WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ARCHIVE   BACK TO ARCHIVE INDEX

30 Apr 03 - cups; reuse grants; Craigslist; fashion; university reduction ** 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: I received this inquiry from a King County resident who is active in the AA organization and would like to help them reduce waste. If anyone has any comments or suggestions, please e-mail them to me. I will forward them on to him, and if there are any responses relevant to the group, I will run them on the Forum. Thanks! "Is there a more environmentally responsible alternative to serving coffee in polystyrene cups? Here's the situation: In the Puget Sound (greater Seattle) area, 100,000 or more polystyrene cups are used at AA meetings every year. Because of the format and nature of the meetings, reusable cups are not a universal alternative (although some effort could be made to encourage the use of reusable cups, this would not make a noticeable dent in the use of polystyrene). It would be fairly easy to get information to all the groups and meetings if there was a worthwhile alternative. It might be possible for the central office to buy a very large quantity (wholesale) and make them available at cost to the individual groups. My questions are: a) Is polystyrene a serious enough problem for me to put energy and time into addressing the issue? b) Is there an alternative disposable cup? If I had the information to convince people this is a problem and that we can do something about it, I believe there would be a positive and energetic response. If there is no viable alternative, or if it is not actually that big a concern, that would be fine with me. I have a surplus of other things to keep me busy. Any information, ideas, or opinions you provide would be greatly appreciated." Tom's e-mail: tom [DOT] watson [AT] metrokc [DOT] gov -------------------- Excerpted from a message from Sarah Weimer, California Integrated Waste Management Board, Sacramento, CA: ANNOUNCEMENT OF CALIFORNIA REUSE ASSISTANCE GRANT AWARDS The California Integrated Waste Management Board is awarding the following six applicants with Reuse Assistance Grants from Fiscal Year 2002/2003 funds. The grant recipients, amount awarded, and project descriptions are as follows: City of Oakland - $50,000 The City of Oakland will use grant funds to partner with Community Woodworks, an existing nonprofit woodshop, to initiate an Educational Marketing Outreach Program. This program has the following goals: 1) To increase the diversion of reusable lumber from the C&D (construction and demolition) waste stream; 2) To increase the amount of salvaged lumber reused by Community Woodworks; and, 3) To educate C&D waste generators (such as building contractors and architects) and the general public about the need to increase the reuse of lumber currently disposed of as C&D waste. City of Santa Barbara - $46,105 Grant funds will be used to conduct a Reuse Campaign to promote and increase reuse in the Santa Barbara community. The campaign will target the entire community to receive education about reuse as a waste diversion method. By educating the community about the wide array of local reuse programs, from food to computers to sporting goods, there is great potential to increase the number of people contributing to and benefiting from those programs. City of Santa Clarita - $49,490 Grant funds will be used to develop three programs to encourage and promote reuse: 1) An upgrade to the Santa Clarita Valley Swap, a basic waste exchange of wanted and available materials; 2) A food waste donation program connecting the local Food Pantry, Santa Clarita Valley Senior Center, and FOOD Share with local restaurants and other food service businesses to donate edible food that would otherwise be discarded; and, 3) An Art Corner program to create arts and crafts from secondhand materials that are packaged and sold at local thrift stores. Local artists, crafters, students, teachers and volunteers would run workshops for teachers and other interested participants on the use of the packaged supplies and on how to purchase the packages for classroom and other projects. Nevada County - $4,979 (partial award) Grant funds will be used to design, plan, construct, and promote a building material reuse facility. There is currently no reuse opportunity available for these materials in the County. San Luis Obispo County - $50,000 Grant funds will be used to relocate the existing Habitat for Humanity ReStore. The store is an integral part of the County's diversion program because it is the only facility that accepts construction materials for reuse. A new store location is needed because Cuesta Community College has terminated the existing lease. West Contra Costa Integrated Waste Management Authority - $49,426 The Authority will use grant funds to partner with Street Tech, a nonprofit organization providing low-cost computer training, certification, and job placement for deserving adults (ages 18 and up) from