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06 Sep 02 - electronic government; Ontario; Earth Summit; box reuse; diapers ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- Link to a City of Tampa, FL, web page that calculates the savings for citizens if they do a transaction with the city online, instead of driving to a city office to do it (first seen in the Sept. 2002 Government Technology magazine): http://www.tampagov.net/egov/savings_estimator/index.asp This online calculator asks citizens for the type of transaction they want to perform (for example, pay a parking ticket, or stop utility service), the travel distance to the appropriate government office, the number of miles per gallon their car gets, the cost of a gallon of gas, parking fees, and the hourly value of their time. Using that information (and certain assumptions, based on averages), it then spits out the savings a citizen can expect by conducting business online rather than in person. The City of Tampa allows citizens to perform a variety of transactions online, at this website: http://www.tampagov.net/egov/ -------------------- Link to a press release and fact sheet from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, about a new organization called Waste Diversion Ontario (first seen in material forwarded by Dwight Mercer): - http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/envision/news/2002/061401.htm - http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/envision/news/2002/061401fs.htm Ontario's Waste Diversion Act was passed in June by the Ontario Legislature. The Act promotes the reduction, reuse and recycling of wastes by establishing a permanent non-government corporation called Waste Diversion Ontario (WDO) to develop and fund waste diversion programs. WDO will be a partnership of industry, municipalities, non-governmental representatives and the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Energy. "The efforts of WDO will help us meet - and surpass - the province's 50 per cent waste reduction goal," said Environment and Energy Minister Chris Stockwell. WDO's first task will be to develop a sustainable funding plan for Ontario's municipal Blue Box recycling program. -------------------- The next two postings are about the World Summit on Sustainable Development (also known as the Earth Summit) in Johannesburg, South Africa, which ended on September 4th. -------------------- Link to a 9/5/02 Associated Press article by Joseph Verrengia, giving a wrap-up of the results of the Earth Summit: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020905/ap_on_re_af/world_summit_188 -------------------- Link to a 9/5/02 Associated Press article about the amount of waste produced at the Earth Summit: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020905/ap_wo_en_po/world_summit_waste_1 --------------------- From Tom Watson, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA, and the National Waste Prevention Coalition: I just wanted to mention something I recently saw at a Target store that I had never seen anywhere before, and I thought it was great. Cardboard boxes for clothing, which were sitting near some dressing rooms, had these words on them in big red letters (aimed at Target employees): "Please Reuse. Return to the Distribution Center for Reuse. This Box Designed for 8 Reuses." Hats off to Target for making this extra effort to encourage their employees to reuse boxes first instead of recycling them! E-mail: tom (DOT) watson (AT) metrokc (DOT) gov --------------------- Excerpted from an article by Brooke Adams in the Salt Lake Tribune (reprinted 9/1/02 in the Dayton Daily News): THE BOTTOM LINE - HANDMADE CLOTH DIAPERS HAVE A GROWING FOLLOWING The pampered babies of today aren't wearing Pampers. No, their little tushies are swaddled in handmade cloth diapers. And we're not talking the thin, white diapers and crackly rubber pants your mother may have used on you. State-of-the-art cloth diapers are made of sherpa, velour, hemp, sheepskin, suede, flannel or fleece, and come in fanciful colors and prints - daisies, dinosaurs, hearts and stars, happy-faced frogs. Disposable diapers still hold dominion over babyland, but some parents are opting for cloth, lovingly stitched by themselves or by a cottage entrepreneur. For them, cloth diapers are part of a way of life - an act of maternal love in keeping with breastfeeding and grinding their own baby food. But the bottom line, so to speak, is cloth diapering saves money and, proponents say, is better for baby and the environment. A cloth cult flourishes in such Yahoo chat groups as CDreviews (that's for cloth diapers, not music), ClothDiaperTalk and diaperSWAP, where devotees swap diaper patterns, washing and fabric tips, diaper pail data and diaper folding advice, and marvel about the HoneyBoy diapers that go for $100 apiece and up at WAHMall.com auctions. There's even a second-hand market for used diapers. The handmade cloth diaper subculture is made up mostly of stay-at-home moms who use or sew their own cloth diapers and are fanatically devoted to the cause. Jessica Wiseman of Kearns, Utah, recently launched the One Stop Diaper Shop, an Internet-based store, with her husband Eric. This website, which sells specialty fabrics, notions and patterns for people who want to make cloth diapers, has been "a smash hit," says Wiseman. "We thought we would do two or three orders a day. On a busy day we're getting 12 orders." Wiseman says their customers are from all over the world, and that many "are in the tree-hugger category. They really care about the environment and how disposables affect the environment." But she adds, "I'm not one of those. I don't like the chemicals in disposable diapers." - end -