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20 Sep 05 - purchasing; P2; Canada; pens; jobs; zero waste; abstracts; Ikea
** 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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Link to the Northeast Recycling Council's new "Green Purchasing Resources
for Businesses" website (forwarded by Jessica Wozniak):
http://www.nerc.org/GreenPurchasing/greenpurchasingresources.html
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Link to the website for National Pollution Prevention Week, being held this
week, Sept.19 - 25, 2005:
http://www.p2.org/p2week National Pollution
Prevention (P2) Week is promoted in the U.S. by the National Pollution
Prevention Roundtable.
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Link to the website for Waste Reduction Week in Canada, to be held Oct. 17 -
23, 2005:
http://www.wrwcanada.com Waste Reduction Week
is sponsored and supported by a number of recycling organizations,
government agencies and corporations in Canada.
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Excerpted from a 9/8/05 Reuters news service article:
BIC DISPOSABLE PENS - 100 BILLION SOLD
More than half a century after honing a cheap version of the ballpoint pen,
BIC, the French firm that built an empire out of making things to be thrown
away, announced it has sold its 100 billionth - 100,000,000,000th -
disposable ballpoint pen. Marketing experts say BIC helped to pioneer what
has since become a mainstay of modern mass-produced commerce - well designed
products, using good technology and made accessible to everyone at cheap
prices and then sold across the world.
BIC's innovations have not always been successful, however. Its idea for
disposable underwear ended up in a book called Brand Failures. And a foray
into perfume flopped when consumers turned up their noses at BIC's
disposable, unluxurious image.
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Link to a job posting for a waste reduction manager for Douglas County,
Roseburg, OR (forwarded by David Allaway):
http://www.co.douglas.or.us/hr/jobs/3_RECRUITMENTS/PW/wastemanager.asp
The salary is $35,800 to $47,300, depending on experience. The deadline for
applications is Friday, Sept. 23, 2005. Douglas County is located in
southwestern Oregon, south of Eugene.
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Link to a job posting for an executive director for the South Bayside Waste
Management Authority, based in San Carlos, CA (seen in the National
Recycling Coalition newsletter) :
http://www.rethinkwaste.org/about_jobs.php
The salary for this position
is "open, dependent upon qualifications." The deadline for applications is
Oct. 17, 2005. The South Bayside Waste Management Authority is a joint
powers authority of twelve member agencies in San Mateo County, which is
located just south of San Francisco. The authority provides a variety of
waste prevention, recycling and solid waste programs.
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Excerpted from an editorial by Guy Crittenden in the August/September 2005
issue of Solid Waste & Recycling, a Canadian trade journal (forwarded by
Bill Sheehan):
ZERO WASTE ARGUMENT HAS CLOUT IN BRITISH COLUMBIA
In my last editorial, I explained the Zero Waste philosophy outlined by Bill
Sheehan and Helen Spiegelman in their interesting report "Unintended
Consequences"
(http://www.productpolicy.org/assets/resources/UnintendedConsequences-MSWand
EPR.pdf
). The authors call for the end of municipal "subsidies" to
increasing consumer waste - the subsidies being the tax-funded carting away
of packaging and product wastes, much of which they argue should be handled
via producer responsibility systems. My editorial indicated that Zero Waste
is complicating integrated waste management (IWM) plans that seek to marry
new or expanded disposal facilities with composting and recycling plants. To
IWM types, landfills and energy-from-waste plants are infrastructure. For
the Zero Waste crowd, this infrastructure - its very efficiency -
perpetuates the subsidy and society's wasteful ways.
It was with some amusement that I noticed at the time my article appeared
that the same Ms. Spiegelman, who is on the board of the Recycling Council
of B.C., played a role in derailing one of the largest landfills projects in
Canada: the Ashcroft landfill proposed by the Greater Vancouver Regional
District (GVRD). This illustrates the power of Zero Waste adherents to bring
down some pretty big landfill quarry (pardon the pun).
A recent article about the Ashcroft landfill proposal by Peter Ladner in a
Vancouver business magazine gave expression to the IWM point of view. Ladner
wrote in favor of the landfill proposed for the Ashcroft Ranch. He observed
that the proposal had passed environmental hurdles so far and asked why
Greater Vancouver residents and businesses, who currently truck their
garbage a long distance north to Cache Creek (expected to be full in late
2008) "can't deal with it closer to home?"
But in June, the British Columbia provincial government stunned the GVRD by
failing to approve the environmental assessment. This will delay the project
by nine months to a year, if not more.
