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20 May 03 - home composting; opt-out; DVDs; Chelsea; college reuse; simplicity ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- Note: The Forum archive (linked to above) has been offline recently because of a technical problem, but it should be back in operation soon. -------------------- From Rob Arner, New Market, Virginia, Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project, pollution prevention program: I would like to receive information on model home composting programs in the U.S. I am researching which programs are most successful and what are the key factors to this waste reduction skill. Thanks much. E-mail: rarner [ A T ] shentel [ D O T ] net (Note from Tom: Home composting, or on-site composting, is often considered a form of waste prevention.) ------------------- From Josh Marx, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA: I spoke to my daughter's class yesterday about garbage and recycling. Afterwards, the teacher handed out a song about composting that I thought people might enjoy. It goes to the tune of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." Banana Peel Blues Take me out to the compost / Take me out to the heap Chop me up into tiny bits / I don't care if I'm brown at the tips Cause it's root, root, root for recycling / If we all compost we'll gain For it's two, four, six weeks I'm out to the old garden. ----------------- Excerpted from a 5/14/03 article in the Dayton (OH) Daily News (following up on a 4/16/03 item about this ordinance): DAYTON SUBURB APPROVES OPT-OUT ORDINANCE On May 12, the Beavercreek (Ohio) City Council approved by a 4-2 vote an ordinance that gives residents a way to stop unsolicited "shopper" newspapers, circulars, handbills and similarly regularly delivered materials that are commonly left on people's porches or in their yards. The ordinance becomes law on June 11, 2003. The ordinance allows residents to opt out of a publisher's delivery route by sending a certified letter requesting removal. The publisher would have to stop delivery within 30 days. Those who continue to deliver could be charged with a minor misdemeanor. Political materials are not affected. Beavercreek, a suburb just east of Dayton, has a population of about 40,000. -------------------- Excerpted from a 5/16/03 Reuters news service article (forwarded by Thor Peterson): DISNEY TO BEGIN RENTING DISPOSABLE DVD "This disc will self-destruct in 48 hours." That is the warning The Walt Disney Co. will issue this August when it begins to "rent" DVDs that after two days become unplayable and do not have to be returned. Disney home video unit Buena Vista Home Entertainment will launch a pilot movie "rental" program in August that uses the self-destruction technology, the company said. The discs stop working when a process similar to rusting makes them unreadable. The discs start off red, but when they are taken out of the package, exposure to oxygen turns the coating black and makes it impenetrable by a DVD laser. Buena Vista hopes the technology will let it crack a wider rental market, since it can sell the DVDs in stores or almost anywhere without setting up a system to get the discs back. The discs work perfectly for the two-day viewing window, said Flexplay Technologies, Inc., the private company that developed the technology using material from General Electric Co. The technology cannot be hacked by programmers who would want to view the disc longer because the mechanism that closes the viewing window is chemical and has nothing to do with computer technology. However, the disc can be copied within 48 hours, since it works like any other DVD during that window. Buena Vista did not disclose pricing plans but said the discs, dubbed EZ-D, would be available in August in selected markets, featuring several recent releases. ----------------- Excerpted from an open message from Michael Dimino, interim director of the Chelsea Center for Recycling and Economic Development in Massachusetts (forwarded by Anna Bitansky), and from the Center's website: CHELSEA CENTER IN MASSACHUSETTS WILL CLOSE The Chelsea Center for Recycling and Economic Development, in Chelsea, MA, which is a program of the University of Massachusetts, has announced it will close, effective June 30, 2003. The Chelsea Center was launched by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1995 to create jobs, support recycling efforts, and help the economy and the environment by working to increase the use of recyclables by manufacturers. Although the center primarily has focused on recycling, its projects have also dealt with reuse and reduction. According to the Center's interim director, Michael Dimino, "The Chelsea Center no longer has the support required to continue its activities into the coming fiscal year. Despite a generous offer from the chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Lowell to continue staff support through fiscal year 2004 at half the fiscal year 2003 rate, we have been unable to secure adequate additional public or private funding in order to maintain a meaningful program." "These are difficult times, and inevitably, there will be casualties," Dimino said. "There have been many successes and accomplishments as well as lessons learned. We can only hope that a legacy will remain upon which to continue the efforts to create a sustainable materials economy in Massachusetts, where businesses will thrive that