disadvantaged communities in the San Francisco Bay Area, to remove reusable computers, monitors, and selected other electronics from the solid waste stream for reuse in the community in job training and education programs. The Authority, through its oversight of the West County Household Hazardous Waste Collection Facility, will provide a location for the drop-off of reusable computer equipment. Street Tech will provide the technical skills, job training, and refurbishing of the electronics to put this equipment back to good use in the local community. In addition to the Reuse Assistance Grants, the California Integrated Waste Management Board has an ever-growing list of reuse resources, which are available on the Board's Reuse Web site at: http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/reuse/ E-mail: sweimer (AT) ciwmb (DOT) ca (DOT) gov ----------------- The next two postings are in response to the 4/24/03 item about Craigslist, the free online classified listings in 23 cities (http://www.craigslist.org). ----------------- From Laurie Stoerkel, waste prevention advocate, San Francisco Bay area: We in the Bay Area shake our heads and wonder how we lived before the arrival of Craigslist. Like Alice's Restaurant, you can truly get ANYTHING you want. Craig Newmark is also a leader in the movement to keep the internet free and accessible to all. E-mail: LStoerkel [AT] oaklandnet [DOT] com ----------------- From John Crisley, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Municipal Waste Reduction Program, Boston, MA: Just a quick note to say "The Waste Prevention Forum has done it again." Craigslist is a very cool web resource. I'm definitely going to try and get this added to the soon-to-be-developed Massachusetts source reduction website. Plus I found 2 "items wanted" listings of stuff I have in my basement and want to sell. E-mail: John (DOT) Crisley (AT) state (DOT) ma (DOT) us ----------------- Excerpted from an article by D. Parvaz in the 4/25/03 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: A new book by Michelle Lee, "Fashion Victim: Our Love-Hate Relationship With Dressing, Shopping and the Cost of Style," describes the environmental and social issues entwined with the fashion industry. Observations from the book, and from an interview with Lee, include: - The average American spends $1,729 on clothing a year. In 1995, Americans bought 28.7 outerwear items (everything other than underwear and footwear) per person. The same year, the Chinese purchased two such items each. - "Speed chic," according to Lee, is the rapid marketing of ever-changing trends, which creates a need for more clothes, ratcheting up manufacturing levels. The demands are met by sweatshops that can maintain production rates while keeping prices at a level the market can support. She notes that ethical clothing production would be very feasible, as long as companies are willing to settle for smaller profits and consumers are willing to pay higher prices. - Some clothes you buy might come with "extras," such as benzene (a carcinogenic stain remover) and formaldehyde (embalming fluid, used to make permanent-press clothes wrinkle free). Lee says trace amounts of these chemicals are present in most clothes, and she quotes experts saying that even trace amounts can cause irritations and allergic reactions. Garment workers continue to be exposed to high levels of these chemicals. Lee says the textile industry in this country uses nearly 200 million pounds of chemicals to improve the appearance of the final product - such as polyvinyl alcohol and starch to strengthen fabric fibers. About 90 percent of that chemical waste, she says, is released into streams. - Manufacturing environmentally friendly clothes is also feasible, but it costs more, and the consumer, it seems, is unwilling to pay for it. Esprit, says Lee, gave that a shot three years ago, using a mechanical process instead of chemicals to shrink-proof its clothes. The line cost nearly 50 percent more than the company's regular line, and it failed. ---------------- Excerpted from a 4/8/03 press release from California State University, Sacramento, CA: Responding to a California state mandate requiring all state agencies to divert 50 percent of their waste by 2004, the staff at California State University in Sacramento (CSUS) is just steps away from achieving that goal nearly a year early. "We're hovering at about 50 percent diversion," says Roger Guzowski, the university's coordinator of recycling, solid waste and moving services. "We've come a long way and we're definitely ahead of schedule." Along with a variety of recycling programs, waste reduction efforts are making a difference at CSUS. For example, in an effort to reduce paper use, the primary computer labs switched to a fee-for-printing system, resulting in a reduction in paper use of three tons per year. And by bringing reusable cups to campus food service operations, beverage buyers have spurred a 1.5 ton reduction in disposable cup use each year. -end -