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19 Dec 03 - cards; cars; Nobel; holidays; curriculum; Wal-Mart; subscribers ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive --------------------- Excerpted from the Fall 2003 newsletter and the website of St. Jude's Ranch for Children, Boulder City, NV: CARD REUSE PROGRAM DOESN'T NEED MORE CARDS UNTIL 2006 For a number of years, St. Jude's Ranch for Children has had a project, the Recycled Greeting Card Program, where people can send in the fronts of Christmas cards and other greeting cards for reuse. Children at the ranch cut the card fronts and glue them to pre-printed card stock to make new (reused) cards. The children receive 15 cents for each card they make, which is divided between their savings and college fund, a fund for group outings, and to provide the kids with extra pocket money. They are still accepting cards. However, St. Jude's says they currently have enough cards to last them the next 2 to 3 years. For that reason, they are suggesting that people stop sending them, for the time being. St. Jude's said, in its newsletter, "Instead of paying the postage it would require to ship all those boxes of cards, why not take the cards to your local recycling center, and send us a small donation?" St. Jude's is a non-profit, non-sectarian home for abused, abandoned and neglected children. Note from Tom: Some people in the environmental community are urging people to purchase St. Jude's Recycled Cards, to help reduce the backlog. They cost $10.95 for 10 cards and can be purchased at: http://www.radicalage.net/scripts/viaeshop.exe/startshop?compid=2574 They are also available at some Kinko's copying shops. Note from Tom #2: Even though the above information about the 2-3 year backlog of cards ran in St. Jude's Fall 2003 newsletter, the Ford Motor Co. is still going full speed ahead in its efforts to collect cards for St. Jude's. Ford sent out a press release Dec. 15, 2003, about how Ford helps St. Jude's by collecting used greeting cards from its employees "for the 11th consecutive year." The release states, "Since Ford began supporting the St. Jude's Ranch, the company has collected and contributed more than 4 million cards." In addition to collecting cards from its employees, Ford will also collect cards from people attending the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January. Some Ford employees are also helping to sell the St. Jude's cards, and Ford has given St. Jude's a $200,000 grant to help the organization expand nationally and build additional campuses. --------------------- From Don Van Dyke, California Integrated Waste Management Board, Sacramento, CA, responding to the 12/15/03 item about "pay-as-you-drive," or mileage-based, car insurance: I like the "pay as you drive" idea. It is not a new concept. A long time ago I used to pay a reduced insurance rate if I drove less. I would like to go one step further and establish "pay as you pollute." Each new vehicle's relative emissions per mile could be calculated, just as we now calculate its fuel consumption per mile. When we report our mileage to our insurance company, they could assess a tax or fee for the pollution, and send the money to some state agency that could divert the funds to things such as mass transit expansion or childhood asthma prevention. If the tax or fee was high enough it could motivate people to use mass transit or buy less-polluting vehicles. (This idea has been thought of before too.) E-mail: DVanDyke [ AT ] CIWMB [ DOT ] ca [ DOT ] gov --------------------- Link to information on an international campaign to create a new Nobel Prize for Sustainable Development (forwarded by Marcia Rutan): http://www.sustainable-prize.net This initiative is supported by a number of environmental organizations and the Dalai Lama, among others. --------------------- Link to the "Checklist for a Lighter Holiday," a guide to reducing waste during the holiday season, published in December, 2003, by Snohomish County Solid Waste Division, Everett, WA (forwarded by Marcia Rutan): http://www.co.snohomish.wa.us/publicwk/solidwaste/information/webcklist1203.pdf --------------------- Excerpted from an article by Lisa Belkin in the 12/1/03 New York Times (forwarded by Scarlet Tang) : LESSONS IN GIVING VS. GETTING Two years ago, in the months after Sept. 11, I set out to buy Hanukkah gifts for my two children. But even before I made a shopping list, it became clear that "buying stuff" just didn't feel like the right way to end that awful year. Instead, I bought them each one modest gift, then went to the bank and took out in cash what I would have spent on presents in a more exuberant season. Then, each night for the eight nights of Hanukkah, my husband and I gave our then 7- and 10-year-old sons a small stack of $5 bills and information about a handful of charities. They decided together how to allocate that money; then they placed it in envelopes and mailed it away. I wish I could tell you that they never complained about this change. Of course, they did. What surprised me, though, was how quickly the protesting stopped. It was replaced by pride in the power of "their" money, and simultaneous despair at its limits. In the two years since then, "doing charity" has become a holiday tradition at our house, and even cousins and visiting friends have been given money to give to others. In addition, our sons have now - voluntarily - started to add their own savings to the pot. All this has made the smallest of dents in one of the thornier challenges of parenting - teaching children about money - and it's made me wish I'd started much sooner. --------------------- From Marci Young, Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, Waste