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06 May 04 - AOL; compost; oil filters; green meetings; pesticides; time
** 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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The first two postings follow-up on the 4/16/04 news item about the bill in
the California legislature that would have required America Online (AOL) and
other firms to include a postage-paid return envelope whenever they send
unsolicited CDs.
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Excerpted from a 4/28/04 article from the Environmental News Service
(forwarded by Jim Neely)
CALIFORNIA BILL TO CONTROL AOL DISK WASTE DIES
A California effort to reduce the flood of unsolicited computer disks from
AOL and other junk mail marketers was dealt a setback April 27 when a
legislative committee let die a measure requiring marketers to provide
consumers with free mail-back of unwanted disks.
"Even AOL acknowledges that only five percent or less of the people that
receive these disks that promise a free internet hookup for a month or two
actually use them," said Assembly Member Loni Hancock, a Democrat who
represents Berkeley and authored Assembly Bill 2166. "That means that
California taxpayers are paying half a million dollars a year to dispose of
4,200 tons of waste that isn't serving any purpose at all. My bill says that
AOL should clean up its own mess."
The bill had previously passed the Assembly Natural Resources Committee, but
the Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism & Internet Media Committee killed
it on a three to four vote with six abstentions. Hancock pledged, "I'll be
back."
Mark Murray, executive director for Californians Against Waste, an
environmental group that sponsored the bill, called AOL's CD marketing plan,
"possibly the single most flagrant producer of waste of any marketing
program in the United States. AOL sends out 400 million of these free CDs a
year and by their own estimate, 380 million are thrown away. That's 380
million disks, the packaging they come in and the enormous amount of
resources and energy that it takes to create them, and they don't even have
one minute of value for anyone."
AOL argued against the bill, stating in a letter to the committee that the
measure would "aggravate the digital divide...through a major increase in
the cost of distributing free trial software, reducing the number of people
in low-income communities with access to the Internet." In testimony before
the committee, the AOL lobbyist, Cliff Berg, said, "This legislation doesn't
help the environment, it's just legislating against an annoyance."
Hancock said she found it "disingenuous for AOL to mask their desire for
increased profits with their hand-wringing concern for the poor. AOL gets
them to sign up for free, gets their credit card on record and, the moment
the trial period is up, immediately begins charging them the highest price
in the nation for dial-up Internet service. The free CD mailing program
didn't emanate from AOL's community relations department. It came directly
from its marketing department. It's about increasing their number of users
so they can get top dollar from advertisers," Hancock added.
"While I certainly agree with AOL's characterization of their constant CD
mailings as 'an annoyance,' this bill is about protecting our environment by
requiring AOL to internalize the costs of dealing with the immense amount of
waste it is generating," said Murray. "It is our hope that once AOL has to
pay for it, they may begin to think having a recycling and reuse program
would be to their benefit. In any case, it should be AOL and not California
taxpayers having to pay for the annoyance they cause."
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From Julie Rhodes, independent contractor on environmental issues,
Indianapolis, IN:
(Note - Julie had already seen the news item above, or a similar article,
and sent along this comment.)
It is really too bad that this bill died, but just the fact it was
introduced could spur future legislative and policy discussion around the
country. The fact that it was passed out of the Natural Resources Committee
means that it was taken seriously by some, and should have AOL thinking
about things they could do voluntarily before this becomes a national
legislative debate.
E-mail: Jrhodes4 [ A T ] indy [ D O T ] rr [ D O T ] com
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From Rob Arner, New Market, Virginia, Southeast Rural Community Assistance
Project, pollution prevention program:
I am looking for "do-it-yourself" or "home grown" examples of making compost
berms for erosion control. Thanks.
E-mail: rarner [ A T ] shentel [ D O T ] net
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Excerpted from a message from Rob Arner, New Market, Virginia, Southeast
Rural Community Assistance Project, pollution prevention program:
I wrote the article below and I wish to get some feedback on how to best
promote this concept. Thanks.
REUSABLE OIL FILTERS
How many people know that tossing away 16 oil filters is the equivalent of
throwing away one gallon of used oil? And how many people know that just
one gallon of improperly-disposed used oil can contaminate one million
gallons of fresh water or ruin the water supply for 50 people for a year?
Present estimates are that 400 million gallons of used oil and over 600
million oil filters are improperly disposed of in the U.S. each year.
