WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ARCHIVE   BACK TO ARCHIVE INDEX

17 Jul 02 - electronics; grinders; junk mail; phthalates; golf balls; Goodwill; deconstruction; paradigm ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- Excerpted from an article by Jane Spencer in the 7/16/02 Wall Street Journal: COMPANIES SLASH WARRANTIES AND MAKE REPAIRS HARDER, MAKING ELECTRONICS PRODUCTS DISPOSABLE A combination of shorter warranties and design changes means that buyers of even relatively expensive gadgets now have little choice but to throw them in the trash if anything breaks. In the past year Dell Computer has slashed warranty periods from three years to one. Apple Computer's hot iPod digital-music player comes with only a 90-day warranty. In addition, many warranties on new consumer electronics are riddled with strict conditions: The one-year warranty on RCA digital camcorders, for example, covers labor costs for only 90 days. Even if people want to pay for repairs out of their own pockets, some manufacturers are cutting off that option as well. Many hand-held organizers from companies such as Handspring, Palm and Hewlett-Packard have built-in rechargeable batteries that generally can't be replaced without sending the entire unit back to the company, at a typical cost of $120. Some Qualcomm cell phones also have batteries that are sealed inside the unit. But sealed units aren't limited to small portables. VCRs throughout the 1980s were built with a removable bottom plate. Now, they are typically made out of one plastic shell that is tricky to open even for a professional. It's the latest chapter in the story of planned obsolescence, the term coined to describe the trend of building things not to last. As tech companies focus on pumping out new models, they aren't doing as much to help customers retain their current ones. They spend less time on product testing, and offer customers less help when the products break or malfunction. The result: Many cell phones, PDAs (personal digital assistants) and other gadgets are essentially becoming disposable devices. Manufacturers say that prices on gadgets have dropped so much that it's cheaper to buy new than pay for repairs. But the newer the product, the shorter the life span. Another way manufacturers encourage consumers to buy new products is by setting repair costs prohibitively high. At Palm, getting a replacement for a cracked screen on a PDA costs $125 - even though Web-based repair companies like GetHighTech Inc. manage to fix them for closer to $50. That company's website - http://www.GetHighTech.com - also offers videos and guides to help people make basic repairs on their units. Another independent repair company, STNE Corporation - at http://www.STNECorp.com - offers life-extending repairs for Palms like button replacements. But few customers know about these websites. In the end, many simply decide it's easier to buy a newer-model gadget than run the service gauntlet thrown down by the tech companies. -------------------- From Judy Crockett, City of Portland Office of Sustainable Development, Solid Waste & Recycling Division, Portland, OR, responding to the 7/15/02 posting about disposable pepper grinders: Regarding the disposable pepper grinders, couldn't these be seen as a waste reduction measure? Since most people buy their spices in jars anyway, it does away with the need for a pepper grinder and it preserves the life of the spices. I haven't seen the jars myself, but they might also be reusable. I want to rush out and buy one. Especially since good pepper grinders cost over $20. E-mail: jcrockett [A T] ci [D O T] portland [D O T] or [D O T] us -------------------- From Alex Cuyler, City of Eugene Solid Waste & Recycling, Eugene, OR, responding to the 7/15/02 posting about the new service called Red Flag, which helps businesses remove the names of former employees from mailing lists: How about that Red Flag! What a concept. I am so glad somebody is doing this. I truly think it will be a benefit. E-mail: Alex [D O T] D [D O T] CUYLER [A T] ci [D O T] eugene [D O T] or [D O T] us Note: The Red Flag website is at: http://www.controlthemail.com -------------------- Link to a copy of a full-page ad that ran in the 7/11/02 New York Times, from Coming Clean, the Environmental Working Group and Health Care Without Harm, asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate the use of phthalates (pronounced "thal-lates") in cosmetics: http://www.NotTooPretty.org Click on the ad to enlarge it. The website also includes other information on phthalates. Phthalates are found in many beauty care products, including major brands of hair spray, deodorant, nail polish and perfume. According to the ad, phthalates have been shown to damage the lungs, liver and kidneys, and to harm the developing testes of offspring. Manufacturers use phthalates to add flexibility and help dissolve other ingredients. They're also used in industrial adhesives, and in medical and consumer goods made with polyvinyl chloride plastic (PVC). -------------------- Excerpted from an article by Bill Pennington in the 7/4/02 New York Times: A LUCRATIVE REUSE BUSINESS, BUT WATCH OUT FOR THE ALLIGATORS An estimated 300 million golf balls