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13 Oct 05 - videos; jobs; batteries; remodel; diapers
** 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 a message from Jean Ponzi, EarthWays Center, St. Louis, MO:
The St. Louis-Jefferson Solid Waste Management District, on whose board I
serve, has recently invested in amassing video footage of recycling
facilities, operations, product manufacturing, collection programs, etc. in
the St. Louis region. Before we sock more resources into producing
educational pieces with them, I offered to survey others working in public
recycling and waste management agencies to find out how video communications
have best served their ends.
How have video communications worked best for your public recycling and
waste reduction agency? How have you most effectively used video recently?
To accomplish what goals? Through what media outlets have your video
messages gotten the most mileage? Also - in this age of information
saturation - what "useless" factors have you defined regarding video
communications, that you would caution others to avoid? Thank you!
E-mail: jean ( DOT ) ponzi ( AT ) mobot ( DOT ) org
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Link to a job opening for a Green Building Program project manager for the
City of Austin, TX (forwarded by Katie Jensen):
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/jobapp/jobs_detail.cfm?Requisition_ID=11378
This position is with Austin Energy, which is a city department. The salary
range is $25.61 - $32.01 per hour. The deadline for applications is Oct.
28, 2005.
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Link to a job opening for a recycling coordinator for the Town of Truckee,
CA:
http://www.townoftruckee.com/emp.html
Scroll down. The salary range is
$3,632 - $4,903 per month. The deadline for applications is Oct. 28, 2005.
Duties include overseeing the source reduction, recycling, household
hazardous waste and pollution prevention programs, and developing an
outreach campaign to promote public awareness and increase community
involvement. Truckee has a population of about 15,000 and is located in the
Sierra Nevada mountains of California, about 30 miles southwest of Reno,
Nevada.
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Excerpted from a 10/6/05 press release from California Assembly Member Fran
Pavley:
RECHARGEABLE BATTERY RECYCLING BECOMES LAW IN CALIFORNIA
Legislation establishing California's first rechargeable battery recycling
requirement was signed into law Oct. 6 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. AB
1125, sponsored by Assembly Member Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) requires,
effective July 1, 2006, that retailers that sell toxic rechargeable
batteries must take back these batteries for recycling, reuse, or proper
disposal, at no cost to the consumer. Retailers who primarily sell food and
retailers who have less than $1 million annually in gross sales are exempt
from this bill.
Rechargeable batteries contain toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, mercury,
and lead. These heavy metals, which are known carcinogens, can accumulate in
the environment by leaching into soil, ground water and surface water from
landfills. They are toxic to fish and wildlife and can pass to humans
through the food chain, potentially causing numerous human illnesses such as
lung and kidney damage. The California Department of Toxic Substances
Control has determined that all discarded batteries are toxic, and as of
February 8, 2006, must be disposed of as hazardous waste. "This bill will
aid in the compliance of this rule," Pavley stated.
"California reports that more than 34,000 tons of toxic batteries are
landfilled annually. Only about 16 percent are currently recycled through
existing voluntary efforts," said Mark Murray, executive director of
Californians Against Waste, who supported AB 1125. "This new law will
provide every consumer in the state with a free and convenient opportunity
to recycle batteries, keeping tons of toxic waste out of our environment."
Rechargeable batteries can be found in products such as laptop computers,
cordless phones, power tools, camcorders, cellular phones, and professional
radios.
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Link to the City of Seattle's "Green Home Remodel" website, with
downloadable guides and other resources:
http://www.seattle.gov/sustainablebuilding/greenhome.htm
Scroll down.
Several guides have been added to this website recently, including the
Salvage & Reuse guide.
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Excerpted from an article by Tina Kelley on the front page of the 10/9/05
New York Times (following up on previous postings about this topic in the
Forum over the past year and a half):
"DIAPER FREE BABY" - IT'S A MOVEMENT
For many parents in the United States, the idea of potty training before a
baby is able to walk, or even before age 2, is reprehensible, a nightmare
for parents and baby, not to mention a direct route from the crib to the
psychiatrist's couch. But a growing number of parents are experimenting with
infant potty training, seeing it as more sanitary, ecologically correct and
likely to strengthen bonds between parent and child.
About 2,000 people across the country have joined Internet groups and e-mail
lists to learn more about the techniques of encouraging a baby - a child too
young to walk or talk - to go in a toilet, a sink or a pot. Through a
nonprofit group, Diaper Free Baby, (http://www.diaperfreebaby.org
), 77 local groups have formed in 35 states
to encourage the practice. One author's how-to books have sold about 50,000
copies.
Adoption of the approach in the Western Hemisphere is in its infant stage,
so to speak. Moreover, the philosophy behind it flies in the face of
Spock-influenced child-rearing. Dr. Benjamin Spock, the last word in child
rearing for many U.S. families through much of the 20th century, recommended
against any training in the first year, believing it could lead to
bed-wetting later. Once, however, breastfeeding, too, was a rarity, until
conversations among mothers, supported by medical research and encouragement
from doctors, nurses and midwives, pushed it during the 1970s to the
mainstream of child-care practices, where it remains today.
With early toilet training, there is a broad body of knowledge and
experience to draw on. Parents in at least 75 countries, including India,
Kenya and Greenland, embrace the practice, with Chinese babies often wearing
pants with split bottoms for easy squatting (available for $1 in Chinatown,
according to savvy mothers in New York). Some parents who adopt children
from other countries say they are startled to find that their babies arrive
ready to use the toilet. More than 50 percent of the world's children are
toilet trained about the time they turn 1, according to Contemporary
Pediatrics magazine.
From birth, the reasoning goes, infants are aware of their needs to
eliminate, and although their muscles are not developed, they can soon learn
to go on cue. Conversely, by relying on disposable diapers, modern parents
are in effect teaching babies to ignore the signs that they have to go,
making potty training at a later age more difficult.
Ingrid Bauer, author of "Diaper Free! The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant
Hygiene" (Natural Wisdom Press, 2001), believes it is easiest to begin
toilet training in the first six months. For families that practice the
technique, the advantages are many: savings in the cost of diapers, which
can reach $3,000 a child; less guilt about contributing to the 22 billion
disposable diapers that end up in landfills every year; no diaper rash; and
a nursery that doesn't reek of diaper pail. They also note that age 2, a
common age for toilet training, is a time of notorious willfulness and a
terrible age to start teaching any child anything. Most important, they say,
is an increased emotional bond with the baby, forged by the need for the
parent to pick up subtle signs and act on them quickly. Proponents of the
practice use the phrase "elimination communication."
But unquestionably, in a child-rearing culture that thrives on sanitation
and parental convenience, the prospect of supervising 20 deposits a day in
the first busy months of infancy is daunting. Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, the
renowned child-rearing expert, said parents need not worry about
psychologically damaging their child. Brazelton, author of "Toilet Training:
The Brazelton Way" (Da Capo Press, 2004), has always advocated a
child-centered approach to training: Do it when a child is ready, without
too much pushing or even encouraging. "I'm all for it, except I don't think
many people can do it," he said of elimination communication. "The thing
that bothers me about it is today, probably 80 percent of women don't have
that kind of availability."
The American Academy of Pediatrics, in its current "Toilet Training"
pamphlet, says children have no control over bladder or bowel movements when
they are younger than a year and little control for six months afterward.
"Even if you're getting them to go in a pot as a young infant, I don't know
if it will have any long-term impact for all the effort you have to go
through," said Dr. Mark Wolraich, author of the academy's "Guide to Toilet
Training" (Bantam Books, 2003). "The risk is, if it's not working and the
parents are frustrated, they're creating more negative interactions with
their child."
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