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05 Nov 02 - Postal Service; burials; obsolescence; phone books; wet cleaning ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- From Tom Watson, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA, and the National Waste Prevention Coalition: U.S. POSTAL SERVICE ANNOUNCES NEW POLICY ON DONATING UNDELIVERED ITEMS FOR REUSE I'm excited to announce that something we have worked on for a long time has finally happened - The U.S. Postal Service has enacted new regulations that will make it easier for post offices to donate undelivered product samples and other undelivered items to food banks, homeless shelters and other charitable organizations, so the items can be given to people who can use them. The new regulations, which went into effect October 31, 2002, should increase the number of items that are donated. The National Waste Prevention Coalition (NWPC), the Reuse Development Organization (ReDO) and King County have all played a major role in developing these regulations with the Postal Service. Staff and board members with all three of these organizations solicited and provided input from around the country, wrote the first draft of the proposed regulations, and worked directly with top Postal Service environmental officials to help move the regulations through a long process. While the NWPC and King County took the initial lead in working with the Postal Service, ReDO is now taking the lead in helping to get the word out to food banks and other eligible organizations about the new regulations. America's Second Harvest, the national network of food banks, will also help ReDO with this. Thanks to everyone who has worked on this, made comments on the draft regulations, etc. I'd like to especially thank Leanne Meyer in Lansing, Michigan, who first suggested that the NWPC work on this project. At the time, Leanne was with the Postal Service, and she was seeking outside support for her idea to change these regulations. Leanne has since retired (if you don't count all the volunteer work she does - she is still active in reuse projects, and is a ReDO member). But Leanne was really the mother of this idea, so a big THANK YOU to Leanne! The Postal Service has estimated that U.S. post offices get stuck with up to 164,000 tons every year of undelivered product samples alone, not to mention other undelivered products and items. The new regulations will make it much easier for all undelivered items - food, toothpaste, shampoo, diapers and many other items - to be distributed to people who need them. For example, in the past, undelivered, unopened toiletries and over-the-counter drugs were not supposed to be donated at all. The new regulations specify that these items should be donated to food banks, shelters or other non-profits. Also, the new regulations make it much easier for post offices to donate undelivered magazines to homeless shelters, schools, hospitals, etc. And for the first time, the regulations specify that if undelivered magazines cannot be donated, they should be recycled, "if cost-effective." The new regulations are online in the U.S. Postal Services' Postal Bulletin at: http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/bulletin/2002/pb22088.pdf On the left, click on "Domestic Mail" and then scroll down to the heading, "Dead Mail." To print out the new regulations, print just pages 17 and 18. The regulations can also be found, in another format, at: http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/bulletin/2002/html/pb22088 Scroll down and click on "Domestic Mail" and then scroll down to "Dead Mail." E-mail: tom ( DOT ) watson ( AT ) metrokc ( DOT ) gov -------------------- Link to a 10/30/02 column by Francesca Lyman about "green burials," on the MSNBC website: http://www.msnbc.com/news/827412.asp According to a table accompanying the article, these materials are buried in U.S. cemeteries each year: - 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid - 1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete - 90,272 tons of steel - 2,700 tons of copper and bronze - 30 million board feet of hardwoods --------------------- From John Crisley, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Municipal Waste Reduction Program, Boston, MA, responding to the recent requests for comments on proposed new projects for the National Waste Prevention Coalition: I believe the best suggestion for the National Waste Prevention Coalition to focus on would be a "Campaign on Obsolescence" which could be defined as a broad-based campaign to further product stewardship and communicate the benefits of buying quality, repairable products. Planned obsolescence has been a major factor in how U.S. and foreign companies design and market their products for a long time. Such an effort would provide a "Big Tent" initiative under which a number of projects could be pursued. Take-back programs for consumer electronics would fit under this big tent, as would other product stewardship and efficiency initiatives. For example, building on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star system could include elements of product stewardship or buying higher-quality and repairable appliances. A 10/2/02 Waste Prevention Forum posting entitled "Can It Be Fixed?" (excerpted from an article by Nancy Keates in the 9/27/02 Wall Street Journal) detailed some of the economic and consumption factors leading to a decline in the repair of products. I believe this points to the need to look at how the private sector and public sector think about quality and end-of-life issues which impact the increase in obsolescence and waste generation. Specific actions the Coalition could take are to develop a strategy to communicate with industry and consumer groups on better ways to design and repair products. A possible project would be to develop a regional or national system (web site?) to register repair practices and availability to consumers. Such a system may consist of an umbrella web site database that integrates links to the web sites of existing companies, trade groups, and consumer affairs organizations. This would eliminate the need to, dare I say it, reinvent the wheel. I understand there will be budgetary and staff limitations to what Coalition members can participate in. However, as the core of waste prevention "experts," I believe a big tent carries a more persuasive message and builds credibility as an organization. E-mail: john [ DOT ] crisley [ AT ] state [ DOT ] ma [ DOT ] us ---------------------- From Sharon Aller, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA, responding to the recent postings about online telephone books: Regarding online phone books, I would just like to have one like the paper phone book, where you look it up. How hard can it be? Instead I get every city in the world to choose from, then I have to sort through yellow or white, categories. And often businesses or people whom I know to exist will come up zero. E-mail: sharon ( DOT ) aller ( AT ) metrokc ( DOT ) gov --------------------- Link to an October, 2002, report on the benefits of "wet cleaning" (an alternative to dry cleaning), from the Pollution Prevention Education & Research Center, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA (forwarded by David Stitzhal): http://departments.oxy.edu/uepi/pperc/resources/index.htm Click on "View Report" for the top report listed: "Commercialization of Professional Wet Cleaning: An Evaluation of the Opportunities and Factors Involved in Switching To a Pollution Prevention Technology in the Garment Care Industry." - end -