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26 Feb 03 - electronics; cups; lids; conferences; sustainability ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- Link to a Basel Action Network website with information on a 2/25/03 pledge taken by 15 private electronics recycling and reuse firms in the U.S. and Canada to properly handle electronics wastes: http://www.ban.org/E-waste/Pledge/Pledgefront.html Among other things, the companies agree to: - Prevent hazardous electronics waste (e-waste) from going to municipal incinerators or landfills. - Prevent the export of hazardous e-waste to developing countries. - Use free-market rather than prison labor to dismantle or recycle e-waste. - Support extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs or legislation, to develop viable financing mechanisms for end-of-life for electronics products. - Support design for environment and toxics use reduction programs or legislation for electronics products. -------------------- Excerpted from an article by Amelia Heagerty in the 2/25/03 Daily Californian, the student newspaper at the University of California, Berkeley, CA: University of California (UC) Berkeley plans to buy 5,000 plastic mugs for its students in an effort to cut down on the use of disposable coffee cups. The university gave nearly $10,000 to fund the UC Berkeley Reusable Mug Program - $7,500 of which will be spent on plastic coffee mugs for students. The program, sponsored by the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC), was finalized last weekend at the third annual UC Berkeley Recycling Summit. Backers of the program estimate it will save between 60,000 and 120,000 paper and plastic cups a year. "Paper cup use is one of the greatest wastes we have on campus, so I hope these are mugs that people actually use during their time at Cal and beyond," said Graduate Student Assembly President Jessica Quindel, who proposed the program. A few thousand mugs will be distributed during ASUC elections this spring, said ASUC President Jesse Gabriel. They will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. The elections are a good fit for the mug giveaway because students must swipe their identification cards to vote. This will ensure only students get mugs, and that they only get one each. Using the mug will be a double incentive - students will be reducing waste and helping the environment, and they may get discounts at coffee shops for bringing their own mugs, Gabriel said. ASUC officials want on-campus restaurants and cafes close to campus to offer a discount for students who use the mug instead of a paper cup. Five of 10 coffee shops within two blocks of campus said they already offer a 10-cent discount to customers who bring in their own mugs, including Caffe Strada, Cafe Milano and Starbucks. "We're trying to instill a culture of recycling and reducing waste on campus," Gabriel said. "UC Merced is calling itself the environmentally friendly campus, but I think UC Berkeley can be not only the free speech campus but also the environmentally friendly campus." The program has been tried before. Six thousand students got mugs from the university in 2001, said Lisa Bauer, director of Campus Recycling and Refuse Services. Bauer designed the original cups, 20-ounce plastic thermal mugs emblazoned with pro-recycling messages like, "Saving the planet one cup at a time." The mugs are made from 40 percent recycled plastic and 60 percent nonrecycled plastic. The mug program here at UC Berkeley will follow in the footsteps of Harvard, Brown, UC Davis and other universities across the nation. "At Davis, people covet the mugs that come out," Bauer said. "They'll wait in lines for hours just to play a game to win one of those mugs." At the recycling summit, the university also established the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Sustainability. The committee will meet monthly to discuss issues of recycling and other environmental issues. --------------------- From Lisa Sepanski, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA, responding to the 2/24/03 item about how Stonyfield Farm recently switched from plastic to foil lids for their yogurt containers, to reduce waste: Don't you think Stonyfield's move creates more waste? I reuse the yogurt containers all the time and the brand of yogurt I buy is driven by how reusable the containers are. I won't buy Stonyfield's yogurt anymore because I have to throw out the container and I don't have the time or energy to e-mail them to request a reusable lid. Plus I would want a lid for every container I buy. E-mail: lisa ( D O T ) sepanski ( A T ) metrokc ( D O T ) gov --------------------- Link to information on a Northeast Recycling Coalition (NERC) conference on reuse and product stewardship (first seen on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's WasteWise listserv): http://www.nerc.org/meetings/0303Agenda.html This conference will be held March 25-26, 2003, at Northampton, Massachusetts. --------------------- Link to information on the 7th EnvironDesign conference April 30 - May 2, 2003, in Washington, DC (first seen on the EPA's WasteWise listserv): http://www.environdesign.com This conference is presented by IS (Interiors & Sources) magazine and "green@work" magazine, both published by L.C. Clark Publishing Co., North Palm Beach, Florida. --------------------- Link to information on deconstruction workshops in New York City (forwarded by Anna Bitansky): http://www.wastematch.org/about/press_and_news.html These workshops will be held March 26 and 27, 2003. They are presented by the New York WasteMatch program and sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 2. --------------------- Link to a new State of Washington sustainability action plan (forwarded by Marc Daudon): http://sustainableseattle.org/sustpanel/index.html This report, released February, 2003, identifies eight strategic outcomes for 2030 and includes eleven initial priority action recommendations. - end -