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08 Jun 04 - bills; cell phones; tickets; jobs; consumption; weddings
** 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 Greg Harder, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection,
Harrisburg, PA:
An interesting fact on the environmental benefits of paying bills online:
"According to a report from Wells Fargo, if everyone in the United States
paid their bills online, 18.5 million trees a year would be spared - enough
to build 216,000 single-family homes."
It's from a 6/3/03 article on the ABC News website, written by Mellody
Hobson, president of Ariel Capital Management in Chicago.
E-mail: gharder [ A T ] state [ D O T ] pa [ D O T ] us
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The next two messages are in response to the 6/2/04 postings about cell
phone reuse and recycling.
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From Yen Chin, City of Seattle, Seattle, WA:
I found the recent cell phone item interesting and want to add a bit of
information I recently learned. Any cell phone in the U.S. can be used to
make a 911 call, even one for which there is no current service contract.
Part of the obligation Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and other companies must carry
in exchange for using the public airways is to provide emergency
communication services for free. So if you have a working cell phone, give
it to someone who only wants one for emergency purposes. That way they
won't have to buy a new one, and they won't have to pay a dime to get what
they say they need.
E-mail: Yen (DOT) Chin (AT) seattle (DOT) gov
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Excerpted from a message from Barbara Frierson, City of Fremont
Environmental Services, Fremont, CA:
I am forwarding a response to the 6/2/04 postings about cell phones, from an
environmentally-friendly but not-in-the-industry friend. I told him we DO go
after the BIG GUYS first. And we also serve who raise consciousness and
reduce waste one cell phone (or Swiffer) at a time!
From Mike Harman: "The amount of waste represented by cell phones couldn't
possibly be very much. Granted people do upgrade them, but not that often.
Unless of course they are driven by ads and the industry keeps coming up
with ways to make the old ones obsolete, etc., etc. Other waste, such as the
pounds of unwanted paper dropped in my mailbox every day, is huge. So is the
packaging of food.
I'd say ADVERTISING is the root of all waste. Well, maybe not all, but
better than 95 percent.
Speaking of lead and mercury contained in cell phones, how does that compare
to the products of a coal-burning power plant? To a paper mill? To a
chemical manufacturing plant? Those are the serious polluters."
Barbara's e-mail: bfrierson [A T] ci [D O T] fremont [D O T] ca [D O T] us
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Excerpted from an item in a business column by Joe Sharkey in the 6/8/04 New
York Times:
GOODBYE TO PAPER AIRLINE TICKETS
Representatives of the world's airlines, meeting in Singapore at the annual
summit conference of the International Air Transport Association this week,
have approved an initiative to eliminate paper tickets and replace them with
electronic tickets (e-tickets) globally by 2007. In recent years, most
United States airlines have largely replaced paper tickets, but many foreign
carriers still issue a high percentage of paper tickets, which are far more
costly to distribute and process.
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Link to a job listing for a Business Assistance Program Manager in Alameda
County, CA (forwarded by Rachel Balsley):
http://www.stopwaste.org/job-pmai-ii.html
The Alameda County Waste
Management Authority & Source Reduction and Recycling Board in San Leandro,
CA, is seeking applications for one full-time limited-term position (through
fiscal year 2005/06) to work on various Business Assistance Program
projects. The position is listed as "Business Assistance Program Manager
I/II." The agency's listed monthly salary ranges are $4,455 - $5,940 for a
Program Manager I and $5,346 - $7,127 for a Program Manager II. The
deadline for applications is June 28, 2004. Alameda County is located on
the east side of San Francisco Bay.
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Link to a job listing for a Green Building Program Manager for the
non-profit Green Resource Center in Berkeley, CA:
http://www.greenresourcecenter.org/ProgManager.html
Salary will be
based on qualifications and experience. The position will be open until
filled. Berkeley is located in the San Francisco Bay area, just north of
Oakland.
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Link to information on a Waste Prevention Specialist job opening with the
City of El Cerrito, CA:
http://www.stopwaste.org/job-elcerrito.html
The salary is $3,925 to
$4,771 per month. Applications are due by June 21, 2004. El Cerrito is
located in the San Francisco Bay area, just north of Berkeley.
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Link to a job listing for Executive Director of RE Sources, a non-profit
environmental organization based in Bellingham, WA:
http://www.re-sources.org/exec.htm
The starting pay range is $45,000-$50,000 per year. Applications are due by
June 21, 2004. Bellingham is located 90 miles north of Seattle, and about
25 miles south of the Canadian border.
RE Sources focuses on waste prevention, recycling and water quality
programs. As one of its major programs, RE Sources operates the two RE
Store used building materials stores in Bellingham and Seattle. Since 1993,
the RE Stores have expanded from 3 employees to 36, and divert more than 3
million pounds per year of building materials from disposal.
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Excerpted from an essay by Richard Steiner, a professor and conservation
specialist at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, in the 5/30/04 Seattle
Post-Intelligencer:
THE CONSUMPTION CHALLENGE
Conspicuous consumption has become a homogenizing force across the developed
world. Just since 1950, we have consumed more goods and services than all
previous generations combined. The consumption of energy, steel and timber
more than doubled; fossil fuel use and car ownership increased four-fold;
meat production and fish catch increased five-fold; paper use increased
six-fold, and air travel increased 100-fold.
In the United States, where malls are more prevalent than high schools,
shopping has become the primary cultural activity. Although world economic
output continues to increase, when real costs are calculated, sustainable
economic welfare has been in decline since the 1970s. One measure of
resource consumption of humanity - our "ecological footprint" - surpassed
sustainable levels in the late '70s, and for an average American is now 20
times that of a person in some developing countries.
Studies estimate that, if the developing world were to consume at our rate,
another five or six planets would be needed to sustain this level of
consumption. The United Nations says that a 10-fold reduction in resource
consumption (or a 10-fold increase in energy/material efficiency) in
industrialized countries will be needed for adequate resources to be
available for developing countries.
The unequal distribution of consumption adds to environmental, social and
economic damage as well. The gap in per-capita income between rich and poor
nations has doubled in the past 40 years. The upper 20 percent in economic
class - Europe, Japan, North America - account for more than 80 percent of
the material and energy consumed globally, while the poorest 20 percent
account for just 1 percent of consumption. The world's 350 billionaires have
a combined net worth exceeding that of the poorest 2.5 billion people. Those
poor live on less than $2 a day and lack basic sanitation, health care,
clean water and adequate food.
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Excerpted from an article by Cathy Horyn in the 6/6/04 New York Times:
The average American couple spends $22,300 for their wedding, according to a
2002 survey by Fairchild Bridal InfoBank. In New York City and Washington
DC, the average is $35,000.
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