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06 Feb 04 - Inkjet refills; zero waste; beer; faxes; batteries; furniture; shoes ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive --------------------- Excerpted from an article by Alec Rosenberg in the 1/20/04 Oakland Tribune, an article by James Bush in the Feb. 2004 monthly Seattle Sun, and the Island Ink-Jet website: HOT REUSE BUSINESS TREND: PRINTER CARTRIDGE REFILL STORES Two franchise companies that are quickly expanding offer a money-saving reuse service: They refill your inkjet printer cartridges when you bring them in to their store. - Island Ink-Jet, based in Courtenay, British Columbia, Canada, has more than 120 stores in Canada, the United States and Mexico. Stores are in nine Canadian provinces and in 16 states in all regions of the U.S. About 70 of the stores opened in 2003. The company says it plans to have 1,000 U.S. locations by the end of 2005. - Cartridge World, based in Australia, has more than 400 stores worldwide, with 40 stores open or under construction in the U.S. They plan to have 200 stores open in the U.S. by the end of 2004. Most inkjet cartridges can be refilled for between $12 and $17 at Island Ink-Jet, a substantial savings over a new cartridge. Cartridge World's prices are similar. According to the Seattle Sun article, Lexmark cartridges can be refilled three or four times, while cartridges by other makers can be refilled up to 30 times. Both companies say they can refill inkjet cartridges in about 10 minutes, if they don't have a backlog of customers. Both companies' stores also offer other services. These may include the refilling of laser cartridges (although that takes longer) and sales of cartridges and refill kits. Island Ink-Jet's strategy is to place its stores in shopping malls, so that customers can have their cartridges refilled while they shop at other stores. Each company uses more than 100 different ink formulations for refills, which they say allows them to match the original ink. Cartridge World and Island Ink-Jet also both offer 100 percent guarantees on their refill services. --------------------- Excerpted from a message from Mark Clayton, Right Choice Refreshments, Seattle, WA: For more than 13 years our customers have reduced waste by eliminating disposable cans and bottles for the beverages they drink, using our home and office soda fountains and beverage concentrates. We have marketed our products to consumers in Washington state and Oregon. We now desire to increase the availability of and the offering of our products to consumers throughout the U.S. and Canada. I am in the process of having a new website designed and developed. One of my objectives for the site will be to inform and educate readers about zero waste issues and provide some links for people to get more information about zero waste. I am looking for some content for this area of our site and some links. Can any readers help me with some information? I am running up against some tight deadlines on the design and development of our website and need this material as soon as possible. Thank you for any help. E-mail: Mark (AT) idrinksoda (DOT) com --------------------- Excerpted from a 2/2/04 Reuters news service article: GERMANS DRINK LESS, REUSE MORE Germans drank less beer for a fourth straight year in 2003 as a new government deposit on cans and an aging population led to sales erosion at the nation's 1,280 breweries, according to new government data. German beer production has been declining steadily since the mid-1990s. The country is still the third biggest beer consumer on a per capita basis, behind the Czech Republic and Ireland. Brewers have said changing demographics are partly to blame for the drop in demand, as fewer younger people in the German population means fewer beer drinkers. But brewers also blame the slide on the fact that drinkers must pay a 25-cent deposit for each throwaway can, a rule that came into effect in January, 2003, to promote recycling. The effect of the law has been to virtually eliminate canned beer on the German market. More than 80 per cent of Germany's 5,000 brands of beer are now sold in reusable containers, with glass and plastic bottles replacing tins. --------------------- Link to a U.S. Federal Communications Commission fact sheet, "Unwanted Faxes: What You Can Do": http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/unwantedfaxes.html --------------------- Link to a review of the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation's recycling program for rechargeable batteries, in the January 2004 issue of the Northwest Product Stewardship Council's Policymakers' Bulletin (forwarded by Jeff Gaisford): http://www.productstewardship.net/PDFs/policiesRBRCBulletin.pdf ---------------------- Excerpted from a column by Margie Boulé in the 1/8/04 Portland Oregonian (seen on the National Furniture Bank Association listserv): (Note from Tom: This column by Margie Boulé shows the power of the press. After this column (and a couple of smaller separate items) ran in the Portland daily newspaper, the Oregon Community Warehouse furniture bank in Portland reported that its donations had grown by 300 percent - and the donations are the types of items they really need.) FROM THOSE WITH TOO MUCH TO THOSE WITH ABSOLUTELY