listproc [AT] envirolink [DOT] org with subscribe recycle your name in the body text. E-mail: Kivi [A T] ecoscribe [D O T] com Note from Tom: Thanks also to David Stitzhal and Brian Foran, who also recommended the "GreenYes" listserv. - end -