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13 Sep 05 - gloves; packaging; repair; burning; supermarkets; Katrina
** 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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From Lisa Friend, RE Sources, Bellingham, WA:
I've got a local manufacturer that finds it cheaper to throw away their
soiled cotton work gloves than to wash and reuse them. The local charities
would sell the gloves, but can't economically wash them, either. Does
anyone have a suggestion about cheap laundry options?
E-mail: recycle ( A T ) re-sources ( D O T ) org
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Excerpted from an 8/26/05 item from Plastics News:
DANNON REDUCES YOGURT PACKAGING
Dannon said it will make a packaging change that will keep 1,620 metric tons
of plastic out of the waste stream each year. The company plans to remove
plastic overcaps on 6-ounce yogurt containers and conduct a public awareness
campaign to let consumers know about the change.
Dannon will rely solely on a foil seal to protect and transport the product,
said Michael Neuwirth, senior public relations director. "The consumer
response has been favorable initially," Neuwirth said. Six-ounce cups of
yogurt are the only Dannon yogurt products that currently have both a
plastic lid and an aluminum foil seal, he said. Multipacks of yogurt, for
example, use foil lids with some type of overwrap such as cardboard. And
16-ounce packages just use plastic lids. Consumers will start seeing Dannon
yogurt cups without plastic lids around Oct. 1. Dannon is based in White
Plains, NY, and makes yogurt at three U.S. sites. Its parent company is
Groupe Danone.
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Link to the website for the first Sustainable Packaging Forum, which will be
held Oct. 17-19, 2005, in Philadelphia:
http://www.packstrat.com/FILES/HTML/Conferences_and_Events/conferences-susta
inablepackaging/0,9489,,00.html
The agenda and speakers for the conference are listed at:
http://www.packstrat.com/FILES/HTML/Conferences_and_Events/conferences-susta
inablepackaging-program
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Excerpted from an article in the October 2005 Consumer Reports:
REPAIR OR REPLACE?
To help people decide whether it makes economic sense to repair products, we
(Consumer Reports magazine) are now giving this advice: For products that
need professional repair, you should recycle or dispose of any products for
which you paid less than $150. You also should also not have something
repaired if the repair will cost more than half the price of a new product.
And it doesn't make economic sense to repair off-warranty toasters,
countertop microwave ovens, cordless phones, CD players, VCRs, inkjet
printers, and conventional TV sets under 30 inches. Many such products are
not even serviceable.
Although trashing broken products may be smart for your wallet, it's dumb
for the environment. Check whether your community has a program to recycle
or refurbish old products. Appliances, for example, have many recyclable
and reusable parts.
Reasons that most repairs no longer make economic sense include:
- The price of new products is relatively low, due to the flood of imports.
Prices for desktop computers have dropped by about $400 over the past four
years. Over-the-range microwave ovens and top-freezer refrigerators cost
about $200 less than they did four years ago.
- Older appliances use more energy. Today's refrigerators are up to 30
percent more energy-efficient than those sold in 2001.
- New high-tech appliances and electronics products are more challenging and
expensive to repair.
- Fewer repair shops exist. According to the Professional Service
Association, the number of electronics-repair shops has dropped since 1992
from 20,014 to 7,168. The number of appliance-repair shops has dropped from
18,546 to 11,620.
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From Susan Salterberg, Center for Energy and Environmental Education,
University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA:
Wanted: Good lesson on backyard burning. I don't know if backyard burning is
a problem in your area but, regrettably, it still is in Iowa. In many rural
areas, all household trash is also burned. I see backyard burning as related
to waste reduction because of avoided air pollution. Does anyone know of a
good lesson plan that addresses backyard burning?
Also, thanks to everyone who responded to my 8/25/05 posting with
suggestions of books about waste and sustainability. I welcome any
additional ideas, but the ones I've received to date were very helpful.
