| |
15 Nov 04 - salvage; rats; WasteWise; computers; frugality; hospitals; global aid
** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM **
-- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition
--------
Forum archive: http://www.nwpcarchive.org
---------------------
From Tom Watson, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA, and the
National Waste Prevention Coalition:
I wanted to share some information about a successful waste prevention
project here at King County. As part of our King County WasteWise program
(internal waste prevention, recycling and buying-recycled by County
agencies), King County entered into an agreement in June with the RE Store,
a non-profit used building materials store in Seattle. Under this
agreement, the RE Store can pick up reusable building materials that would
otherwise be disposed of, from King County internal construction, renovation
and demolition projects.
In just four months, we have already diverted 9,400 pounds of materials to
the RE Store! These are materials that did not fit into our standard King
County Surplus system and likely would have gone into the landfill without
this agreement.
No money changes hands between King County and the RE Store under this
agreement, but we still needed to do it as an official County contract, to
make sure all the insurance and liability issues were covered. It took a
long time to deal with all the potential issues, navigate through the
bureaucracy, and get the contract approved, but it was well worth it. A
copy of the contract is on our King County WasteWise website at:
http://www.metrokc.gov/dnrp/swd/about/waste-wise/REStoreMOA304.pdf
This agreement works great for King County because we have so many buildings
and operations (we run the Seattle area bus system, wastewater treatment, a
huge landfill, a major jail, the courts system, the sheriff's department,
public health, licensing, permits, elections, parks and more). So, we
generate a lot of unneeded stuff, not all of which our own surplus system
can easily handle.
Even if you're a smaller government or agency, this type of arrangement
might make sense. Feel free to use any of our contract language, and let me
know if you would like more information about this.
E-mail: tom ( D O T ) watson ( A T ) metrokc ( D O T ) gov
---------------------
From Renee Kimball, Enuf!, Portland, OR, responding to the recent postings
about rats and home composting bins:
The most efficient and "vector" proof way to compost food scraps is in a
worm bin. The compost will decompose faster and the food will disappear
sooner. Plus, you end up with a much higher "value added" product in worm
castings than you do in compost.
The problem has always been to "vector proof" the bin. Wood's OK for about
5 years and plastic is questionable for a number of reasons. However, I
defy ANY rat to chew its way through our steel mesh and concrete block bin.
Did I mention we compost EVERYTHING (chicken skins, bones, dairy, rubber
gloves, oily rags, etc.) and we get 40-plus gallons of castings twice a year
from the scraps of 3 adults? Bin design available free.
E-mail: rrrrenee [ A T ] aracnet [ D O T ] com
---------------------
Link to a list of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2004
WasteWise program award winners:
http://www.epa.gov/wastewise/about/winners.htm
The 2004 awards were
presented in October in Washington, DC. WasteWise partners set goals for
waste prevention, recycling collection, and buying or manufacturing
recycled-content products. More than 1,500 businesses and government
agencies are WasteWise partners.
----------------------
From the WasteCap of Lincoln (NE) E-Newsletter, and the Center for a New
American Dream website:
The Center for a New American Dream will host a free nationwide conference
call on Purchasing Environmentally Preferable Computers on Monday, Nov.22,
from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The call will feature
presentations by experts in the field on the environmental and health
problems associated with computers, success stories from agencies that have
purchased computers with a reduced effect on health and the environment,
manufacturer initiatives, and new resources designed to help institutions
purchase cleaner computers. The call will include a 30-minute
question-and-answer period.
The panel for the conference call includes: Sheila Davis, from the Silicon
Valley Toxics Coalition's Clean Computer Campaign; Dmitriy Nikolayev, of
Massachusetts' Operational Services Division; Viccy Salazar, of U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency Region 10; and Naomi Friedman from the
Center for a New American Dream's Institutional Purchasing Program.
You must register in advance for this call. To register, please send an
e-mail to kelly (AT) newdream (DOT) org with "COMPUTERS CALL" in the subject line and
include your name, title, organization, address, e-mail, and phone number.
A few days before the call, those who have signed up will receive more
details.
For more information on environmentally preferable purchasing of computers
by institutions, see: http://www.newdream.org/computers
The Center for a New American Dream's new "Principles for Purchasing
Environmentally Preferable Computers, Monitors, and Peripherals" are at:
http://www.newdream.org/procure/products/ComputerPrinciples.pdf
----------------------
Link to the Dollar Stretcher website (first seen in the Seattle Times):
http://www.stretcher.com/index.cfm
This is a personal finance website about saving money. Many of the articles
and features on the website also deal with reducing waste, either directly
or indirectly. Scroll down to find the Dollar Stretcher Library, with
articles on voluntary simplicity, natural living, garage sales and other
topics.
