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12 Jun 06 - packaging; mercury; jobs; bulbs; Ikea; cameras ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.nwpcarchive.org --------------------- From David Allaway, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Solid Waste Policy & Program Development, Portland, OR: PACKAGING WASTE PREVENTION RESOURCES The Oregon DEQ, with assistance from Metro (the regional government of the Portland metropolitan area), has developed a web site to help businesses prevent waste associated with packaging. The web site, http://www.deq.state.or.us/wmc/packaging/index.htm, includes descriptions of different methods for reducing packaging waste, checklists for evaluating packaging, and other information including a primer on foreign packaging waste prevention regulations that impact U.S. businesses selling packaged goods abroad. The web site also includes case studies of businesses in Oregon and elsewhere which are saving thousands - and in some cases millions - of dollars each year through packaging improvements. While the contents of the web site borrow from some existing packaging resources, many of the case studies, descriptions of "best practices" and other fact sheets are original. Recycling considerations are included, but the site is strongly focused on prevention and reuse. The web site is one outcome of a several-year project in which DEQ and a contracted packaging engineer worked with a variety of businesses to evaluate their use of packaging. Businesses participating in the project made changes resulting in an estimated prevention of 493 tons of packaging/year, with annual savings estimated in excess of $994,000. An evaluation report that explains the project's organization, objectives, partners, and results can be downloaded here: http://www.deq.state.or.us/wmc/packaging/other/packagingwpproject.htm Please feel free to use these materials in your work with businesses. Although we developed the web site primarily to help businesses in Oregon prevent packaging waste and save money, most of the packaging that ends up as waste here is designed and sourced elsewhere. We are planning some outreach both in Oregon and also to some of the national trade publications in order to get the word out that packaging waste prevention saves money and helps the environment, and that opportunities to prevent waste in packaging are abundant. E-mail: Allaway [DOT] David [AT] deq [DOT] state [DOT] or [DOT] us --------------------- From Melissa Kriegerfox, Monroe County Solid Waste Management District, recycling and reuse program, Bloomington, IN, and the Indiana Recycling Coalition: We are looking for a 30-second TV commercial geared towards a mercury campaign. Does anyone know of anything like that? Thanks! E-mail: mkrieger [A T] mcswmd [D O T] org --------------------- Link to a job posting for a Toxics Reduction Specialist for the City and County of San Francisco Department of the Environment: http://www.sfgov.org/site/jobs_page.asp?id=39740 The annual salary range is $47,398 - $57,590. The deadline for applications is Friday, June 23, 2006. According to the job posting, "The City Toxics Reduction Specialist focuses on a range of innovative programs aimed at implementing the Precautionary Principle and reducing toxic hazards in San Francisco's municipal operations. These programs include the Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Program, Integrated Pest Management Program, and outreach/education for the municipal Toxics Disposal Program." ---------------------- Link to job postings for two Waste Management Specialist positions with the Sonoma County Integrated Waste Division, Santa Rosa, CA: http://agency.governmentjobs.com/sonoma Scroll down to the bottom, then click on page 2, then scroll down to the bottom again. For a Waste Management Specialist I position, the salary range is $4,167 - $5,066 monthly. For a Waste Management Specialist II position, the salary range is $4,548 - $5,527 monthly. The deadline for applications is Wednesday, June 28, 2006. Both positions include waste reduction and resource conservation work, among other duties. --------------------- Link to a job posting for an Environmental Program Coordinator for the Saunders Hotel Group in Boston: http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/jobs/jobdetail.cfm?JobID=3041153 No salary range is listed. The deadline for applications is Friday, June 16, 2006. The Environmental Program Coordinator maintains and develops environmental initiatives, and educates staff and employees at the Saunders Hotel Group's Boston properties: The Lenox Hotel, Copley Square Hotel, and Comfort Inn & Suites Airport Hotel. The employer is EcoLogical Solutions, a Boston-based hospitality industry environmental consulting firm that is associated with the Saunders Hotel Group. ---------------------- Link to the web page for Environmental Defense's new "Make the Switch" campaign, seeking to encourage Americans to replace