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11 Dec 02 - junk mail; standards; paper bleaching; perc; Office Depot ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- From the U.S. Postal Service, the Postal Rate Commission, the Business Mailers Review newsletter and the Newspaper Association of America: U.S. POSTAL SERVICE PROPOSES SPECIAL DISCOUNT FOR LARGEST BULK MAILER The U.S. Postal Service has filed an unprecedented proposal with the Postal Rate Commission to give volume-based discounts to its largest First Class Mail customer, Capital One, based in Falls Church, Virginia. Capital One sends out more than 1.2 billion pieces of mail annually, including millions of credit card solicitations. The proposal would encourage even more mailings, by giving Capital One discounts for First Class Mail volume in excess of 1.225 billion pieces a year. The discount would increase by volume, and could reach as high as 6 cents per piece of mail for mail volume above 1.6 billion pieces. The Postal Service submitted the proposal in September, 2002, for a Negotiated Service Agreement (NSA) with Capital One. The Postal Rate Commission's decision on the proposal will effectively set the course for future NSAs, determining if current law allows the Postal Service to give specific customers special discounts. The agreement would also allow the Postal Service to notify Capital One electronically about undelivered pieces of mail, rather then returning them. The Postal Service says it would save about $8 million a year if this change was made. The Newspaper Association of America, a trade group, strongly opposes the agreement. The newspaper industry has traditionally battled the direct mail industry for advertising dollars. According to a Newspaper Association release on the proposal, "The U.S. Postal Service serves more than eight million businesses and 280 million people in America. Yet it has singled out just one mega-mailer for a sweetheart deal. According to the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the average small business in the U.S. spends about $4,000 a year in postage, and gets no special deal. More than seven billion greeting cards are purchased every year. More than 90 percent of all U.S. households purchase and send at least one greeting card a year, and get no special deal. The negotiated service agreement would save the Postal Service only $8 million within its $70 billion budget, and it could lose even more than that because of the discount postage rate included in the special deal." The Postal Rate Commission is expected to rule on the proposal in early 2003. The commission is scheduled to hold evidentiary hearings Feb. 5-8, 2003, on evidence in opposition to the proposal. According to Joyce Taylor of the Postal Rate Commission, informal comments on the proposal can still be submitted to the commission. To see documents related to the proposal, see the commission's website at: http://www.prc.gov Click on "Search." Under "Docket No.," click on MC2002-2 (the docket number for this case). To submit a comment, go back to the commission's home page and on the left, click on "Contact Us." Scroll down and use the electronic form to submit a comment. Include the docket number for the case, MC2002-2. For more on this issue, see this 12/6/02 article by Pete Bach in the Appleton (WI) Post-Crescent newspaper: http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/biz_7437945.shtml -------------------- Link to information on standards for sustainable products, from the website of the Institute for Market Transformation to Sustainability, Washington, DC (forwarded by Michael Arny): http://mts.sustainableproducts.com/standards.htm This website includes links to a number of certification programs that set standards for sustainable products and practices. -------------------- From Renee Kimball, "Enuf! The Planet's Favorite Band," Portland, OR: I recently had to buy some acid free paper for mounting photos. An Arvey Paper salesperson and I went through the entire store with an "acid detector marker." To our surprise, we had a tough time finding paper that WAS acidic. From that I would assume most office paper anyway is now oxygen bleached rather than chlorine. Anyone know for sure? E-mail: rrrrenee ( A T ) aracnet ( D O T ) com -------------------- Excerpted from an article by Queena Sook Kim in the 12/9/02 Wall Street Journal: CALIFORNIA AGENCY RESTRICTS FUTURE USE OF PERC IN DRY CLEANING Southern California air regulators became the first in the nation to bar dry cleaners from using perchloroethylene, or perc, a suspected carcinogen that's also used as a cleaning solvent. In a long-anticipated move, the South Coast Air Quality Management District's governing board voted on Dec. 6 to phase out perc machines by 2020. The rule affects 2,200 dry cleaners in the Los Angeles area and could spawn similar moves because air-quality agencies nationwide have been watching to see whether the ban would pass. For nearly a decade, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has had perc on a list of toxins to be phased out. Dry cleaners in the U.S. use about 25 percent of the 250 million pounds of perc produced annually, making them the second-biggest consumers after the makers of cooling chemicals used in refrigerants. The rule adopted by the governing board was a compromise between air regulators and dry cleaners, who fiercely opposed a previous proposal that outlawed the purchase of perc machines by July 2004 and required a total ban by 2019. Though the new rule requires an eventual ban of perc, it eliminates the 2004 phase-out date. Instead, dry cleaners, for the first time, also will be subject to strict limits on the amount of perc they can emit. Dry cleaners must also implement new technologies that reduce perc emissions. These requirements are in line with a proposal put forward by several dry cleaning associations and an industry group made up of the U.S. makers of perc: Dow Chemical, PPG Industries and Vulcan Materials. The Air Quality Management District says that 90 in one million people living near dry cleaners have a probability of contracting cancer from perc emissions, which is well above the district's threshold of 25 in one million. ------------------ Excerpted from a 12/9/02 article in the South Florida Business Journal (forwarded by Julie Rhodes): OFFICE DEPOT ALLIANCE TO FOCUS ON GREEN-FRIENDLY PRODUCTS The Office Depot chain of office supplies stores, based in Delray Beach, FL, said it has formed a business relationship with GreenOrder, a New York City-based environmental consulting firm, to provide services to Office Depot's Business Services Group customers. These customers will be offered "sustainability audits," to be performed by GreenOrder, to assess the customer's procurement practices and to identify opportunities to purchase environmentally preferable paper and other products. The audit will help Office Depot's customers evaluate the environmental impacts of the products they purchase and will identify alternative products sold by Office Depot that are more energy efficient or otherwise environmentally preferable, the company said. GreenOrder will also calculate the benefits and costs of moving to environmentally preferable products in order to help Office Depot's customers make the "business case" for switching. In many cases, companies can save energy and improve environmental performance for the same or lower costs, Office Depot said. Office Depot said it is eager to increase sales of post-consumer, recycled-content papers and other environmentally friendly products. - end -