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20 Jan 04 - Hungary; durables; batteries; iPod; UPS; bills; time ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive --------------------- Link to the English language version of the website for the Waste Reduction Alliance in Hungary (forwarded by Tömöri Balázs): http://www.humusz.hu/humusz/angol/english.html The Waste Reduction Alliance is an alliance of 18 Hungarian environmental groups. Its main purpose is to educate Hungarian citizens about environmental issues, changing their attitudes regarding waste and consumer issues. The Alliance's actions have included: - On Buy Nothing Day, "We surprised the pedestrians at one of the busiest spots in Budapest by setting up a street theatre and distributing pills to heal the consumer hysteria." - In another project, "We prepared a catapult and threw pieces of throw-away packaging at the building of the Environment Ministry. We were armed to the teeth with waste. We informed representatives of all TV channels that companies with a vested interest in packaging... rule the legislative and decision-making processes by lobbying." - The Alliance distributed living Christmas trees to people, charging a deposit. "If the tree was returned after Christmas, we gave back most of the deposit. Through this action we tried to make people realize that it is not necessary to cut down millions of pine trees for a celebration, but there are alternatives." Note: Tömöri Balázs, of the Waste Reduction Alliance, can be reached at: dormir [AT] freemail [DOT] hu -------------------- From Sarah Grimm, BRING Recycling, Eugene, OR: Does anyone have actual statistics, articles, or reports that support durables in a cafeteria/group-meeting setting? A community member here is requesting this in order to convince her church group to go with durables. They ask for proof. E-mail: sarahg ( A T ) bringrecycling ( D O T ) org --------------------- From David Assmann, San Francisco Department of the Environment, San Francisco, CA, responding to the news item posted 1/14/04, noting that the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation collected more than 4 million pounds of rechargeable batteries for recycling in 2003: According to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency statistics, Americans generate 229 million tons of municipal solid waste per year (as of 2001). The California Integrated Waste Management Board has calculated, based on a 1999 study, that batteries make up .001 of the waste stream (one-tenth of one percent). We are therefore discarding, nationwide, 229,000 tons of batteries a year, or 458 million pounds per year. A 1995 sales study showed that NiCd (Nickel-Cadmium) batteries made up 10 percent of the total batteries sold in the U.S. and were projected to increase at a rate of 5 percent a year. Recycling 4 million pounds of NiCd batteries amounts to a recycling rate of less than 9 percent. Regarding toxicity, Ni-Cd batteries contain cadmium, and NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) and Li-Ion (Lithium Ion) batteries contain cobalt. Cobalt is classified as a possible human carcinogen and cadmium is classified as a probable carcinogen or a carcinogen (depending on which group is doing the classifying). I wonder what percentage of the 3 BILLION dry cell batteries that American consumers buy every year are recycled. E-mail: David [D O T] Assmann [A T] sfgov [D O T] org --------------------- From Jeff Gaisford, King County Solid Waste Division, Recycling and Environmental Services, Seattle, WA, responding to the recent postings about the Apple iPod (a pocket-sized, computerized music player), which has a battery that is not replaceable by the user: I may be overly sensitive about the iPod e-mails, since I own one. But here are some comments: I agree that it is a design flaw that the rechargeable battery cannot be replaced. Maybe if enough people complain, Apple will change that. I must say that I'm much happier recharging my iPod rather than frequently buying new batteries. No one has talked about the possible environmental benefits of portable music players like the iPod. In the old days (say, in 2000) I would drive my car to a "record shop" (I might be able to walk or ride the bus if I'm lucky enough to live close enough to a record shop) where I would thumb through the racks of CDs (and possibly albums) and I may decide to buy something. If not, the trip was wasted. Not to mention the fact that the CDs had to be manufactured and transported to the store in all of their glorious packaging (which none of us are able to open). With my iPod, I don't have to drive to a record store (or whatever they're called these days). I have two options: 1) I can shop online and buy music (legally of course, which is very easy with an iPod and Apple iTunes software). No CD is produced. I only buy what I want/need (I may just buy a song or two or an entire disk-worth of music). There's no packaging of the non-existent CD. 2) I can go through my existing 400 CDs of music, load them (or some of them) on my computer to be subsequently loaded on my iPod. I suddenly find that I'm listening to music that I forgot I had (don't need to go out to the record store every week or month). It's reuse at its finest. Listening to my "old" CDs is like spending time with an old friend. Without my iPod my old CDs could still be around gathering dust while I go out and buy a bunch of new CDs. Finally, I don't think some of the "name-calling" that I've seen recently on this listserv (coming up with iPod acronyms; people needing "instant gratification" by using such devices) really helps advance the issue of waste reduction. It puts us in the category of folks that did the Iowa commercial calling Dean supporters "...a bunch of latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo driving..." You get the point. When did listening to music become a bad thing - something that's perceived as self-indulgent? E-mail: jeff [D O T] gaisford [A T] metrokc [D O T] gov --------------------- Link to the recycling and source reduction section of the United Parcel Service (UPS) Corporate Sustainability Report (first seen on the Ethical Performance listserv): http://www.sustainability.ups.com/sect3_4a.htm The UPS Corporate Sustainability Report is the company's first such report. It is dated 2002, but was just recently released. The full report is at: http://www.sustainability.ups.com/downloads/UPS_sustain_2.pdf Among other waste reduction achievements, UPS says that in 2002 they used more than 2.1 million reusable bags in the U.S. and Germany to bundle and sort small packages within their system. UPS has 360,000 employees, 88,000 vehicles and 2,850 facilities worldwide. --------------------- Excerpted from an article by Eve Tahmincioglu in the 1/18/04 New York Times: ONLINE BILL PAYING ON THE RISE A growing number of consumers have decided to deal with their monthly bills in cyberspace. About 19 million American households do some bill paying online, up from 7.8 million in 2001, according to Bruce Cundiff, an analyst at Jupiter Research, a technology research firm in New York. By 2008, he said, about 61 million households are expected to pay at least some bills online. Beth Robertson, a senior analyst at TowerGroup, a research firm based in Needham, Mass., estimated that about 40 percent of major creditors already had electronic payment programs, and that an additional 35 percent planned to introduce them in the next two years. Bank of America says 3.2 million customers use its bill-paying site, up from 1.8 million at the beginning of 2003. Banks and other companies, of course, have a vested interest in having customers deal with bills electronically. Online payments mean less expense for printing, handling and mailing paper. But Internet bill paying has a long way to go before consumers give up paper forever. For one thing, most people who pay bills online still receive them in the mail. And some people just savor the ritual and perceived control of paying bills with pen and checkbook in hand. The average household gets 13 monthly bills, according to TowerGroup. Many people prefer to consolidate the online bill-paying process. Some banks and independent financial Web sites offer a one-stop approach, allowing consumers to handle payments in one place on everything from mortgages to lawn services. --------------------- Link to the website for TimeBucks, a free neighbor-to-neighbor service exchange (forwarded by Marcia Rutan): http://www.timebucks.org TimeBucks is active in more than 35 communities in North America. Members trade services that they like to do. One hour is worth 15 time-bucks. Members provide a service or volunteer in their community to receive time-bucks. This concept has a number of waste prevention benefits. --------------------- Link to the January, 2004, newsletter for Take Back Your Time Day, on the Simple Living Network website (forwarded by Marcia Rutan): http://www.simpleliving.net/timeday/news-current.asp - end -