| |
18 Jul 05 - job; zero waste; toxics; Freecycle; California; census info
** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM **
-- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition
--------
Forum archive: http://www.nwpcarchive.org
---------------------
Link to a job posting for executive director for the Center for a New
American Dream, Takoma Park, MD (forwarded by Betsy Taylor):
http://www.newdream.org/about/careers.php#dir
According to the job
posting, the base salary is "competitive" and this position "is based on a
four-day work week - something the entire organization subscribes to."
Applications "will be considered immediately and on a rolling basis," and
should be submitted by Aug. 28, 2005, at the latest. Takoma Park is located
just outside Washington, DC.
According to its website, the Center for a New American Dream is a 501(c)3
nonprofit organization that "helps Americans consume responsibly to protect
the environment, enhance quality of life, and promote social justice. It
works with individuals, institutions, communities, and businesses to
conserve natural resources, counter the commercialization of our culture,
and promote positive changes in the ways goods are produced and consumed."
---------------------
Link to an article in the 7/18/05 Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Debera
Carlton Harrell about the City of Seattle's extensive waste prevention
efforts, to meet its "zero waste" goal:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/232985_waste18.html
---------------------
From Rob Arner, consultant, Virginia:
The Northern Virginia Waste Management Board and Regional Commission are
exploring launching a regional toxics reduction outreach campaign, first
addressing old mercury lamps and rechargeable batteries, and then addressing
things such as computers and other hazardous materials, via web site,
mailings, posters, brochures, and public service announcements. If anyone
can share similar types of promotional pollution prevention information,
please contact me. Also, if anyone is interested in a national used oil and
oil filter recycling white paper, I will be happy to share that.
Rob's e-mail: raycycle (AT) excite (DOT) com
---------------------
The next two postings are in response to the 7/13/05 posting from Deron Beal
of the Freecycle Network (http://www.freecycle.org
), seeking support for Freecycle's application to
be considered a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization by the U.S. Internal Revenue
Service. (Freecycle operates through local groups using the Yahoo.com group
service.)
---------------------
From Tom Watson, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA, and the
National Waste Prevention Coalition:
Below is an excerpt of a letter I am submitting to the Internal Revenue
Service in support of approving Freecycle as a 501(c)3 nonprofit
organization. If anyone would like to send the Forum copies of its letters
to the IRS about Freecycle, we will try to print some of them, or excerpts
from them. Thanks!
"I want to go on record in support of the Freecycle Network as an
organization that reduces the burdens on government and provides valuable
education about reducing waste. I have been a waste prevention and
recycling project manager at King County Solid Waste Division in Seattle for
13 years. For the past 10 years, as part of my job with King County, I have
coordinated the National Waste Prevention Coalition, a network of people in
the waste management field.
In the past three years, the rise of free online exchanges (for household
items and other materials) and free online classified ad services has been
one of the big success stories in the waste prevention movement. Freecycle,
where every item listed must be free, has played an important role by making
it easier for people to get rid of stuff they no longer want, but perhaps
someone else can use. This absolutely helps ease the burdens on government.
Local governments must deal with the waste generated by their residents and
businesses. This is very expensive. Residents and businesses themselves
end up paying the costs, in taxes and fees. The most cost-effective way to
manage waste is to avoid creating waste. Freecycle helps give products a
longer life, reducing the costs of disposal and recycling. Freecycle and
other online exchanges also conserve resources because when people reuse a
product, they often do not have to buy a new product.
Just as important as the actual reuse of items through Freecycle is the
educational aspect. Freecycle has gotten an incredible amount of press, on
radio, TV and especially in the print media. (Some of these articles are
listed on the Freecycle website at http://freecycle.org/newswire
.) These articles and news stories all help
raise the visibility of reuse. All these articles educate the public and
might get them to think, "Hey, maybe I should give that away or sell it
instead of throwing it out." It may be indirect education, but it is vital
education, and Freecycle is a major focus, if not the main subject, of many
of these articles. Freecycle also provides direct education through its
website and its local volunteer moderators.
I believe that most local governments greatly appreciate the efforts of
organizations such as Freecycle. I know I do." (End of letter to IRS.)
E-mail: tom [D O T] watson [A T] metrokc [D O T] gov
---------------------
From Yen Chin, Seattle City Light, Seattle, WA:
I am not now, nor have I ever been a tax lawyer. I DO like the idea of
freecycling, and I often at least browse Craig's List. And I hate the
amount of e-mail traffic I can get from a Yahoo group, especially an active
one. Moreover, I don't see any purposeful educational value to a Yahoo
group.
From the Freecycle website I see little evidence of a substantive
organization behind the websites, other than citing a seemingly impressive
number of members. However, since a person needs to become a member in
order to browse the listing, the members total makes less of an impression
than it might otherwise. How many currently active members can the
organization claim?
So what real value does 501(c)3 status have for Freecycle? And does it
offer a means to usefully expend effort, or would that effort be wasted?
This is a waste prevention forum, isn't it?
E-mail: Yen [ DOT ] Chin [ AT ] seattle [ DOT ] gov
---------------------
Link to information about reuse grants available for cities, counties, and
regional agencies in California (forwarded by Sarah Weimer):
http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/Reuse/Grants
The California Integrated Waste Management Board has $250,000 available for
these grants. The goal of this program is to provide incentives for local
public agencies to establish new or expanded reuse opportunities in
California. Public agencies may partner with businesses or non-profits.
The deadline for applications is Oct. 27, 2005.
---------------------
From Tom Watson, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA, and the
National Waste Prevention Coalition:
I discovered this last week, and it may be useful to some of you in your
work: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd
It's the U.S. Census Bureau's "State & County QuickFacts" website, which
gives basic demographic and business info for all states, all counties, and
every city with more than 25,000 people. It displays the info in a very
readable format. For each entry, a city or county is compared with its
state. In the state listings, each state is compared with the entire U.S. I
found this website fascinating, and it has already helped me greatly on a
specific waste prevention project.
- end -
|