rely on locally discarded goods for their raw materials." ------------------- Excerpted from an article by Mark Clayton in the 5/20/03 Christian Science Monitor: ONE GRAD'S TRASH IS ANOTHER'S TREASURE Picture Pennsylvania State University's cavernous Beaver Stadium filled, not with screaming fans, but with nearly 90 tons of student junk - and 10,000 people pawing through it. Rugs, sneakers, lamps, refrigerators, jackets, half-full bottles of shampoo, televisions, toaster ovens, notebooks, fans, pens, posters, computers - all the once-vital trappings of 16,000 students' lives that are suddenly deemed expendable when the school year ends. And it all used to be the bane of Albert Matyasovsky's existence. As Penn State's chief junk buster, he deals with the mounds of stuff left behind when students leave in May. But the resourceful Mr. Matyasovsky turned his one-time bane into a boon by creating the mother of all yard sales - and opened it to the entire University Park community. The end-of-year junk problem grew enormously on most campuses during the 1990s as students increasingly brought with them all the comforts of home. The result today is that nearly every residential campus is floundering beneath the load. Many campuses just toss everything into a dumpster. That's what Penn State did - until last year. But Matyasovsky didn't like sending all that good furniture and serviceable wares into a landfill. So last year, he enlisted support on campus to hold a monster flea market - the school's first "trash-to-treasure" event. It's a recycling-for-charity idea that is growing on campuses that want a green alternative to the dump. "Prior to this we were sending hundreds of tons of reusable goods to the landfill," he says. "This way we recycle much of it, the proceeds go to charity, and we build good relations with the community." Last year the school made $15,000, which went to the local United Way chapter. But Penn State is only one recent convert. Lisa Heller is the queen of end-of-year move-out campus bargain sales and president of "Dump and Run" (http://www.dumpandrun.org), a three-year-old nonprofit company in Brookfield, Mass. Her idea is to help campuses set up a cheap but sophisticated system to deal with the year-end glut of student cast-offs. Heller first saw the light from the bottom of a dumpster. It was 1993, and she was a grad student at Syracuse University. While moving out, she realized she was missing a ring her mother gave her, and concluded it must have gotten tossed. "I just jumped into the dumpster," she says. "I never did find the ring. But I found crutches, a TV set, canned food, hot chocolate... As a result, I started thinking about it - why did someone throw those out?" She concluded that students are not inherently wasteful. But when they must clear out in two days, many will abandon or throw away perfectly useable items, she says. Compounding the problem is the fact that colleges increasingly have only a few days before summer sessions begin to get dorms ready to go again. "The end-of-the-term stuff is an enormous problem - it's hard to imagine the volume," says Gary Schwarzmueller, executive director of the Association of College and University Housing Officers International located in Columbus, Ohio. Dump and Run began as Heller's pilot project at the University of Richmond in 2000. Since then, 20 schools have tried the program. This year 10 campuses are participating and six former client schools liked it so much they now run their own programs. ------------------ Excerpted from an article by Brady Duncan in the 5/15/03 Dayton (OH) Daily News: THRIFT STORES PROMOTE VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY The Friends of St. Francis, of Dayton, Ohio, are on a mission, a modern crusade of sorts, to help the poor while promoting the values of St. Francis of Assisi and a concept called voluntary simplicity. The Friends are a nonprofit, nondenominational Christian organization. This program gives away materials such as clothes, furniture and housewares to families who are in crisis or who have been referred by churches and social service agencies. The group also operates three St. Francis Thrift Stores in the Dayton area. These stores provide low-income families with the opportunity to purchase donated basic material needs at low costs. The organization also promotes voluntary simplicity, which embraces a nonmaterialistic way of life and respect for the environment. "Voluntary simplicity is a commitment to living simply," said Friends of St. Francis executive director Mike Chakeres. "It means living within your means to avoid the brainwash of commercialism and consumerism. This mindset and lifestyle helps families make ends meet, and that's the goal of the St. Francis Thrift Stores." St. Francis Thrift Stores do not accept credit cards because it is contradictory to its message of living simply. "We stay true to our principles," Chakeres said. "We could accept credit cards and business would increase, but it's self-defeating. It influences people to instant gratification, when they don't have the money to pay for it. It's my personal crusade to get people to come back to the type of attitude toward consumerism during the 1940s and 1950s of anti-credit. If you can't afford it, don't buy it." In the future, Chakeres said the Friends of St. Francis "want to continue to develop the concept of voluntary simplicity and make people aware of a simpler lifestyle." - end -