In seeking their big hole in the ground, the GVRD staff had underestimated
the persuasive powers of Ms. Spiegelman and her cohorts, who brought into
question the necessity of the project. Spiegelman used the GVRD's own waste
audit data from 2001 to show that two-thirds of waste could be diverted form
landfill via recycling and composting. Noting that the province is already
committed to reduce the waste stream by 50 per cent, Spiegelman asked, "Do
we need to rush to spend $75 million on a new landfill? Are there better
ways to spend the money?"
Spiegelman is assembling a coalition that will organize delegations to
municipal councils. Her plan, she says, is "to educate elected officials and
citizens about the IWM/Zero Waste paradigm shift and the practical solutions
that can be explored."
So, the Zero Waste theorists are not off in an ivory tower counting how many
angels fit on a recycling pin; they've just brought down (or at least
delayed) a major disposal project, with others likely to follow. Be warned.
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Link to a call for papers for the Air & Waste Management Association's
annual conference, to be held in June, 2006 (forwarded by Maggie Clarke):
http://www.awma.org/ACE2006/Call%20for%20Abstracts-%20final%20final.pdf
Topic areas include waste prevention, pollution prevention and sustainable
development. The conference is currently scheduled to take place in New
Orleans. If that is not possible due to recovery operations in New Orleans,
the conference will be moved to another location.
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Excerpted from the 9/10/05 "Eco Chic" column by Liz Stevens in the
Dallas-Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
IKEA'S ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES STAND OUT
Ikea's environmental policies are astonishingly progressive for a big-box,
multinational corporation. Here are 12 reasons to make the trek to the local
Ikea store in suburban Dallas (carpooling would be in keeping with the Ikea
spirit).
1. Ikea has 190 stores across the globe, so its purchasing habits have a
huge effect on local economies and environments. The company's stated policy
is to not purchase wood that comes from "intact natural forests" unless the
forest is certified as sustainably managed. Long-term, the company's goal is
to use only wood that can be traced to certified forests.
2. Nearly 10 years ago, Ikea phased out the use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC
or vinyl), a ubiquitous and controversial plastic whose production results
in the release of dioxins into the environment. The company has also taken
steps to reduce formaldehyde emissions from its products that use particle
board and medium-density fiberboard and follows strict German laws for
formaldehyde, a potential carcinogen.
3. By 2002, Ikea had rid its products of another increasingly controversial
chemical group, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). These agents act as
fire retardants in a range of products, including foam cushions in
furniture. Scientists have found that PBDEs accumulate in human tissue with
potentially hazardous consequences, and have been discovered in high amounts
in the breast milk of U.S. women.
4. The flat packaging of products saves customers money (you put it
together), and saves Ikea on fuel costs. The more compact the packaging, the
more products can fit in one truck. And fewer trucks on the road mean less
pollution.
5. Many sales tags include environmental information about the product.
6. Ikea is increasing its use of rapidly renewable materials such as bamboo
and rattan and is using new technologies to lower prices without sacrificing
quality or the environment, the company says. The Ogla chair, for example,
which used to be made from solid wood, is now made from recycled plastic.
7. Ikea stores are conscious energy consumers. In 2003, the company held a
"Kill-a-Watt" competition challenging stores to reduce energy consumption.
Seven European stores derive their electricity from renewable energy sources
such as solar, according to Ikea.
8. Ikea sells a range of energy-saving compact fluorescent (CF) light bulbs.
A display, "Just as bright but cheaper," explains them. And you can recycle
your old CF bulbs at the local store (CFs contain a small amount of mercury
and shouldn't be tossed into the regular garbage).
9. The company believes social responsibility goes hand in hand with its
environmental ethic. When a particular electrical component fell from
demand, Ikea's European supplier would have had to close its doors had not
Ikea designers found a way to create a new product from the supplier's
outdated mold. A set of interconnecting votive holders was the result.
10. Customer trash cans aren't just trash cans at Ikea. They're separated
into paper, plastic and trash, for recycling purposes.
11. On average, Ikea stores recycle an impressive 77 percent of their waste,
the company says. Damaged products are fixed and placed in the store's "as
is" area for at least 30 percent off, broken down into salvageable parts, or
recycled. Even the really banged-up stuff gets a second chance in the "Handy
Person's Corner," where it's marked at even deeper discounts.
12. Each store's "Good Company" committee discusses issues pertaining to
social and environmental justice, community involvement and how to make Ikea
a better place for employees. Every store is mandated to have a bike rack
for customer and employee use, and the employee locker room includes a
shower.
After all, you wouldn't want Ikea employees who biked to work helping you
before they'd had a good lather, would you?
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