one million standard light bulbs with energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs: http://www.environmentaldefense.org/go/maketheswitch ---------------------- Excerpted from a 6/4/06 BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) news service article: IKEA STORES IN ENGLAND TO CHARGE FOR PLASTIC BAGS Ikea will become the United Kingdom's first major retailer to regularly charge customers for plastic bags, to try and tackle waste and environmental damage. The Swedish firm will charge shoppers 5 pence (about 9 cents U.S.) for every bag beginning immediately, rising to 10 pence (about 18 cents U.S.) in September. Ikea believes the move - accompanied by a switch to biodegradable bags and lower prices for reusable bags - will cut total bag use by 20 million next year. Retailers are under growing pressure to curb plastic bag giveaways to reduce litter and encourage energy efficiency. Most of the estimated 17 billion bags given away in the UK each year are only used once and then thrown away. The Irish Republic has levied a charge equal to about 10 pence on plastic bags since 2002, a policy that is claimed to have reduced usage by 90 percent. "The UK is addicted to plastic bags and we are paying a high price for this in environmental terms," said Charlie Browne, Environment Manager for Ikea UK. Ikea - which gave away 32 million bags in the UK in 2005 - said it had conducted a successful two-year charging trial in Edinburgh, which had led to a 90 percent drop in consumption. "This may prove controversial with some customers but we really hope people will stick with us and realize that we are doing this to try and help the environment," Browne added. Ikea emphasized that it would not make any money from the move since all the proceeds would be donated to the environmental organization Community Forests. Ikea UK's 6/5/06 press release about this is at: http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_GB/about_ikea/press_room/press_release/nationa l/plastic_bag_campaign.html ---------------------- Excerpted from a 6/12/06 Reuters news service article by Brent Kininmont: DISPOSABLE CAMERAS STILL HANGING ON In the U.S., the world's largest photo market, about 202 million disposable cameras were sold last year, according to the U.S.-based Photo Marketing Association. That is down from the record 218 million gobbled up in 2004 but defies the more than 20 percent annual shrinking of the color film market as consumers go digital. Thanks to digital cameras, gone are the days of faces out of focus and wasted shots of eyes caught mid-blink. If you don't like a photo, just erase it from the screen and snap another one. So deep is the rot in global film sales that the world's third-largest maker of camera film, Japan's Konica Minolta, decided this year to pull the plug on making color film, while AgfaPhoto of Germany went bankrupt, sinking the once-famous Agfa brand. But digital cameras are susceptible to theft, loss and damage and that has been another key to the longevity of disposables - serving as a stand-in at the beach, say, or amid the cacophony of celebration and inebriation at parties and rock concerts. Nor are disposables restricted to mere domestic duties: Oscar-winning director Ang Lee wielded one on Academy Awards night this year, and they are a staple of care packages sent to U.S. troops in Iraq. "There's no real device that's simple, cheap and effective enough to supplant it yet," said Christopher Chute, senior analyst at U.S.-based IDC, a technology research firm. "It's something people are very familiar with. It's an ingrained behavior." One of the few countries to see a significant denting of sales is Japan, the world's second-largest photo market, where once-smitten consumers helped to ignite a global infatuation with disposables. Domestic shipments slipped to 48 million in 2005, according to Japanese imaging group Photo Market, nearly half the number shipped a decade earlier. Single-use cameras are losing ground in a country famously quick to toss out old technology in favor of the new, and where the incidence of theft is comparatively low. The ubiquitous camera phone, just an arm's length away in bags and trouser pockets, is the latest predator on disposable's diminishing turf in Japan, where around 90 percent of mobile phones can take photos. But camera phones won't really encroach on the territory of single-use cameras until the printable image is sharper, said Ken Sugiyama, a spokesman for Fuji Photo Film, which introduced the first disposables to the world in 1986. Certainly Eastman Kodak and Fuji, the world's top two makers of photo film, aren't shying away from inventing new flavors of disposables amid long-running shake-ups of their businesses due to the death rattle of film. The latest single-use camera from Fuji features speedier film for taking clearer photos at night, adding to a range that has included models for taking underwater, panoramic and black-and-white photos. - end -