ZERO That old brown sofa is still sitting in the basement. You know, the one you planned to donate to charity a few years ago. And the kitchen table you bought when you were first married - it's in the corner of the garage, holding up empty boxes. The kids are married and live in other states - do you really think they want to sleep on their old twin beds when they visit? It's time to clear out the household items you thought you might need "someday." Guess what? Someday is here, and you still don't need them. You could donate them to a local charity that would sell them in a thrift store. That would raise funds for the charity, and provide employment for folks who otherwise might not have jobs. It's a good choice. And there's another good choice you might not know about: the Oregon Community Warehouse. They will pick up your household goods and give them - free - to people who have absolutely nothing. Homeless folks moving into a place of their own. Domestic abuse victims moving with their children into apartments. Street kids, mentally ill folks, immigrants - all with four walls and nothing else to their name. "The people who come here to get a bed, or a kitchen table," says Roz Babener, founder of OCW, "cannot afford to go to a thrift store." The need is huge, and the turnover is constant. The crammed warehouse will be nearly empty on Thursdays, after local agencies and families pick up their new possessions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Then the truck heads out to collect more donations, and the process begins again. The warehouse provides goods to 45 families every week, and it is booked solid for the next six weeks. There are 60 more families a week who could use the organization's help, if it had more goods donated. The warehouse has only one full-time employee, and two part-timers. The rest of the folks who worked in the freezing warehouse this week were volunteers, as is Roz. The warehouse could use more volunteers. It would appreciate donations of cash. But most of all, it needs the still-nice household items you don't need anymore, especially tables, dressers, lamps, twin beds, and pots and pans. Think about it: A man who slept in his car through this week's snowstorm could be nestled in your old armchair within days. A mother leaving Somalia or Cuba or Russia today could be putting her child to bed next week in Portland, tucking in the purple dinosaur sheets your son will no longer allow on his twin bed. A family could be gathered for dinner around the old kitchen table in your garage. These people have nothing. You have too much. It's a match made in Portland. To donate goods or funds to Oregon Community Warehouse, call 503-235-8786. Note from Tom #2: Many cities in the U.S. and Canada have furniture banks similar to this one. For a partial list of furniture banks in the U.S., see: http://www.thenfba.org/Sub/local_listings.html ----------------------- Excerpted from an article by Karen Guzman in the 2/5/04 Raleigh (NC) News & Observer: SHOE REPAIR MAN SAYS "DISPOSABLE" SHOES JUST DON'T HAVE SOLE It's a dicey time in the shoe-repair trade. Business is dwindling; there are about 7,600 shoe-repair shops in the United States, down from about 15,000 a decade ago, according to the Shoes Services Institute of America. The decrease comes largely from the growing popularity of shoes with rubber or synthetic soles. Cheaper to make and cheaper to buy, the "disposables" have bred a consumer more likely to toss old shoes than repair them. And typically, many of the styles cannot be repaired when they wear out. George Sutphen, a shoe repair man and shoemaker in Raleigh, N.C., says that in the shoe world, there are two types of shoppers: Those who buy disposables, generally anything $50 or less, and those who purchase quality and take care of it. "You will spend more money in your lifetime on cheaper shoes," he warns. Resoling and reheeling a pair of well-made, $200 to $300 men's shoes costs about $50. And quality-made, well-tended shoes can last 20 years or more. He recommends Johnson & Murphy, Allen-Edmonds, Cole Haan and Bostonian shoes, calling them "excellent." Bass Weejuns, Rockport, Etienne Aigner and Selby are a step down in price, but still good quality shoes. Generally speaking, shoes that Sutphen considers to be quality shoes can't be bought for less than $90 (unless you happen upon a blowout sale). And what separates the wheat from the chaff in the shoe world? Mostly soles. Inexpensive shoes today usually have a rubber or synthetic "molded" sole and heel unit glued onto the upper portion of the shoe. Molded soles wear away, tend to crack horizontally and generally cannot be repaired because there is no midsole, a layer of material between the sole and shoe that's connected to the shoe. There are some rubber soles Sutphen says he can repair with certain glues, but an industry bent on sales volume keeps ahead of the game. "Shoe manufacturers are constantly coming up with new rubbers so that we can't glue them," Sutphen says. But there will always be cobblers. As long as people love and buy good shoes, they'll need skilled experts to refurbish them. Which is fine with George Sutphen. "I talk to my customers and I build a rapport with them," he says, "so when they walk out they're excited about that shoe." - end -