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19 Apr 06 - swaps; babies; Katrina; paint; laundry; phosphates; obsolescence
** 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 an article by Michel Marriott in the 4/13/06 New York Times:
WATCHED IT? READ IT? HEARD IT ENOUGH? SWAP IT
Zunafish (http://www.zunafish.com ), a website
that began operating in January, matches people who want to trade CDs, DVDs,
video tapes, video games, paperback books or audio books.
The trades have to be one-for-one trades within the same category - a CD for
a CD, for instance. No item (for example, a seven-disc DVD set of the first
season of the television series "24") is worth more than any other (say, a
DVD of the movie "King Kong"). Traders using the site determine the relative
value of an item by choosing to swap or not. No one is ever forced to make a
trade. Each trader pays Zunafish $1 through credit or debit card for each
trade. The site then calculates the postage costs and creates addressed
mailing labels that can be downloaded and printed out. Each trader is
responsible for paying the postage and mailing the item promptly. Like
buyers and sellers on eBay, the traders on Zunafish rate each other,
providing a confidence index for future transactions.
Unlocking new value in practically discarded household items is a growing
phenomenon. Michael J. Silverstein, co-author of the new book "Treasure
Hunt: Inside the Mind of the New Consumer," says middle-class consumers are
becoming more comfortable economizing in some areas so they have more
capital to buy premium items in other areas. He claims that if consumers
were asked to place all of their CDs and DVDs, for example, in three piles -
those they love, those they like well enough to keep and those they would be
happy to have taken away - the piles would most likely be equal. Any system
that helps people easily trade away what they do not want for what they do
want is "a beautiful synchronicity," Mr. Silverstein said.
One notable feature is how easy it is to post items on Zunafish to be
traded. Zunafish uses a database that is updated weekly. Type in the name of
an item or its universal product code (usually found near an item's bar
code) - or the I.S.B.N. number for books - and the database pulls up a full
description of the item and a digital photograph of its cover. If the match
is correct, the user clicks OK and the item is posted. There are other
online trading sites, including Peerflix and BarterBee, which started last
summer, that offer trading in similar categories. But other sites tend to
offer a more limited range of items, or they use more complicated systems,
requiring points and memberships to execute trades.
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Link to Tiny Footprints, an Oregon Environmental Council website with
resources for raising small children in an "eco-healthy" way:
http://www.tinyfootprints.org
This website includes an online Tiny Footprints Baby Shower Kit, with tips,
tools and resources for holding an eco-friendly baby shower:
http://www.tinyfootprints.org/toolkit
At the top, click on the
different sections of the kit.
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Link to photos in a new exhibition by photographer Chris Jordan, "In
Katrina's Wake: Portraits of Loss from an Unnatural Disaster ":
http://www.chrisjordan.com Jordan, who is
based in Seattle, is best known for his photos of American mass consumption,
which have been prominently featured in the New York Times (and here in the
Waste Prevention Forum). In his statement on the website about his new
Hurricane Katrina photos, Jordan links the hurricane damage to mass
consumption. Here is Jordan's statement:
"This new series, photographed in New Orleans in November and December of
2005, portrays the cost of Hurricane Katrina on a personal scale. Although
the subjects are quite different from those in my earlier Intolerable Beauty
series, this project is motivated by the same concerns about our runaway
consumerism."
"There is evidence to suggest that Katrina was not an entirely natural event
like an earthquake or tsunami. The hurricane's extraordinary severity - and
thus much of the damage - can be linked to global warming, which America
contributes to in disproportionate measure through our extravagant consumer
and industrial practices. Never before have the cumulative effects of our
consumerism become so powerfully focused into a visible form, like the sun's
rays narrowed through a magnifying glass. Almost 300,000 Americans lost
everything they owned in this disaster. The question in my mind is whether
we are all responsible in some degree."
"The hurricane's damage has been further amplified by other human causes,
including failures of preparedness and response on many levels; existing
poverty conditions; levee problems that were mired in political
maneuverings; poor environmental and wetlands practices that left some areas
more vulnerable; and the conspicuous absence of federal resources that were
already being used in the Bush Administration's wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan."
"From that perspective, my hope is that these images might encourage some
reflection on the part that we each play, and the loss that we all suffer,
when a preventable catastrophe of this magnitude happens to the people of
our own country. Katrina has illuminated our interconnectedness, and it
makes our personal accountability as members of a conscious society ever
more difficult to deny."
Jordan's website also notes: "All proceeds from 2006 print sales of these
images will be donated to Gulf Coast hurricane relief charities, and to
non-profit institutions that conduct global-warming research and advocacy. A
book of this work titled "In Katrina's Wake" will be released in August, in
collaboration with writers Bill McKibben and Susan Zakin. All proceeds from
this book also will be donated to hurricane relief charities."
An interview with Chris Jordan, which includes a number of comments about
American consumption, appeared in the February 2006 edition of Mental
Contagion magazine:
http://www.mentalcontagion.com/issue0602/causeandeffect.html
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Link to an invitation for comments on a proposed new Green Seal
environmental standard for recycled-content latex paint (forwarded by Erin
Linsky):
http://www.greenseal.org/draftdocs.htm
The deadline for comments is May
31, 2006.
Link to a press release about this project from the Product Stewardship
Institute, Green Seal and the National Paint and Coatings Association:
http://www.productstewardship.us/supportingdocs/Recycled_Paint_Standard_Rele
ase2_FINAL_4-17-06.doc
(You may be asked to open Microsoft Word to view
this web page.)
