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25 Jul 02 - paint; junk mail; waste composition; grocery bags; disposal contracts ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- From Susan Salterberg, Van Buren County, Waste Reduction and Recycling, Birmingham, IA: I live on a farm and own a building with tin siding. It has always been painted with aluminum paint before, but I understand that stuff is very toxic. Does anyone know alternatives for buildings such as this? What might protect it but be less toxic? This will help me with my personal situation, but I also plan to share it in a news column I'm writing about household hazardous waste. Thanks. E-mail: ssalter [ A T ] netins [ D O T ] net -------------------- From the website of the Center for a New American Dream, Takoma Park, MD (forwarded by Marcia Rutan): NEW JUNK MAIL HALL OF SHAME - FIRST INDUCTEE IS AMERICA ONLINE The Center for a New American Dream has just launched a "Junk Mail Hall of Shame," which is modeled after the Junk Mail Awards presented by the National Waste Prevention Coalition in 1995. The first inductee in the center's new Junk Mail Hall of Shame is America Online. For more information on the Hall of Shame, or to make a nomination, go to: http://www.newdream.org/junkmail/hall.html The Center for a New American Dream also has a "Step by Step" advocacy website, which provides information on how people can take other actions against junk mail: http://www.newdream.org/sbs/sbs25.html This website makes it easy for people to send an e-mail to their Congressional representatives about the junk mail issue. The suggested e-mail asks Congress to (among other things) set up a national registry, run by the government, so people can "opt out" of receiving unwanted mail. The website also includes other actions that people can take against junk mail, and describes what some people have already done to try to prod junk mailers to shift to less wasteful and invasive marketing practices. -------------------- From Scarlet Tang, Whatcom County Cooperative Extension, Bellingham, WA, responding to the 7/19/02 posting about how the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) Mail Preference Service has two different mailing addressees for the service, and also charges people a $5 fee if they want to register for the service online: When doing promotions, companies will often use different post office box numbers, phone extensions, or other codes in order to track how people are hearing about the promotion (e.g., an ad in one magazine might ask readers to call a certain number, extension XYZ; the same advertiser might ask readers of a different magazine to call the same phone number but to use extension ABC instead - it helps the advertiser to figure out where to spend future advertising dollars). Perhaps the DMA is tracking how people are hearing about their new address. It's really obnoxious that they're charging people to use their website for this purpose. But what else can you expect from the junk mail industry's trade association? E-mail: scarlet (AT) coopext (DOT) cahe (DOT) wsu (DOT) edu -------------------- From the 7/21/02 New York Times: This is the breakdown of materials in U.S. municipal solid waste, as of 2000: Paper and paperboard - 38.0 percent Yard waste - 12.0 percent Food waste - 11.0 percent Plastic - 10.5 percent Ferrous metals - 5.8 percent Glass - 5.5 percent Wood - 5.4 percent Textiles - 4.0 percent Other - 7.8 percent Source: Waste Policy Center analysis of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data -------------------- From a 7/19/02 press release on the website of Regional Waste Systems, Portland, ME: The Hannaford Bros. Co. grocery story chain has been named "Recycler of the Year" by Regional Waste Systems, a non-profit municipal solid waste and recycling organization in southern Maine. Along with its recycling and composting achievements, one of Hannaford's programs that was cited in the award presentation was its bag reuse program. "Hannaford encourages customers to reuse bags by providing a 5-cent refund for the reuse of fabric bags and a 2-cent refund for each reuse of plastic or paper bags," says the press release. "Each year, tens of thousands of bags are reused by Hannaford customers, helping to reduce the amount of waste going to landfills and incinerators. Hannaford customers in Maine also have purchased more than 100,000 fabric bags in Hannaford supermarkets, earning refunds every time they reuse them." Hannaford operates 46 supermarkets in Maine and a total of 116 supermarkets in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, and Massachusetts. ------------------ Link to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website on "Resource Management": http://www.epa.gov/wastewise/wrr/rm.htm Resource Management, or RM, is a concept that EPA has recently begun promoting to businesses. RM is a new method that businesses can use for contracting for solid waste disposal. Unlike traditional solid waste service contracts, RM compensates waste contractors based on performance in achieving the business' waste reduction goals, rather than paying them solely based on the volume of waste disposed. - end -