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02 Nov 05 - promo items; San Francisco; trellises; Wal-Mart
** 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 Julie Haas-Wajdowicz, City of Antioch, Environmental Resource
Coordinator, Antioch, CA:
I work on several environmental education and public outreach programs, and
the issue of purchasing promo items always comes up. The ongoing dilemma is
how do you select items to give away at a public event that will entice
people to come to your table and talk to you without just generating more
garbage. We strive to purchase give-away items that will reinforce our
messages, be useful to the recipient and be earth-friendly
(recycled-content, chemical-free, recyclable or durable). My question for
the group is, does anyone have a good set of purchasing guidelines for
promotional items? I have lots of great examples of Environmentally
Preferred Purchasing programs but they are all geared to general office
supplies and paper, not marketing items. Thanks.
E-mail: jhaas-wajdowicz [ A T ] ci [ D O T ] antioch [ D O T ] ca [ D O T ] us
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The next two items follow up on previous items about the City of San
Francisco's proposal for a 17-cent fee on plastic and paper grocery bags.
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Excerpted from a 11/2/05 article by Charlie Goodyear in the San Francisco
Chronicle:
CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO, GROCERIES REACH DEAL TO REDUCE SHOPPING BAG USAGE
City of San Francisco officials have struck an ambitious deal with large
supermarket chains to reduce by 10 million the number of grocery bags used
by shoppers by the end of next year.
The deal, to be honored by Albertson's, Andronico's, Bell Markets, CalMart,
Cala Foods, Foods Co., Mollie Stone's and Safeway, will permit the city's
Department of the Environment to count grocery bag usage - normally a
closely-held business secret for supermarkets. City officials are banking on
better in-store recycling efforts and promotion of reusable bags to help
reach the lofty reduction goal. "Nowhere else in the country has this been
done," said Peter Ragone, Mayor Gavin Newsom's spokesman, about the
agreement.
The exact number of grocery bags dispensed in the city each year is unknown,
but estimates vary between 50 and 150 million. A majority of them are
plastic, and they are blamed for clogging landfills, jamming recycling
machines and killing marine life. The agreement also calls for the city to
attempt to establish curbside recycling of plastic bags by the end of 2006.
City officials say trash collection in San Francisco currently does not
allow for the recycling of these items.
Mayoral staffers credit the Department of the Environment - which pushed to
create a 17-cent bag tax - with getting supermarket chains to agree to the
deal. The agreement will preclude the city from pursuing such a fee until
the deal expires next year. The companies also will pay $100,000 toward a
public awareness campaign in San Francisco highlighting the conservation and
recycling program.
Earlier this year, a proposal to charge a 17-cent fee, which would likely be
passed on to consumers, appeared to have little political support at the
Board of Supervisors. "The truth of the matter is the bag tax was going
nowhere on the Board of Supervisors," Ragone said. Newsom staffer Wade
Crowfoot, who helped draft the agreement with the grocery chains, said a bag
tax remains an option if the companies show less than good faith in their
efforts to cut bag usage in San Francisco.
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Excerpted from an 11/2/05 press release from the San Francisco Mayor's
Office (forwarded by David Assmann):
SAN FRANCISCO TO REDUCE 10 MILLION GROCERY STORE BAGS
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi joined
together to announce a unique public-private waste reduction agreement, the
first of its kind in the nation, which calls for significant reduction of
grocery checkout bag use. Working in conjunction with city government,
supermarkets operated by Albertsons, Andronicos, Bell Markets, CalMart, Cala
Foods, Foods Co, Mollie Stone's, and Safeway have set a reduction target of
10,000,000 by the end of 2006.
"San Francisco is a global recycling leader. We now recycle more than
two-thirds of all our waste," said Mayor Newsom. "Today, our city is taking
a historic step to reduce the use of disposable items such as grocery store
bags," Newsom continued, "This is just the beginning if we are to become a
truly sustainable city."
In 2003, City government adopted goals of 75 percent landfill diversion by
2010 and zero waste by 2020. These diversion goals intend to achieve a
cleaner, healthier local environment and minimize the negative impacts of
solid waste. This partnership is made possible by local stores' willingness
to pursue innovative measures to reduce consumption and disposal of checkout
bags, as well as the City's willingness to work with local stores in a
cooperative measure.
