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16 Apr 04 - inspiration; car insurance; stats; Earth Day dinner; AOL CDs
** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM **
-- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition
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Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive
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From Susan Salterberg, Center for Energy & Environmental Education,
University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA:
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
I teach a course on waste reduction to Iowa teachers. They always face the
challenge of helping their students (mostly 7th-12th graders) see that they
can make a positive difference in the world.
I would like to gather quotes and brief stories that talk about people or
actions that have made a difference in the world. Would you have some to
share, or know of a great resource where I can find these? I think at one
time I had a quote by Margaret Mead that was very good, and there are many
others out there. I would appreciate any help in locating them. Thanks.
E-mail: salterberg [ A T ] netins [ D O T ] net
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From Gretchen Brewer, Earth Circle, San Diego, CA, following up on her
4/6/04 posting, which asked for ideas on how to avoid losing her 1991 Toyota
(which was rear-ended by an SUV and has $1,500 worth of body damage, but
otherwise is still in good condition) because of the insurance company's
claims policy:
CAR INSURANCE SAGA
Thanks profusely to all the folks who kindly and promptly responded to my
tale of woe about trying to not have my '91 Toyota Camry declared totaled by
Travelers Insurance (the at-fault SUV driver's insurance company, not mine).
I got many very good, thoughtful suggestions and, time permitting, will try
to answer people individually and/or post some of the better tips. I was
especially heartened to learn that many folks feel as I do, and are keeping
much older cars in good running order. Yea for not wasting cars!!
The story isn't over yet, but I held my ground with Travelers and politely
but firmly insisted that I could not have the car totaled, noting that its
Blue Book value is more than double the repair cost. Fortunately, my
brother had just sold a '91 Camry in better condition, but with 200,000
miles, and the price he got was close to Blue Book, which helped my case.
Though the appraiser from Travelers tried to be a mean poker-face, he
completely surprised me by coming back with an estimate written so that the
car would be handled as repairable after all. Great news. Next step is
finding a good shop (not the one that first did an estimate and wanted to
total the car).
Stand by for a further installment, and hearty thanks again to all the good
folks on this Forum.
E-mail: EarthGB [ AT ] aol [ DOT ] com
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From Amy Wilson, Metro Solid Waste & Recycling, Portland, OR:
Hello waste reduction colleagues. Did you know that:
- It takes 7 gallons of crude oil to produce one car tire.
- 75 percent of a tree harvested for paper does not wind up as a paper
product.
- Toothbrushes represent over 100 million pounds of plastic waste each year.
- 27 percent of the food produced for human consumption in the U.S. is
thrown out as waste.
- Total construction waste from an average 2,000-square-foot home adds up to
about 8,000 pounds, taking up 50 cubic yards of space.
- Incinerating 10,000 tons of waste creates 1 job, landfilling it creates 6
jobs, and recycling it creates 36 jobs.
Well, if you didn't, and want to know more, come visit the Metro website at
http://www.metro-region.org/wastefacts
to view the over 300 informative
Fun Facts listed there. Information is organized into 20 categories with
each entry cited and dated. Hopefully you will find lots of useful facts
that you could use in your efforts to improve our communities by reducing
waste and increasing material recovery and reuse. Another tool for the
toolbox!
E-mail: wilsona ( AT ) metro ( DOT ) dst ( DOT ) or ( DOT ) us
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Link to the website for Earth Dinner, a new project to promote the idea of
having a dinner of organic foods to celebrate Earth Day (forwarded by Marcia
Rutan):
http://www.earthdinner.org
Earth Day is this coming Thursday, April 22. The Earth Dinner initiative is
supported by a variety of groups, including Beyond Pesticides, Chefs
Collaborative, Children's Health Environmental Coalition, Earth Day Network,
Earth Pledge, Environmental Working Group, Music Matters, Organic Valley
Family of Farms, Social Venture Network, and Waterkeeper Alliance.
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Excerpted from a 4/16/04 article by Steve Geissinger and Douglas Fischer in
the Tri-Valley Herald, Pleasanton, CA (from a tip by Carl Hursh):
CALIFORNIA BILL TARGETS UNSOLICITED CDS
Three years ago, two East San Francisco Bay high-tech-type guys got just one
too many of those throwaway promotional CDs that come in everything from the
mail to cereal boxes. Their counterattack on what they call an annoying and
wasteful problem began with an Internet quest to amass the discs and hit a
benchmark Thursday when they dumped nearly 300,000 of the CDs outside the
California state capitol building in Sacramento - to the applause of
lawmakers.
Inspired by John Lieberman and James McKenna of El Cerrito, California
Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, has introduced an only-in-California
style bill that would require a postage-paid return envelope be included
whenever America Online (AOL) or other firms send unsolicited CDs. The bill
also would force companies to include a postage-paid return mailer with
EZ-Ds, a 48-hour, self-erasing DVD expected to be on sale soon in most
stores.
Under the measure, AB2166, which faces its first legislative hearing Monday,
the plastic CDs could be returned to the company or a recycler. Though AOL
says it runs one of industry's largest internal recycling programs, it
annually mails out millions of plastic CDs destined for local dumps.
The company stopped short of opposing the bill on Thursday. "There is a
tremendous burden of cost that would be placed on small businesses, as well
as large corporations," said AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham. "But to be very
clear, we're still looking at the legislation, still looking to put our
thoughts down in a letter to the committee."
Aides to the author of the bill approached McKenna and Lieberman upon
learning of their quest to draw attention to the problem with a humor-laced
Internet site, http://NoMoreAOLCDs.com They
hope to collect 1 million unwanted CDs and dump them on the lawn of AOL's
headquarters in Dulles, Virginia. They're almost a third of the way there.
"This is a created problem," said McKenna. "It's not something where we have
too much rain or are living in earthquake country. If you don't make the CDs
and don't send them out to everyone, you don't have to deal with all the
solutions associated with disposing of something that lasts 450 years."
Their anti-CD waste campaign was born during a week in August 2001 when they
received six AOL discs in the mail. Renting a movie at a video store, a
clerk slipped a seventh into the bag. At home, they found No. 8 in the
mailbox. That night they registered the Web site.
"The only official response we got from AOL is that they would periodically
send us CDs," said Lieberman. Getting the company to stop sending those
discs was another matter, Lieberman said. After being told by a company
representative that it was "literally impossible" to take the pair's address
off the mailing list, they filed a prohibitory notice with the U.S. Postal
Service forbidding future mailings. Dozens of violations later, the Postal
Service filed a complaint with the U.S. Attorney General's office. But
Lieberman and McKenna are still getting CDs.
"I don't have the ability to tell AOL and other corporations to stop sending
me mail," said McKenna. "A CD by itself is not a huge problem, but look how
much we're able to gather without a huge effort."
AOL's Graham said the company has a toll-free phone number for those seeking
to remove their address from AOL's mailing lists. The company also includes
an address on every mailing and recycles all CDs it receives back. But he
wouldn't say what percentage of CDs it gets back. And the public currently
provides the postage.
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