E-mail: salterberg [AT] uni [DOT] edu
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Link to an 8/24/05 press release from the Massachusetts Department of
Environmental Protection about an agreement with a Massachusetts supermarket
industry group to encourage recycling and composting (forwarded by Steve
Long):
http://www.mass.gov/dep/pao/news/foodwast.htm
(Although this posting primarily involves recycling and composting, it may
have implications for on-site composting and other forms of waste
prevention.)
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Link to information on cell phone collection programs that offer ways to
help benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina:
- http://www.collectivegood.com/donate1.asp
- http://www.thewirelesssource.com/PR/Katrina.pdf
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Excerpted from an article by Dennis O'Brien in the 9/8/05 Baltimore Sun:
CAN FLOOD-DAMAGED HOMES IN NEW ORLEANS BE REPAIRED?
Experts say the flood damage from Hurricane Katrina will prove too much to
repair in many cases - the waterlogged foundations of aging houses just
can't withstand weeks of submersion.
"I wouldn't say it's a guarantee, but it doesn't look good for many of those
houses," said Lance Fisher, general manager of Marcor Remediation, a
Maryland contractor that repairs and rebuilds flood-damaged homes. Whether a
house can be salvaged generally depends on the amount of water that washes
in, its condition before the storm, the time lag before repair work can
begin and the type of building materials used, experts say.
Jay Crandell, a consulting structural engineer in Maryland who specializes
in assessing storm-damaged buildings, said the age of the building can be
critical. Homes built before the 1930s were made with more
moisture-resistant woods, such as cypress, and will dry out faster than more
modern houses, he said. "The cost of repairing the older homes may be less
than the cost of repairing the new homes," he said.
New Orleans is known for having a high percentage of older homes and that
could help in the long run, Crandell said. If floodwater is confined to the
basement, the house can often be saved - as long as the foundation remains
sound, said Atul Patel, a structural engineer and president of Faisant
Engineers in Baltimore. But if water rises above ground level, he said, the
house becomes harder to salvage because of damage to floors, ceilings and
support beams. And, he said, "If a building is flooded for more than a week,
there's less and less chance that they're going to be able to salvage it at
all."
The most flood-resistant building materials are brick, masonry and concrete,
Patel said, so New Orleans' warehouses and office buildings are likely to be
salvaged. The same is true for many of the famous Spanish-style brick homes
in the French Quarter, which was not severely flooded. Unfortunately most
homes in the Gulf Coast region - like most in the United States - are of
wood frame construction. Many brick-front houses are built with wood frames,
Patel said.
He said there is a national building code that most states generally follow,
but its recommendations are not uniformly enforced from one state or one
jurisdiction to the next. "In shoreline areas, there needs to be
requirements that builders use only more flood-resistant materials," Patel
said.
Even if a structure isn't too badly damaged by water, homeowners must
contend with mold. It usually will start appearing two to three days after
flooding, Fisher said. Small amounts of mold grow harmlessly in many
workplaces or homes. But it can spring up in abundance in flood-damaged
buildings, causing allergic reactions, similar to pollen or animal
allergies. In rare cases, it can cause flu-like symptoms and skin rashes.
Scrubbing it with bleach helps. If left unchecked, it can spread to areas
between interior walls and in crawlspaces. "If you can get to a house
quickly and dry it out, you can save a lot of it," Fisher said.
Homeowners in the gulf states also should be concerned about toxic chemicals
seeping into their homes from polluted floodwaters. When Grand Forks, North
Dakota, was flooded in 1997, hydrocarbons from damaged fuel oil tanks seeped
into the wood framing and concrete of many houses, said Wayne Seames, a
professor of chemical engineering at the University of North Dakota. Five
homes that were otherwise structurally sound had to be destroyed because of
the ill effects of exposure to hydrocarbons, Seames said. Some types of
hydrocarbons have been linked to cancer. Others cause headaches and
dizziness, he said. With the number of oil storage tanks and petrochemical
plants in New Orleans, homeowners there face the same risk.
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