are lost every year on American golf courses. Most of those are hit into water hazards. But that's not the end of it. Divers, both amateurs and professionals, retrieve those lost balls for reuse. These "pond balls," as they are often called, are resold to driving ranges or retailers. Their retail price is anywhere from 25 cents to $3 apiece. The reconditioning (usually by scrubbing and bleaching) and reselling of those used golf balls is a $200-million-a-year industry, according to two golf retail industry associations. Some professional golf ball divers can make in the range of $50,000 a year, if they work at it year-round, five days a week. The main hazard of the golf ball recovery business is drowning - divers can easily become disoriented or overly weighed down by the reclaimed balls and scuba equipment. In Florida, a golf course mecca, divers also have frequent encounters with crocodiles and alligators. --------------------- From the Seattle Goodwill annual report for 2000-2001, published in Summer, 2002: - This past year, the Goodwill store in Seattle, located just south of downtown, reached $5 million dollars in annual sales. That is the highest amount of annual sales of any Goodwill store in the world. - Seattle Goodwill operates a total of 10 stores in the Seattle area (including one that just opened). Overall, the Seattle Goodwill stores served 1.5 million customers in fiscal year 2000-2001. Those customers purchased more than 7 million items. - In fiscal year 2000-2001, more than 640,000 individuals donated 11,241 tons of merchandise to Seattle Goodwill, which has about 25 attended donation centers in the greater Seattle area. - These donations and purchases helped Seattle Goodwill provide educational and job skills to more than 1,800 people. --------------------- Link to information about the Deconstruction and Materials Reuse Conference, to be held May 7-10, 2003, in Gainesville, FL (first seen on the Reuse Development Organization listserv): http://www.cce.ufl.edu/rinker11/index.htm This conference is sponsored by the University of Florida's Center for Construction & Environment, along with other agencies and organizations. --------------------- Excerpted from a message from Mark Clayton, Right Choice Refreshments and The Soft Drink Company, Seattle, WA, responding to the New York Times editorial posted 7/15/02, suggesting ways to deal with the garbage problem in New York City: The editorial had some good bandages for the problem, but our society seems to be bent on treating the symptom while ignoring the real problem. Nearly 78 percent of soft drinks are packaged in cans and bottles. According to the Container Recycling Institute, beverage containers are five percent of the waste stream. Yet recycling of these containers is down to around 35 percent. Across the United States, the amount of trash going to landfills and incinerators continues to increase. The fastest-growing component in this stream of trash is consumer product packaging. The real problem? It seems that recycling gave manufacturers a license to produce more waste, but it is OK to produce waste as long as it is recyclable, they think. The GrassRoots Recycling Network report "Wasting and Recycling in the U.S. 2000," indicates that between 1990 and 1997, plastic packaging grew five times faster by weight than plastic recovered for recycling. Recycling the waste does not equal zero waste and zero environmental impact. Just ask yourself, if we could recycle 100 percent of all waste, what would be the impact on our environment? A lot of attention gets focused on the problem, while no attention gets focused on the real solution. Let me remind you that the solution was discovered over 10 years ago by the prestigious Boston based Tellus Research Institute. They were commissioned to conduct a 2-year study that would show how beneficial recycling is for the environment. As a result of this study they concluded, "Recycling does not appear to be the solution, but light-weighting and concentration is." We need to challenge the ruling paradigm that says we can manage waste safely by recycling it instead of reusing it, reducing it, and eliminating it. Recycling the waste only increases the cost to our environment due to the thinking that it is OK to create the waste as long as it is recyclable. And face the facts, with so much waste to recycle, recycling it is a major pollution problem and so little of the waste actually gets recycled. As long as recycling is the ruling paradigm, then our waste problems will only get worse. To quote Brenda Platt of the Washington-based Institute for Local Self-Reliance, "The key is to stop thinking about waste as a problem and to start thinking about it as an opportunity - in effect, from waste to wealth." My company sees the opportunity in waste. Since 1990 my business has promoted proprietary products and developed new products that reduce or eliminate the packaging waste associated with the consumption of soft drinks. The backbone of our product line is over 50 beverage concentrates we manufacture and two soda fountains for use in the home, office, boat, and motor home. Working together we can help solve the real problem. E-mail: MrSodaWon ( A T ) aol ( D O T ) com - end -