---------------------
Excerpted from an article by Jeff Sturgeon in the 11/3/04 Roanoke (VA)
Times:
REUSING SYRINGE BOXES SAVES MONEY FOR VIRGINIA HOSPITALS
How did a handful of Virginia hospitals toss 10 tons less waste in 2004? By
reusing those red boxes that hang on examining room walls for disposing of
used syringes.
For many years, medical workers threw out the plastic boxes when full.
Workers can now send them to the Sci-Med Waste Systems medical waste
processing center in Roanoke to be emptied and washed in hot water and
chemicals. Because a box goes in each patient room, each procedure room and
in laboratories, a single hospital can go through hundreds or even thousands
a year. Ten Virginia hospitals now reuse their boxes and the number is
expected to reach 23 by the end of the year.
Next year, the program is expected to keep 106 tons of boxes from going into
landfills. The Virginia Health Care Waste Management Cooperative, a
coalition of hospitals, operates the Sci-Med waste service on a
not-for-profit basis. It is one of the largest handlers of regulated medical
waste in the state. It is not the only waste company that offers reusable
sharps containers, but the state Department of Environmental Quality
applauded the work of hospitals using the Sci-Med program in a press release
last month.
Sci-Med claims that going the reusable route saves 40 percent to 60 percent.
The company collects regulated medical waste not only from hospitals, but
also dentists, funeral homes and nursing homes.
--------------------
Excerpted from an article by Lia Miller in the 11/15/04 New York Times:
GLASSES, SCALPELS, BIKES: TURNING WASTE INTO HELP
Every year, Americans throw away millions of items that would be welcomed in
poorer countries, and a wide range of groups make it their mission to
recycle them. Some of these campaigns are decades old and well known, others
are more spontaneous, and still others fill special niches. Here are three
organizations that illustrate these possibilities:
The Lions Club
Ever since Helen Keller challenged members of the Lions Clubs in 1925 to
become "knights of the blind in this crusade against darkness," they have
donated much of their volunteer resources to vision services. The best-known
part of this effort is the recycling of eyeglasses, which are collected in
more than 13,000 collection boxes and sent to seven recycling centers in the
United States. There, members clean the glasses, determine the prescription
using a machine known as a lensometer and categorize each pair by
prescription. Since 1994, Lions Clubs have distributed more than 20 million
pairs of glasses in countries like Angola, Brazil, Cambodia, Gambia, Ghana,
Mexico, Romania, Rwanda, Sri Lanka and Tajikistan.
Information:
http://www.lionsclubs.org/EN/content/vision_eyeglass_recycling.shtml
Pedals for Progress
This organization collects bikes by working with about 150 civic
organizations, like the Eagle Scouts, the Girl Scouts and Rotary Clubs, to
sponsor collection drives in their communities. The bikes are checked to
make sure they are in fairly good working order before they are shipped.
Pedals for Progress then coordinates with a nonprofit group working in an
area of a developing country in need of transportation alternatives. It
helps the group receive the bikes and open a rudimentary bicycle shop. This
shop then hires local people and trains them to repair the bicycles. The
bikes are sold at a very low cost to local residents. The hope is that in
the majority of cases, the proceeds from the nonprofit agency's bike shop
will pay for more shipments of donated bikes, spurring a continuing process.
Goodwill Industries in Panama City, for example, has just received its 12th
shipment of bicycles since 2000.
Information: http://www.p4p.org/
MedShare International
Every year, billions of dollars' worth of usable medical equipment is thrown
out. Because of the United States' stringent regulations for medical
equipment, a large portion of what is thrown away is unused. After learning
this statistic six years ago, A. B. Short and Robert Freeman decided to
start a nonprofit group that could somehow take that waste and make it
useful to people in other countries. MedShare International, based in
Georgia, works in partnership with 15 Georgia hospitals, where collection
barrels for recyclable items have been set up. The equipment MedShare
collects runs the gamut from sutures and sterile gloves to stethoscopes,
hospital beds and infant incubators. MedShare has worked with hospitals in
more than 80 countries, shipping to places like Armenia, Cameroon, China,
Haiti, Liberia and Peru. The hospitals order items they want from an online
catalog. This helps the program stick to one of the most important pieces of
advice the founders got when they were doing their initial research: Never
donate anything overseas that hasn't been asked for. "So often, things are
donated where it's like, 'I've got this, here it is, take it,'" says Short.
"But it's the fact that the power of choosing is in the hands of the
recipient instead of in the hands of the giver that makes it a quality
donation."
Information: http://www.medshareinternational.org
- end -
|
