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06 Apr 04 - fender bender; visual aids; product stewardship; DVDs; phones ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive --------------------- From Gretchen Brewer, Earth Circle, San Diego, CA: A WASTE OF A GOOD CAR? After living in Chicago and Boston, where there's great public transit, it was a real culture shock for me when I moved to California in 1990, and had to buy my first car in life. I got a '91 Toyota Camry, which had (still has) good mileage and low emissions. I've babied the car ever since, leaving it parked at much as possible, averaging only 5,000 miles/year. I heard somewhere that the manufactured life-expectancy of a vehicle in the US averages 11 years (though many Americans turn over cars every few years), and that developing country car-owners stretch vehicle life an average of 20 years through maintenance and repair. So I set 20 years as the goal for my car, thinking I'd not waste all the materials, manufacturing energy, etc. I've been feeling virtuous that my Camry has now been in service nearly 14 years and has only 75,000 miles on it. It has a few minor dings, but aside from cosmetic stuff, the car runs great. The motor, transmission, all the innards and extra features are fine. The bubble burst a week ago when an SUV driver rear-ended me while I was stopped at a stop sign. The left tail-light is bashed in, the trunk door is slightly bowed, and the left rear quarter panel is dented. About $1500 worth of body work according to the estimate. BUT the insurance company (Travelers) wants to declare the car totaled, claiming the repairs are not worth the car's value. The Kelley Blue Book gives a value of $3500. Travelers says they use an independent market research firm to determine car value. Then they will follow a formula I don't yet understand where they deduct the salvage value from the car's value, or the repair cost from the car's value, - or - bottom line - it seems I'm to lose the car. Travelers would take salvage title of the car, pay me an amount well below its value, and scrap a perfectly good, well-running, well-maintained vehicle. This seems a huge waste. And it seems like the cards are stacked for the insurance company and I have no options. So, should I just chalk this up as a "welcome to reality" lesson? Anyone have ideas on how not to waste a good car? Do I have recourse in this situation where the value Travelers uses will be pegged to "average" '91 Camrys with hundreds of thousands of miles on them and none of the babying I've done? I'd be happy for them to repair the car, or pay me the amount for repair, and I'd have it fixed and call the claim settled. Any and all suggestions will be graciously welcomed. E-mail: earthgb [A T] aol [D O T] com --------------------- From Melissa Kriegerfox, Monroe County Solid Waste Management District, recycling and reuse program, Bloomington, IN: Does anyone have some visual aids that I can use that demonstrate common statistics? Examples: If recycling newspapers from just one Sunday would save 500,000 trees a week, what does 500,000 trees look like? What does 4.5 pounds of trash per day look like? Etc.... E-mail: mkrieger ( AT ) mcswmd ( DOT ) org --------------------- Link to the newly-renovated website for the Product Stewardship Institute (forwarded by Scott Cassel): http://www.productstewardship.us The Institute's first quarterly newsletter, published in March 2004, is at: http://www.productstewardship.us/newsletter/index.html ---------------------- Excerpted from a 3/15/04 Reuters News Service article (forwarded by David Assmann): DISNEY'S SELF-DESTRUCTING DVD ROLLING INTO FLORIDA Walt Disney Co. hopes to capitalize on exploding interest in its self-destructing DVDs by expanding trials of the discs into Florida and other major markets in April, the company said. Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Disney's video unit, plans to cut the price to $5.99 from $6.99 as it nearly quadruples the number of outlets with the discs, aimed chiefly at video renters who find returns a hassle, a spokesman said. Environmentalists criticize the waste of discs that must be thrown away, while Disney says it has a recycling program and that the customers love the convenience. The self-destructing EZ-D DVDs, developed by privately-held Flexplay Technologies, quit playing 48 hours after they are opened as a chemical reacts with air, obscuring the tracks on the disc so a laser cannot read them. That means retail shops and other companies can join the competition for distributing home movies without having to set up systems for returns and tracking videos. 7-Eleven convenience stores and pizza chain Papa John's are both carrying the discs in the trials, Disney said. Disney so far is releasing the disposable DVDs after the original DVD lands in retail stores so that they do not compete with first-run home video rentals and sales. Disney will expand the EZ-D trial to Florida as well as Phoenix, San Antonio and Denver in April and May. The DVDs launched last September in four cities. More than 2,500 outlets will carry the disposable DVDs, up from about 700 in the first phase of the trial, a Disney spokesman said. There are no plans yet for a national roll-out. ----------------------- Excerpted from a 3/31/04 message from Gary Straus, ReCellular Inc., Dexter, MI, and a March 2004 press release from ReCellular and the Institution Recycling Network, based in Concord, NH: The Institution Recycling Network (IRN) and ReCellular, Inc., have announced the creation of a new program to collect and recycle cell phones, two-way radios, pagers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), digital cameras and other handheld electronic devices from colleges and universities, hospitals, and other institutions throughout New England. The program will first be rolled out to about 15 institutions, including Harvard University, Dartmouth College, Boston College and Cambridge Hospital. The Institution Recycling Network, based in Concord, NH, is a cooperative organization that recycles over 75 different materials for more than 110 education and healthcare institutions. Under the new program, the IRN will distribute collection boxes and help publicize the collection program among its member institutions. The institutions will collect the devices from students and staff. When they are full, the collection boxes will be returned to ReCellular. ReCellular reconditions recycled cell phones and other handheld electronics and resells them in the U.S. and abroad. Units that cannot be repaired are disassembled and disposed of through certified recycling facilities for responsible material reclamation. ReCellular works with organizations outside the U.S. to ensure that phones and other devices sold abroad are properly recycled if they cannot be reused in their original form. Gary's e-mail: gstraus [AT] recellular [DOT] com - end -