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07 Jun 02 - festivals; grocery bags; AOL; electronics ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- From Laurie Stoerkel, West Contra Costa Integrated Waste Management Authority, San Pablo, CA: I am putting together a package to help festival organizers reduce waste at their event. Does anyone have reports, data, etc., that I could review? E-mail: lauries [ A T ] recyclemore [ D O T ] com -------------------- The next four postings are in response to the 6/5/02 posting from a Baltimore resident interested in starting a campaign to get her local grocery store to charge a nominal fee for bags, in hopes that it would encourage customers to reuse their old bags or use cloth bags. The posting also asked for information on grocery store waste and bag production. -------------------- From Susanne Brunhart Wiggins, Montgomery County Division of Solid Waste Services, Rockville, MD: Here in Montgomery County, Maryland, the "Big Four" grocery stores include: Giant, Safeway, Magruders, and Shoppers Food Warehouse. Until a few years ago, Shoppers charged 3 cents per paper grocery bag. Their competition, meanwhile was offering bags at no additional charge. Well, you guessed it: With some fanfare, Shoppers switched to the "free" model as well, under the guise of making shopping at their stores even more enjoyable. This struck me as sending the wrong message about waste reduction, as their customers had previously been either reusing boxes from the store in which to cart home their purchases, bringing their own bags, using the store's plastic bags, or digging into their wallets to buy paper bags. I marched myself over to the manager's office to fill out a comment card. Some weeks later, I got a friendly corporate reply, completely missing the waste reduction point. I assume that the Giant Food stores in the Baltimore area have the same policy as they do here: you get a 3-cent credit per bag for bringing your own. I personally think that an extra charge is a better incentive for bringing bags than a bag credit. Regardless, either method works for us, and I just noticed last week that our green mesh bags are looking realllly thin at the corners. E-mail: Susanne ( DOT ) Wiggins ( AT ) co ( DOT ) mo ( DOT ) md ( DOT ) us -------------------- From Steve Long, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, recycling markets program, Boston, MA: Rather than charging for bags, a Northeast-based grocery chain (can't remember which - Stop & Shop maybe?) would take five cents off for every reusable bag you brought/used when shopping. I can't remember if the store subtracted the total from the customer's final bill and the money went to the customer, or, if the store subtracted and then donated all proceeds to an environmental cause/organization. Given the very tight margins that grocery stores operate under (and cutthroat competition), the stores might be more receptive to this "refund" type of initiative rather than charging extra for bags they provide. On another note, check out the California Integrated Waste Management Board website for info on food waste, at: http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/FoodWaste/FAQs.htm E-mail: Stephen [D O T] Long [A T] state [D O T] ma [D O T] us -------------------- From Laurie Beach, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA: Here are some websites on this topic that people might find useful: - Montgomery County, MD: http://solidwaste.dpwt.com/sorrt/busrec7f.htm - Sierra Club: http://www.sierraclub.org/bags/ - New York City WasteLe$$: http://www.nycwasteless.com/gov-bus/Casestudies/shopritcase.htm E-mail: laurie ( D O T ) beach ( A T ) metrokc ( D O T ) gov -------------------- From Jeff Laufle, Seattle, WA: In response to the query about charges for grocery bags, I have not come across stores that charge customers for bags. However, you can get a credit of 5 cents per bag at some supermarkets in Seattle, such as Albertson's and Safeway, if you bring in your own bags. In fact, we use reusable cloth ones, which of course come in handy as totes in all kinds of other situations. Safeway is one chain that sells those (with their logo, of course, but that's fine). But I actually like the idea of a charge for the bags - it might work better than the credit system to bring people on board with reusables. In fact, cloth bags would probably be a good sell at the checkout counters with the other impulse items. E-mail: jclocean [ AT ] foxinternet [ DOT ] com -------------------- Link to a Center for a New American Dream website where you can send an e-mail to Steve Case, the head of AOL (America Online) Time Warner, to complain about AOL's wasteful mailing practices (forwarded by Marcia Rutan): http://www.capwiz.com/newdream/issues/alert/?alertid=203331&type=CU Click on "Take Action Now - Go!" The term "metal mail" is a reference to the metal boxes that AOL has recently been using for its promotional mailings of CDs. -------------------- Link to the "San Diego-Tijuana High Tech Waste Prevention & Recycling Workbook," published in May, 2002 (first seen in the EPA WasteWise newsletter): http://www.sdrta.org/downloads/epaworkbook.pdf This guide, which focuses on electronics waste management in the San Diego-Tijuana area, was developed by the San Diego Regional Technology Alliance (SDRTA), under contract with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It is aimed at technology manufacturers, particularly those in the electronics sector. It is available in Spanish by contacting SDRTA by e-mail at sdrta [ A T ] sdrta [ D O T ] org or by phone at (619) 615-1050. - end -