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22 Jul 03 - marketing; DVDs; junk mail; Ireland taxes ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive --------------------- Excerpted from a 7/20/03 article by Amy Cortese in the New York Times business section: THEY CARE ABOUT THE WORLD - AND THEY SHOP, TOO There's a name floating around for consumers who worry about the environment, want products to be produced in a sustainable way and spend money to advance what they see as their personal development and potential. It's LOHAS, an acronym for "lifestyles of health and sustainability." The term was coined a few years ago by marketers trying to define what they regarded as a growing opportunity for products and services that appeal to a certain type of consumer. It may be the biggest market you have never heard of, encompassing things like organic foods, energy-efficient appliances and solar panels, as well as alternative medicine, yoga tapes and eco-tourism. Taken together, they accounted for a $230 billion market in 2000, according to Natural Business Communications, of Broomfield, Colo., which publishes "The Lohas Journal" and is credited with introducing the term. The company, which will release an updated estimate later this year, figures that the total market has grown by double-digit percentages annually. LOHAS proponents build on research indicating that a cultural shift is under way that could have significant impact on consumer purchasing behavior. Paul Ray, executive vice president of American Lives Inc., an opinion polling company, has surveyed people about their values and lifestyles for more than a dozen years and has identified an emerging subculture that he calls the "cultural creatives." This group, which Ray said included 50 million people in the United States and Europe - and is the subject of his book, "The Cultural Creatives" - is socially conscious, involved in improving communities and willing to translate values into action, he said. RoperASW, a research and consulting firm, figures that 16 percent of adult Americans are "green" consumers and that an additional 33 percent of the population can be persuaded to base their spending on their environmental values. These studies suggest that companies may benefit from considering values as well as conventional demographics, like age and income, when trying to understand customers. Consider Staples, the office products retailer. It has added more products with recycled materials and has promoted recycling programs at its stores for printer cartridges and consumer electronics products. "We are really taking a look at sustainable business practices and what our social and environmental commitments are and how we convey that to customers," said Mark Buckley, vice president for environmental affairs at Staples, based in Framingham, Mass. --------------------- Excerpted from a 7/21/03 article by Eric Taub in the New York Times business section, following up on previous postings about the Disney Corporation's new disposable DVDs: DISPOSABLE DVDS WILL HIT TEST MARKETS SOON; STUDY SAYS THEY WILL RESULT IN NET ENERGY SAVINGS Set to roll out in September with eight titles in four markets, Disney's new EZ-D DVD self-destructs 48 hours after the purchaser opens the special airtight package. The disc is composed of a Lexan resin co-polymer developed by GE Plastics. The General Electric Company owns a minority stake in Flexplay Technologies, the company that owns the underlying process and has licensed it to Disney. Once the product is exposed to the elements, a chemical clock starts ticking, turning the disc black and making it unreadable by a DVD player's laser after the designated time has elapsed. Until that happens, the disc can be played as often as desired. Disney hopes that the purchase price of $5 to $7 will be close enough to the cost of a typical DVD rental that many customers will consider it an easy impulse buy. Disney will be the first studio to license EZ-D from Flexplay. Among the other video leaders, the home-video divisions of Paramount, Sony and Warner Brothers declined to comment on their possible interest in the technology. Convenience will attract consumers to the concept, said Alan Blaustein, the chief executive of Flexplay. "With EZ-D, we are taking late fees and the video return process out of the equation." While experts say that the technology is intriguing, it remains an open question whether a self-destructing DVD will interest consumers who normally expect that any purchase of a physical object is theirs to use forever. The first hurdle could be educating consumers. Take Netflix Inc., a successful Internet company that offers $20 monthly subscriptions that allow consumers to rent as many DVDs as they want for as long as they want (although they are not allowed to keep more than three at a time). Netflix customers place their orders online and receive their DVDs through the mail. Executives at the company, which has 1.2 million subscribers, say that just explaining to potential customers how the business works has been a struggle. If the EZ-D disc is a success, its detractors say, expect to see an environmental mess, as millions