Note from Tom: Although the Waste Prevention Forum does not run items that
deal solely with recycling, this new standard may also have waste prevention
(reduction and reuse) implications. Also, the standard includes
"consolidated recycled paint," which could be considered a form of reuse (as
opposed to "reprocessed recycled paint," which the standard also covers).
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Link to the website for Project Laundry List, a non-profit that seeks to
demonstrate that personal choices - including using a clothesline to dry
clothes, instead of a dryer - can make a difference for the environment:
http://www.laundrylist.org
The website features a directory of products that help reduce the
environmental impact of doing laundry - http://www.laundrylist.org/products
- including a selection of
clotheslines and clothes-drying racks.
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Excerpted from a 3/27/06 Associated Press article by John Wiley:
WASHINGTON STATE PASSES LANDMARK LAW LIMITING PHOSPHATES IN DISHWASHING
DETERGENTS
Washington governor Chris Gregoire signed a bill into law March 27 making
Washington the first state to adopt restrictions on the amount of phosphorus
in dishwashing detergents. The law, which is intended to complement an
existing law banning phosphates in laundry detergent, takes effect statewide
in July 2010. It takes effect two years earlier, in July 2008, in three
target counties - Spokane, Whatcom and Clark counties.
The law prohibits sale or distribution of dishwashing detergent that
contains more than 0.5 percent phosphorus by weight. The detergent commonly
used in dishwashers now contains as much as 9 percent phosphorus, which
industry spokesmen say helps clean dishes, break down grease and eliminate
calcium stains. Phosphorus in detergents and fertilizers that get into
rivers and lakes through wastewater and runoff promote algae blooms, which
reduce the amount of oxygen available for other aquatic plants and fish, the
state Department of Ecology said.
There are phosphate-free products on the market now that can be used when
the ban goes statewide in 2010, Governor Gregoire said. But Dennis Griesing,
a lobbyist for the Soap and Detergent Association, said consumers will
suffer because phosphate detergents are most effective in dishwashers. He
said tests show consumers prefer phosphate detergents "because they deliver
a high performance result." Similar legislation in several other states has
failed because test-marketed phosphate-free dishwashing detergents "were
rejected by consumers wholesale... for lack of performance," said Griesing,
whose Washington, D.C., trade organization represents U.S. household,
industrial and institutional cleaning products manufacturers. Gregoire said
the ban will by phased in over the next four years to allow manufacturers
time to sell off their existing stocks.
Dishwashing detergents represent only a small amount of the total phosphorus
discharged into the state's waters - 5 percent to 15 percent, said Rick
Eichstaedt, a Center for Justice lawyer who represents the Sierra Club in
ongoing negotiations for cleaning up the Spokane River. The biggest
contributors are human sewage and fertilizers, he said. Griesing said the
detergent industry, which has fought off similar legislation in Minnesota
and Vermont, does not plan to challenge the ban in court. Instead,
manufacturers will use the next four years for research and development of
no-phosphate detergents, he said.
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Excerpted from an opinion piece by Giles Slade in the 4/13/06 Seattle
Post-Intelligencer:
Giles Slade is the author of the forthcoming book, "Made to Break:
Technology and Obsolescence in America."
MODERN CONSUMER ELECTRONICS - MADE TO BREAK
So the telegraph is no more. It served us well for 148 years. Now the film
camera is dying at age 117. The sleek cell phone you bought just two years
ago is obsolete, too - even if the thing still works. And Wall Street
couldn't be more delighted at the quickening pace of obsolescence.
Konica-Minolta's stock surged this month after it announced it would abandon
its film-based products. Kodak, which pioneered the film camera in 1889,
will probably also stop making film cameras, because its sales from digital
products have outstripped those of its film-based line. Nikon, the industry
standard, has already stopped making most of its film cameras. These
companies have realized two things. First, a digital camera in inexperienced
hands is nearly as good as a film camera in the best hands. Second, digital
photography will be a healthy source of product obsolescence for decades,
because improvements will come along every six months. And consumers are
happy to spend good money to upgrade.
A similar cycle of improvement, consumption and obsolescence defines all
successful electronic products. And because manufacturers are aware of their
products' increasingly short life spans, they usually "underbuild" the more
expensive components to save money. After about a year, for example, the
batteries of iPods start losing their capacity to hold a charge. True, Apple
has a cumbersome mail-in program that allows you replace the battery for
$60. But iPods are not meant to be repaired. They are meant to be replaced
by newer models and thrown away. That's why Apple seals the battery inside
the iPod case. And that's why some iPod customers are now very angry.
The practice of deliberately making electronic devices disposable began with
transistor radio production in the mid-1950s. The first pocket radio,
Raytheon's Belmont Boulevard of 1945, came with spare vacuum tubes.
Do-it-yourselfers could fix it themselves. But by the time Sony shipped the
TR-63 to the American market in 1957, transistors were hand-soldered into
tiny circuit boards, making radios effectively unrepairable because of
expensive labor costs. Very soon the casings of Japanese radios began to
reflect this disposability. They were offered in a changing variety of
fashions and colors and were made of brittle plastic.
Other manufacturers soon understood that underbuilding and promoting
obsolescence made them more competitive. Second-generation - 2G - cell
phones, for example, were originally made to last five years. When it became
obvious that they were being retired after only 18 months, manufacturers
lowered standards, cut costs and introduced new models.
Manufacturers, of course, want you to spend your money. And nothing
discourages them from creating mountains of electronic waste while they
encourage you to do just that. Unlike Europe, the United States has no
national electronic-waste laws that compel manufacturers to disassemble
their discarded products to make it possible to recycle them.
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