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18 Dec 02 - Christmas; Taiwan; EPA; office supplies; mail; wood; electronics; pesticides ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- Link to the website for the Buy Nothing Christmas campaign: http://www.buynothingchristmas.org Buy Nothing Christmas is an informal campaign started by a small group of Canadian Mennonites based in Vancouver. An example of one of their posters is at: http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/images/posters/Year2-Poster4.pdf -------------------- Link to an essay by Brian Smith, "Recycled Christmas: One Family's Revolution Against the Shopping Mall," on the Environment News Service website (forwarded by Kinley Deller): (Note from Kinley: This is a good reuse story.) http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2002/2002-12-13s.asp -------------------- Excerpted from a 12/18/02 article by Hung-fu Hsueh in the Taiwan News and a 12/17/02 Reuters news service article: TAIWAN PLASTICS BAN About 5,000 demonstrators from the plastics industry protested Dec. 17 in front of the Taiwan Legislature and appealed to the government to postpone a ban on disposable plastic products set to begin in January. Protesters said the plan, which aims to cut down the volume of garbage by around 30 percent, would result in the loss of 50,000 jobs in Taiwan, where unemployment will reach a record high this year. However, the head of Taiwan's Environmental Protection Administration, Hau Lung-bin, stated yesterday that the government had budgeted money for financial assistance for plastic industry workers who were laid off because of the ban, and he reasserted that the government would not change its policy. The government's multistage ban on disposable plastic products was originally conceived because Taiwan's environment was being overwhelmed by the millions of plastic bags and other disposable plastic products used in Taiwan daily. The first phase of the ban began in July when public institutions could no longer use plastic bags and disposable plastic tableware. Under the second phase, scheduled to begin January 1, 2003, restaurants, supermarkets, and convenience chain stores must charge customers for plastic bags and disposable utensils. Street snack vendors will be exempt from the restrictions. Government officials say that each of Taiwan's 23 million people uses an average of 900 plastic bags every year, which is well above the consumption in neighboring Japan and South Korea. -------------------- Link to an extensive list, updated this fall, from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), describing EPA projects, both national and regional, that deal with reducing waste and recovering energy: http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/details.pdf The list includes a brief summary and contact information for each project. Among the EPA projects listed are: - The National Waste Minimization Partnership Program (described on page 1). - Greening Hospitals (described on pages 13 and 14). - Incorporating Environmental Messages into Video Arcade Games (described on page 16). - Motivating Waste Prevention and Recycling at Shopping Malls (described on page 16). -------------------- From Laurie Stoerkel, West Contra Costa Integrated Waste Management Authority, San Pablo, CA, responding to recent postings about the Office Depot office supplies chain forming a partnership with an environmental consulting firm to provide sustainability audits to customers: OFFICE DEPOT VS. STAPLES Staples sells post-consumer content paper? Office Depot partners with an environmental consulting firm? Is it possible that these two giants are trying to "out green" each other? How far will they go? Who will the winner be? E-mail: lauries ( AT ) recyclemore ( DOT ) com -------------------- From Bill Smith, City of Tacoma Solid Waste Management, Tacoma, WA, following up on the 12/11/02 posting about the U.S. Postal Service proposal to give the Capital One credit card company a special discount if it sends more than 1.225 billion pieces of mail a year: Here is the comment I sent to the Postal Rate Commission: "I am opposed to the current proposal to allow Capital One a rate break for an increase in their bulk mail quantity (Docket Number MC2002-2). As a recycling supervisor for a large metropolitan city, these mass mailings end up in our landfill or recycling stream, which places the burden of these costs on my city's ratepayers. Unless and until there is an easy way for people to opt out of receiving unwanted mail, the Postal Service should find another way to increase its revenues." E-mail: BSmith [ A T ] ci [ D O T ] tacoma [ D O T ] wa [ D O T ] us -------------------- From Steve Long, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Boston, MA: WOOD REUSE STUDY I need some resources and/or advice for a study I am doing in which I am trying to make a rough estimate of amount of tonnage of wood and wood products (lumber, doors, trim, beams, flooring, windows, etc.) managed by Massachusetts-based building material centers, "restores," material exchanges, and salvage operations. Ideally (although I seriously doubt it exists) it would be helpful to me to have a methodology whereby I could make tonnage estimates by inputting the number of units or the value of the wood and wood products, and the formula could calculate the tonnage. Second, I'd like to use the raw weights of the wood and wood products (listed above) by unit, type and size. That way, if a facility tracks the number of units, I could do a rough estimate. OR if anyone has any other thoughts OR ways of measuring the tonnage, I am open to ideas. Caveat: Since I work on solid waste issues for an environmental agency, and we demonstrate value to our funders by quantifying diversion from disposal, I am trying to make a rough estimate of the amount of tonnage of used wood and wood products managed by these types of facilities. Having administered grants to these types of facilities for capital equipment, I know this is NOT the way they do business, and I appreciate that perspective that tonnage does NOT matter. Why would you want to spend valuable capital and operational costs measuring something when you are trying to move it out the door? Thanks. E-mail: stephen [ DOT ] long [ AT ] state [ DOT ] ma [ DOT ] us -------------------- Link to the U.S. Department of Defense website for the Demanufacturing of Electronic Equipment for Reuse and Recycling, or DEER2 (first seen on the Reuse Development Organization listserv): http://www.deer2.com/index.html To see technical reports for the DEER2 project, click on the categories (Disassembly, Material Management, Metals, etc.), then click on one of the reports listed on the left. ------------------- Link to a 12/18/02 column by Francesca Lyman on the MSNBC website, about a new study that shows that eating organic food significantly reduces children's exposure to pesticides: http://www.msnbc.com/news/846826.asp?0cv=HA01 - end -