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12 Mar 02 - resources; New Zealand; home composting; HHW; definitions; sanding dust; birds ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- From Carolyn Grodinsky, Agency of Natural Resources, Waste Management Division, Waterbury, VT: Our agency is developing a series of "Action Steps" for waste prevention, as required in our State Solid Waste Plan. We are seeking to compile a "universe" of programs to evaluate for Vermont. We also want to develop a contact list of people specializing in waste prevention planning and books, magazines or other publications focused on waste prevention. Rather than create a new database or resource list, we assume this information has been compiled elsewhere. Could people on this list steer us in the right direction? Many thanks! E-mail: carolyng [AT] dec [DOT] anr [DOT] state [DOT] vt [DOT] us -------------------- Link to a summary of New Zealand's new Waste Strategy, "Towards Zero Waste and a Sustainable New Zealand" (forwarded by Gary Liss): http://www.mfe.govt.nz/about/publications/waste/waste-strategy/strategy-summary.html This strategy was announced by the New Zealand Ministry for the Environment on March 1, 2002. The strategy sets targets for: Reusing and recycling high-volume wastes; Minimizing and managing hazardous wastes; upgrading waste disposal facilities; and charging waste generators the true environmental cost of treatment and disposal. --------------------- Excerpted from an article by Lauren Lipton in the 3/8/02 Wall Street Journal: In 2001, 1.7 million U.S. households bought outdoor home composting containers, more than double from 1995, according to the National Gardening Association. -------------------- Link to resources for household hazardous waste (HHW) collection, education and technical assistance, from the Household Hazardous Waste Resource Exchange, Omaha, NE (forwarded by David Flora): http://www.hhwlist.org These resources include information on alternatives to HHW. Among the resources is a national e-mail listserv on HHW. -------------------- From Mike Ruby, Envirometrics, Inc., Seattle, WA, responding to the 3/7/02 posting seeking a commonly-used definition of industrial waste: Industrial waste tends to be defined by what it is not. One of the "official" definitions of waste at the federal level is in the New Source Performance Regulations for incinerators in 40CFR60.51b. It divides the world up as follows: "Household waste" includes material discarded by single and multiple residential dwellings, hotels, motels, and other similar permanent or temporary housing establishments or facilities. "Commercial/retail waste" includes material discarded by stores, offices, restaurants, warehouses, non-manufacturing activities at industrial facilities, and other similar establishments or facilities. "Institutional waste" includes material discarded by schools, nonmedical waste discarded by hospitals, material discarded by nonmanufacturing activities at prisons and government facilities, and material discarded from similar establishments or facilities. Household, commercial/retail, and institutional waste does not include used oil; sewage sludge; wood pallets; construction, renovation and demolition wastes (which includes but is not limited to railroad ties and telephone poles); clean wood; industrial process or manufacturing wastes; medical waste; or motor vehicles (including motor vehicle parts or vehicle fluff). Household, commercial/retail, and institutional wastes do include yard waste and refuse-derived fuel. E-mail: mruby (A T) envirometrics (D O T) com --------------------- From Stephen Long, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, recycling markets program, Boston, MA, responding to the 3/7/02 posting seeking suggestions for uses for truckloads of wood sanding dust from a furniture manufacturer: I think the best bet would be to market the material through a materials exchange. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) maintains a national list of waste exchanges at: http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/recycle/jtr/comm/exchstat.htm If there is no plywood in the mix, you would have options such as the use of the sanding dust as a bulking agent for composting or water treatment. These options, and other land-applied options, would consider the adhesives in the plywood a contaminant (thus making an off-spec end-product). I believe sanding dust is used in the manufacture of plastic lumber (although these markets are probably sewn up, and again the adhesives might impact the manufacturing process). The American Plastics Council maintains a list of recycled plastic product manufacturers at: http://www.plasticsresource.com/databases/index.html E-mail: stephen ( D O T ) long ( A T ) state ( D O T ) ma ( D O T ) us -------------------- From Donald Van Dyke, California Integrated Waste Management Board, Sacramento, CA, responding to the 3/7/02 posting about hanging old CDs (compact disks) on farms or in gardens to keep birds away: I wouldn't get your hopes up for CDs as a bird deterrent. See this photo from PC Magazine, about halfway down the page, at: http://www.pcmag.com/article/0,2997,s=1687&a=16657,00.asp E-mail: DVanDyke ( A T ) CIWMB ( D O T ) ca ( D O T ) gov - end -