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03 Feb 05 - green building; bags; exchanges; junkyards; clothes
** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM **
-- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition
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Forum archive: http://www.nwpcarchive.org
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Excerpted from an article by Alex Frangos in the 1/31/05 Wall Street
Journal:
THE NEXT GENERATION WANTS GREEN BUILDINGS
By far, the most talked-about topic in the architecture universe is how to
reduce the environmental impact of everything from summer cottages to
skyscrapers. And there are some remarkable examples - some would say
exceptions - of progress. The question is, will high energy prices turn
those exceptions into the rule?
Green building is proving to be a potent trend. So how will buildings look
different in the future? There will be more roofs covered in vegetation to
reduce heat gain, walls and floors made of recycled and locally harvested
materials, and air-conditioning systems that trap cool night air for daytime
use. There will be more access to natural light to reduce the load on
electric lights, and carpets and wall coverings that don't leach noxious
gases into the air.
The U.S. Green Building Council, a partnership of environmentalists,
materials makers and builders, has been driving the movement. It develops
and manages a program called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
(LEED), which certifies green buildings. Since 2000, 167 buildings have been
LEED certified, and more than 1,800 are in the pipeline.
A huge challenge: Get home building into the fold. Most LEED clients have
been governments, non-profits and businesses. The mammoth home-building
industry, through the National Association of Home Builders, has come up
with its own competing energy benchmarks.
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From Lisa Friend, RE Sources, Bellingham, WA, following up on her 1/25/05
request for ideas on how to get large woven polyethylene grain sacks (known
as "Super Sacks") reused:
The saga of the "Super Sack" seems to have a happy ending here in Whatcom
County, Washington, at least. While I still don't know who enforces the
"biocontamination" issue for the bags, at least one of our local feed
companies seems happy to reuse them if they've been washed and treated with
chlorine bleach. To that end, a local entrepreneur has set up a washing
station in an empty barn and is providing the washing service for $5 per
bag. I guess that's good enough for us for the time being. Despite the
chlorine, the bags are getting reused.
E-mail: recycle [AT] re-sources [DOT] org
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Excerpted from an article by Wyatt Buchanan in the 1/26/05 San Francisco
Chronicle (following up on previous postings about this proposal):
SAN FRANCISCO MOVES TOWARD SHOPPING BAG FEE
The San Francisco Commission on the Environment unanimously approved a
proposal Jan. 25 asking the city to charge grocery shoppers 17 cents for
every paper or plastic bag they take home. If approved by the Board of
Supervisors and mayor, which could take six months, the fee would be the
first of its kind in the country, though several nations charge for shopping
bags, and New York City entertained the idea last year.
The commission wants the fee initially to apply only to customers at larger
grocery stores. But it wants an option to later extend it to smaller
markets, drugstores, department stores, hardware stores, dry cleaners, food
takeout, newspapers and other bag distributors. The supervisors could also
determine how large the fee would be and how it would be applied.
Supervisors are not bound by any part of the commission's proposal.
As a result of the commission's action, a private agency will be hired to
analyze the impact of shopping bags on the city's budget and its environment
and examine the impact of a bag fee on low-income people and large families.
The analysis is expected to be completed by April 30, commissioners said.
Depending on the results, the proposal of 17 cents could change, said Jared
Blumenfeld, director of the city's Department of the Environment. Blumenfeld
said the fee was determined by dividing the total cost in cleanup, disposal
and lost recycling revenue because of plastic shopping bags - estimated at
about $8.7 million - by the number of bags dispersed in the city by large
grocery stores each year, which is about 50 million.
Proponents of the bag tax also cite environmental concerns such as the
number of felled trees for paper bags and barrels of oil for plastic bags as
the basis of the proposal. They say plastic bags harm marine mammals, litter
the city and are major contaminants in the city's recycling and composting
program. Opponents of the tax, including the American Plastics Council and
the California Grocers Association, have successfully fought a proposal in
the California state legislature to impose a similar fee. They argue that
plastic bags, which make up 90 percent of all grocery bags, are used to make
other goods like composite lumber and that the city instead should develop a
recovery program for bags.
At the Jan. 25 meeting, all but three of the several dozen people who spoke
supported the idea. "This resolution is an attempt to get people to take
responsibility for their actions," said Joe Besso, recycling program manager
for Norcal Waste Systems, which runs garbage and recycling services in the
city. Those who opposed the bag fee cited the burden on poor people. The
proposal includes a provision to subsidize the cost of bags for the poor,
and some who spoke recommended a program to give away free canvas bags.
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Excerpted from an article by Edythe Jensen in the 1/14/05 Arizona Republic:
REUSED PLASTIC BAGS GOING TO THE DOGS
The city of Chandler, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, recently installed more
than 100 bag dispensers and dog waste disposal stations at 35 municipal
parks. Although some cities have similar park dispensers stocked with
purchased plastic bags, Chandler's approach is unusual because the
dispensers give used plastic grocery store bags a second life. Stocking them
doesn't cost the city anything.
"The number one complaint about parks was dog waste," said Kris Kircher,
parks maintenance superintendent, who proposed the bag stations after
learning of their success in Payson, Arizona. "The complaints have gone down
significantly" since the city started installing the bag stations, he said.