of now useless discs clog the landfills with nonbiodegradable polymers. To counter these concerns, Flexplay has agreed to a partnership with a national recycler to collect used discs. Even if the discs are not recycled, single-use disposable DVDs will result in net energy savings, according to a study conducted by Jonathan Koomey, staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "The solid waste impacts may be more than completely offset by the gasoline saved from avoided trips to the video store. Gasoline savings could be 7.5 to 20 times larger than the increase in solid waste," Koomey said. --------------------- Excerpted from a 7/17/03 article by Michael Sasso in the Tampa (FL) Tribune, following up on recent postings about the new federal registry allowing people to get off telemarketing lists: "DO NOT CALL" REGISTRY COULD PUT MORE JUNK IN MAILBOXES Tired of telemarketers? The federal government's new National Do Not Call Registry could spell relief - but at a price. Several Tampa Bay area bulk mailing companies are expecting a surge in new business, as advertisers scale back their telemarketing efforts and ramp up their direct mail campaigns. After all, businesses have to get out their message, mass mailers say. "At least paper mail that shows up in your mailbox doesn't interrupt you at dinner, or doesn't wake up your baby," said Jean Ann Fox, director of consumer protection for the Consumer Federation of America in Washington. "What's going to really be bad is if this turns into Spam (junk e-mail)." So far, more than 26 million people have signed up for the federal do-not-call list, which will prohibit most telemarketers from calling subscribers. That figure may reach 60 million people by Oct. 1, when the list takes effect, according to the latest estimate by the Federal Trade Commission. Exemptions to the telemarketing ban include calls from charitable or political organizations, telephone surveyors and companies that have an existing business relationship with the homeowner. People can sign up for the list by calling the registry at 1-888-382-1222 or logging onto http://www.donotcall.gov Insiders aren't exactly sure how the telemarketing ban will affect direct mail, already a $49.1 billion industry last year, according to the Direct Marketing Association. But some local mass mailers are gearing up for new business. Cox Target Media, based in Largo, FL, already sends out 500 million direct-mail envelopes a year from Largo and a plant in North Carolina. It probably is best known to homeowners for its blue Valpak brand envelopes, which have coupons and ads from around 30 companies. Executive Vice President Paul Gordon is hoping for a 10 percent increase in business from traditional telemarketers. Credit card companies, especially, already are big direct mailers. According to the Consumer Federation of America, credit card issuers mailed out five billion solicitations during the 12 months ending March 31, 2002, or nearly 50 per U.S. household. --------------------- Excerpted from a 7/16/03 Associated Press article by Shawn Pogatchnik (forwarded by Deanna Seaman and Sasha Illahee Pollack from the Environmental News Network) and a 7/15/03 British Broadcasting Corporation article: IRELAND PLANS TAXES ON POLYSTYRENE PACKAGING, CASH-MACHINE RECEIPTS AND CHEWING GUM Ireland, which has drawn environmentalists' praise worldwide for its taxing crackdown on plastic bags, has announced plans to introduce punitive fees on three other key sources of litter. The government will introduce a bill this year to levy special taxes on chewing gum packets, receipts from cash machines, and polystyrene packaging from fast food chains, Environment Minister Martin Cullen announced. "If we are serious about tackling litter, we have got to take bold steps," Cullen said. The government said it would consult the targeted industries, environmentalists, and the general public before announcing details of the fees, which would be the most wide-ranging of their kind in the 15-nation European Union. Last year, Ireland imposed a 15 cents Euro (17 U.S. cents) surcharge on every plastic bag provided by grocery stores and other shops. Use of the once-free bags has plummeted, and they no longer linger as wind-blown litter on Irish streets and rural hedgerows. The money collected has gone to an Environmental Fund that plans to spend 35 million euros ($40 million U.S.) this year on recycling centers. It is estimated that this tax has cut the number of plastic bags used by around 90 percent. In the three months after it was introduced, shops handed out just over 23 million plastic bags - about 277 million fewer than normal. Cullen said the litter from gum, polystyrene packaging, and cash-machine receipts could be greatly reduced with the same type of punitive tax. To pay for removing gum on the street, he proposed a charge of 5 to 10 euro cents (6 to 12 U.S. cents) per pack, which would fund special "gum-buster" cleaning machines. "I believe that those who use chewing gum should pay for its clean-up," said Cullen, who noted that the 80 million packs sold annually in Ireland produced up to 500 tons of gum that has to be scrubbed off the pavements. - end -