"This is a first step whose merit shall be judged in due time, in making
certain that this is not an industry-driven remedy," said Supervisor
Mirkarimi. The target reduction of 10 million bags may represent up to
twenty percent of the total bags distributed in San Francisco on an annual
basis - the exact figure of bags used annually will be captured through
monitoring by the city. A reduction of 10 million bags will keep 95 tons of
material plastic out of San Francisco's waste stream, and will reduce San
Francisco's contribution of greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 1 million
pounds of CO2. This is equivalent to 44,000 gallons of oil or taking more
than 14,000 automobiles off the road for a day.
The Commission on the Environment first looked at the issue of grocery
checkout bag reduction in San Francisco in late 2004. Subsequently, Mayor
Newsom and Supervisor Mirkarimi co-sponsored a resolution focusing on
reduction measures, and have worked together with industry to craft the
voluntary reduction agreement.
The Department of the Environment is charged with ensuring that the goals of
the agreement are implemented. "We will immediately work with the grocery
stores to determine an accurate baseline for the number of bags distributed.
We will then monitor the supermarkets' progress towards reaching the
reduction targets," said Jared Blumenfeld, Director of the San Francisco
Department of the Environment. The agreement includes enhanced bag recycling
efforts, as well as a public education campaign funded by the supermarkets
through their checkout bag suppliers.
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Excerpted from a message from Kinley Deller, King County Solid Waste
Division, Recycling and Environmental Services, Seattle, WA:
Here's a challenge for Waste Prevention Forum readers. What reuse options
can you think of for 25 concrete trellises? They are 25 feet long, 4 feet
wide and 8 inches thick. They are reinforced with rebar. Each one weighs
2,500 pounds. Their shape is generally like this: #############
Apparently they were used in the landscaping for a King County sewage
treatment pump station that is being remodeled. Please send me any reuse
ideas you have. Thanks.
E-mail: kinley (DOT) deller (AT) metrokc (DOT) gov
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Excerpted from a 10/25/05 article by Michael Barbaro and Felicity Barringer
in the New York Times:
WAL-MART ENVIRONMENTAL GOALS INCLUDE PACKAGING REDUCTION
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has announced a set of sweeping environmental goals to
reduce energy use in its stores, double its trucks' fuel efficiency,
minimize its use of packaging and pressure thousands of companies in its
worldwide supply chain to follow its lead.
Embracing energy-use and environmental goals will help both the company's
bottom line and its customers' needs, CEO Lee Scott said. His announcement
signals that the nation's largest retailer is joining the nation's largest
manufacturer, General Electric Co., in pursuing new policies that set
specific goals for environmental performance, while advertising those goals
to shareholders, customers and the public as strategic business decisions.
GE faced criticism for its environmental practices; Wal-Mart has faced
criticism, as well, but largely over its low wages, scant health insurance
coverage and what opponents called poor treatment of workers. Critics
responded that Wal-Mart's environmental initiative, while admirable, is
intended to divert attention from the chain's image problems.
Scott said his goals are to invest $500 million in technologies that will
reduce greenhouse gases from stores and distribution centers by 20 percent
over the next seven years; increase the fuel efficiency of the chain's truck
fleet by 25 percent over the next three years and double it within 10 years;
and design a new store within four years that is at least 25 percent more
energy-efficient.
He said that as the largest buyer of manufactured goods in the world,
Wal-Mart has the power to encourage its more than 60,000 suppliers to adopt
environmentally conscious business practices. "Our most direct impact will
be on our suppliers," Scott said. "If we request that our suppliers use
packaging that has less waste or materials that can be recycled, everybody
who buys from that manufacturer will end up using that package."
As an example of how the company can encourage better packaging, Scott said
he would ensure prime placement, at the end of store aisles, for a 32-ounce
bottle of All laundry detergent that has been concentrated to reduce the
container's size. The goal, the company said, is for all laundry detergent
suppliers to offer similar packaging by the end of the year.
Asked why Wal-Mart, whose critics have railed against its wages and health
insurance plan, chose to focus on the environment, Scott said: "There is
work going on in all of those areas. But there is not the ability to change
as much in many of those areas as we can change in this area of
environmental sustainability."
Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club and a board member of
Wal-Mart Watch, a group critical of Wal-Mart, said that, from an
environmental standpoint, Wal-Mart's stated goals would bring tangible
improvements. But, he said, they had not addressed the land-use impact of
locating stores in rural areas, covering fields or wetlands and prompting
customers to consume extra gasoline to reach them. Even so, "these are
positive steps," Pope said.
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