City officials have for years promoted recycling to save the environment and
landfill space, but plastic bags are not collected in the city's recycling
program. To collect a supply of bags for the dog waste stations, Kircher
asked city employees to bring in theirs, and Chandler workers continue to
fill a 90-gallon container in the Chandler Community Center every month, he
said.
Made out of metal mailboxes, the dispensers and signs cost $50 each. Signs
encourage dog owners to also contribute to the supply, and Kircher said the
boxes are rarely empty when parks workers arrive to stock them. Kircher said
the city of Chandler originally installed commercial dispensers filled with
purchased plastic mitts in five parks two years ago but found the cost was
prohibitive. Installation and stocking of those few dispensers was costing
nearly $6,000 a year. "We were getting a lot of requests for them from
citizens, and I thought there's got to be something else we can do that's
not so expensive," he said. The containers using reused plastic bags are so
popular and cost-efficient, Kircher said, that Chandler will be installing
10 more in February.
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Excerpted from a message from Eugene Jones, Southern Waste Information
eXchange (SWIX), Tallahassee, FL (forwarded by Julie Rhodes):
The National Materials Exchange Conference and Managers Meeting will be held
March 28-30, 2005, in Orlando, Florida. The registration fee is $95. For
those materials exchange coordinators that may not be able to attend due to
travel budget considerations, SWIX may be able to provide some assistance.
If you would like to request travel assistance (please make those requests
by Feb. 11), or would like more information on the conference, e-mail Eugene
Jones at: gene [AT] swix [DOT] ws
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Excerpted from an article by Tim Sultan in the 1/28/05 New York Times:
ONLINE JUNKYARDS HELP KEEP VINTAGE CARS ALIVE
The guesswork is being taken out of parts-hunting for old cars, thanks to
the greatest salvage yard of all: the Internet. Junkyards across the country
are putting together photographic databases of their wrecks, making it easy
to find all kinds of arcane auto parts.
For example, All American Classics in Vancouver, Washington, runs one such
virtual junkyard. It has begun photographing its 3,000 cars for its Web
site, at: http://www.allamericanclassics.com
"Although we have had the most
success through car-part.com, a search engine that allows buyers to scan our
inventory for parts, putting up pictures of our cars has attracted buyers,
for sure," said Todd Toedtli, the manager of All American. Several other
well-known junkyards also have limited virtual tours of their wrecks.
Perhaps the most absorbing of the salvage Web sites belongs to Sunman
Classic Ford (http://www.sunmanford.net ) in
Seminole, Oklahoma. Sunman's individual portraits of wrecked 50's, 60's and
70's cars sitting in a barren landscape are not just useful; they can be
mesmerizing. A 1965 Ford Ranch Wagon, for example, with a good-size tree
growing through the engine block. A 1964 Mercury Monterey, ready for its
close-up, its headlights painted jungle red. A 1960 Dodge Pioneer, brown
with surface rust, being admired by a herd of brown cows. A 1963 Cadillac
Fleetwood sitting in high prairie grass.
The founder of Sunman Ford, Sam Arrington, confirmed what other salvage
yards with Web sites also say they are experiencing: the great expansion of
a business that was once fairly localized. Todd Toedtli of All American
said: "We get collectors all the time from far-off places who otherwise
would never have heard of us. We just sold a '63 S.S. Impala 409 to a buyer
in Scandinavia who found us on the Web."
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Excerpted from an article by Carol Tice in the 1/7/05 Puget Sound Business
Journal:
USED CLOTHING SALES BOOMING
Savers Inc., of Bellevue, Washington, which operates the nationwide Value
Village chain, has added 31 stores since 1999, in part because of the
growing used-clothing market, senior marketing manager Becky Henchman said.
Savers last year started promoting the fact that shoppers can donate used
clothes directly to stores, not just at the collection boxes of charities
that sell donations to the chain, Henchman said. The reason: In-person
drop-offs tend to be higher-quality goods than collection-box drop-offs, she
said.
A typical clothing item at Value Village sells for $3, she said, and
well-known brands are prominently featured. "We see a lot of the favorite
teen brands like Abercrombie & Fitch and the Gap, but you'll also see St.
John knit dresses," Henchman said. "We're finding that with the increasing
volume, the quality and number of name brands are also increasing."
At Seattle Goodwill, development vice president Alice Braverman recently
learned how quickly clothing is cycling from new-store racks to thrift
stores when she walked into the Gap wearing a Goodwill-purchased Gap jacket.
"The saleswoman said, 'Your jacket looks so great,'" Braverman recalled. "I
told her I bought it at Goodwill, and she said, 'That's from last season!'"
The growing abundance of used clothing has helped spur growth at Seattle
Goodwill, Braverman said. Seattle Goodwill has grown from eight to 13 stores
since 1999, with revenues rising from $12.6 million to $23.8 million.
Goodwill retail stores director Nicole Roberts said 1,500 apparel items are
put on shelves at a typical store each day. "We have fresh goods going out
seven days a week, and a lot of it is sold that first day," she said. "We
have people who come in three or four times a day."
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