Overall, fewer than 20 percent of filters from commercial repair facilities
and a small percentage of DIY ("do-it-yourself") generated oil filters are
recycled in the U.S.
Recent developments in technology now offer an ideal solution to this
problem. The first development is the creation of the Take-Apart-Spin-On
(TASO) oil filter. The second development is the reintroduction of the
permanently-mounted filter housing. These reusable oil filters offer great
environmental benefits because they can be disassembled to remove the used
oil trapped inside at the time of disposal. These features are designed
into the product itself and benefits are automatic. This allows for recovery
of used oil and reduces the amount of solid waste by approximately 90
percent.
Every major filter manufacturer has developed either a TASO filter or
reintroduced the permanently-mounted filter housing. All TASO filter
designs share common characteristics. TASO filters are installed and
removed from engines in the same manner as the traditional spin-on filter.
This makes the filter 100 percent compatible with all engines that use a
spin-on. No modifications are required to the engine design or assembly
process. TASO filters can be retrofitted to any engine that uses the
traditional spin-on filter. TASO filters can be manufactured for roughly
the same price in high volume. All TASO filters can easily be disassembled
to remove the filter element and used oil.
Mann-Hummel is currently selling a TASO filter in Europe called "Evotop" as
an environmentally friendly retrofit to existing automobiles.
DaimlerChrysler is exploring the use of TASO oil filters to be installed as
original equipment on their vehicles. They have performed an in-depth
Life-Cycle Management (LCM) study on both the Purolator and the Nichols
Filter Company TASO filters. The LCM study clearly demonstrated that the
TASO filter is less expensive for an auto manufacturer than a traditional
spin-on filter when total life-cycle costs are included.
Several automobile manufacturers are reintroducing the cartridge filter that
was the standard oil filter until the early 1960s. It was during that time
that "spin-on" disposable oil filters were introduced. Due to significantly
tighter environmental regulations in Europe, the German auto industry is the
current leader in cartridge-type oil filters. Many models from BMW, VW and
Mercedes have reusable housings that are permanently affixed to the engine.
The filter housings have plastic spin-on tops that are removed to reveal the
filter cartridge for easy removal. In the U.S., General Motors is the
leader in reusable filters. The new Ecotec 4 cylinder engine and the Saturn
V-6 engine use cartridge oil filters.
According to national light-duty filter sales statistics, approximately 778
million of the traditional spin-on oil filters were produced annually in the
United States in 2002. Roughly half this amount was generated in 1994.
Recycling all oil filters generated would result in the recovery of an
estimated 161,500 tons of steel and 17.8 million gallons of oil - an amount
greater than the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill (11.2 million gallons).
The traditional spin-on oil filter can contain anywhere from a half pint to
a full quart of used oil at time of disposal. A popular oil filter
(currently 14 percent of the market) has a capacity of 23 ounces. With 45
percent of passenger car filter sales to DIYs (do-it-yourselfers), oil
filters contain a significant part of DIY used oil. Unfortunately, many DIY
used oil recycling programs do not accommodate filter recycling. Many
automotive service centers have been slow to recover filters due to expense,
and because the filter recycling market is undeveloped. The reuse of
products is more efficient then recycling them.
The Automotive Oil Change Association's recent membership survey indicated
that "fast lube" shops are paying transporter fees of up to $1 per filter
with a $47.50 per drum average. Over time, this adds up to millions of
dollars in unnecessary costs to businesses and consumers. Most repair
facilities pass on this cost on to customers as an environmental disposal
fee. These costs would be eliminated by the installation of reusable
filters.
Why not require all new automobiles sold in the years to come to have one of
the numerous reusable oil filters installed at the factory? Reusable
filters would result in a 90 percent reduction in solid waste just by
design, besides saving the normally-trapped used oil.
E-mail: rarner (AT) shentel (DOT) net
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Link to the new Green Meetings Report from the Convention Industry Council:
http://www.conventionindustry.org/projects/green_meetings_report.pdf
This report is a concise, thorough, "bullet-point" list of best practices
for event organizers and event suppliers.
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Link to the Pesticides in Produce "report card," from the Environmental
Working Group (seen in the Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource
Center newsletter):
http://www.foodnews.org/reportcard.php
This "report card" lists the
fruits and vegetables most likely and least likely to have pesticide
residues on them.
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Link to information on the Take Back Your Time Day national conference, to
be held at Loyola University in Chicago June 10-13, 2004:
http://www.simpleliving.net/timeday/conference.asp
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