Management Division, Waterbury, VT, responding to the 12/15/03 request for information on curriculum on waste reduction and reuse for grades K-6: The Association of Vermont Recyclers has much curriculum to choose from, including a K - 12 Teacher's Resource Guide. Visit their publications website at: http://www.vtrecyclers.org/resources/publications.html Our educator's guide is located at: http://www.anr.state.vt.us/anr/edguide.htm#dec One good workbook for grades K-8 is "Waste Not! Vermont." Other educational resources can be found on our agency's homepage at: http://www.anr.state.vt.us/students.htm E-mail: marci [ DOT ] young [ AT ] anr [ DOT ] state [ DOT ] vt [ DOT ] us --------------------- Excerpted from a cover story about Wal-Mart by Charles Fishman in the December 2003 Fast Company magazine (forwarded by David Allaway): WAL-MART AND THE COST OF LOW PRICES Wal-Mart is not just the world's largest retailer. It's the world's largest company - bigger than ExxonMobil, General Motors, and General Electric. Wal-Mart sold $244.5 billion worth of goods last year. It does more business than Target, Sears, Kmart, J.C. Penney, Safeway, and Kroger combined. "Clearly," says Edward Fox, head of Southern Methodist University's J.C. Penney Center for Retailing Excellence, "Wal-Mart is more powerful than any retailer has ever been." It is, in fact, so big and so furtively powerful as to have become an entirely different order of corporate being. Wal-Mart wields its power for just one purpose: to bring the lowest possible prices to its customers. At Wal-Mart, that goal is never reached. The retailer has a clear policy for suppliers: On basic products that don't change, the price Wal-Mart will pay, and will charge shoppers, must drop year after year. But what almost no one outside the world of Wal-Mart and its 21,000 suppliers knows is the high cost of those low prices. Wal-Mart has the power to squeeze profit-killing concessions from vendors. To survive in the face of its pricing demands, makers of everything from bras to bicycles to blue jeans have had to lay off employees and close U.S. plants in favor of outsourcing products from overseas. Wal-Mart has lulled shoppers into ignoring the difference between the price of something and the cost. Its unending focus on price underscores something that Americans are only starting to realize about globalization: Ever-cheaper prices have consequences. Says Steve Dobbins, president of North Carolina-based thread maker Carolina Mills: "We want clean air, clear water, good living conditions, the best health care in the world - yet we aren't willing to pay for anything manufactured under those restrictions." --------------------- From Tom Watson, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA, and the National Waste Prevention Coalition: As 2003 nears a close, I'd like to thank all of you for being a part of the Waste Prevention Forum. I've learned a lot from the postings, and I know many others have too. As we do every year at this time, we're running the list (below) of the names of all the subscribers to the Forum. It's interesting to see who is on the list (a lot of other people also end up reading the Forum, because people forward it to co-workers, friends, etc.). If you know of anyone else who would like to join the Forum, just have them e-mail me. Have a wonderful holiday season and a rewarding new year! Keep up the great work, and thanks again for all your support! - Tom E-mail: tom [DOT] watson [AT] metrokc [DOT] gov -------------------- Current subscribers to the Waste Prevention Forum: Abell, Nancy; Abrams, Heather; Aguiar, Victor; Aldridge, Mahlon; Alekel, Dale; Alexander, Michael; Allaway, David; Allen, Dave; Aller, Sharon; Allison, Peter; Ambrose, Frances; Amicucci, Michelle; Anthony, Richard; Antonakos, Jetta; Apotheker, Steve; Arner, Rob; Artley, Tracy; Assmann, David; Atkins, Katie; Auld, Mary; Ayde, Mary; Baasch, Gail; Bailey, Ryan; Baker, Tanya; Bakke, Rory; Balek, Joyce; Balsley, Rachel; Barto, Debra; Barton, Paul; Becker, Charlotte; Becker, Steve; Bell, Carole; Bennett, Jim; Bergeron, Susan; Bernthal, Tim; Biddle, David; Bircher, Maria; Bisson, Connie Leach; Bitansky, Anna Traktoueva; Blais, Lorilee; Blakely, Val; Blue, Dan; Blythe, Sue; Bogar, Janine; Boisson, Edward; Brawer, Wendy; Brewer, Gretchen; Brown, Ken; Bugbee, Beth; Bushnell, Vicki; Cable, Alison; Cahillane, Jamie; Capek, Sonya; Case, Melanie; Cassidy, Colin; Cecil, Rika; Cera, David; Chin, Yen; Christiansen, Pete; Christmann, Holly; Clark, Jack; Clarke, Marjorie; Clayton, Mark; Cloak, Connie; Cloutier, Chris; Cohen, Laura; Cole, Michelle; Conroy, Sharon; Cosgrove, Darin; Coville, Gerty; Coward, Megan; Crisley, John; Crockett, Judy; Cubic, Aaron; Cucina, Hope; Culver, Alicia; Cuyler, Alex; Danovitch, Alex; Daoust, Ruth; Daudon, Marc; Davidson, Cathie; Davis, Gina; Davis, Michele; Davis, Stephanie; Deardorff, Julie; DeBell, Jack; deGrassi, Dan; Deller, Kinley; Desmond, Roberta; Devine, Paul; Diangson, Ticiang; DiCarlo, Yvette; Diccicco-Craft, Dee Dee; Dickerson, Catherine; Domres, Patrick; Donnette, Rachel; Dorn, Betsy; Drew, Eron; Dubois, Peter; Dunn, Judi; Dunn, Paul; Durbin, Dennis; Durham, Karyn; Dutton, Lea; Eade, Teresa; Eckl, Beth; Ellis, Todd; Engel, Steve; Eskridge, Anne; Estes, Tom; Estreller, Susana Reyes; Etienne, MaryEllen; Ewing, Bill; Fiedler, Karen; Fife-Ferris, Susan; Fikejs, Matt; Fine, Polagaya; Fisher, Sally; Fisher, Steve; Flanigan, Laura; Flite, Sondra; Flora, David; Foecke, Terry; Fogel, Shira; Foss, Scott; Fowler, Angie; Friedman, Eric; Friend, Gil; Friend, Lisa; Frierson, Barbara; Frost, Crystal; Fuller, Brian; Fultz, Dixie. 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