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28 Jun 06 - C&D; bricks; bags; job; mail; Craftster; chemistry; Wal-Mart ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.nwpcarchive.org --------------------- Link to information from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection about Massachusetts' new disposal ban on several construction and demolition (C&D) materials: http://www.mass.gov/dep/recycle/solid/cdbanfaq.pdf This disposal ban on asphalt pavement, brick, concrete, metal and wood takes effect this Saturday, July 1, 2006. (Wood is not banned from municipal waste combustors.) Cardboard and leaf and yard waste are already banned from disposal in Massachusetts. --------------------- From Tom Watson, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA, and the National Waste Prevention Coalition: I'm working on an article about reusing old bricks - for garden paths, borders, and other creative landscaping uses. Many of you are involved with used building materials, and if you have any insights, I would love to hear them. My questions include: - Is it okay to use old chimney bricks (even ones that are very black and charred) in garden applications? It occurred to me that chimney bricks might have some kind of toxic residue from all that smoke. - Is there a way to get rid of that black color on charred bricks and return them close to their natural color? - Is there an easy way to remove mortar from old bricks? - Which are better to use in garden applications, old soft bricks (house bricks), or old paving bricks? How do you tell the difference, other than dropping them to see if they break? - Are there down sides to using old bricks in landscaping? - Where are the best places to find old bricks? If you have answers to those questions, or any other comments on this topic, please drop me a line. I may run some of the comments in the Forum. Thanks! E-mail: tom [D O T] watson [A T] metrokc [D O T] gov ---------------------- From Susan Evans, Cascadia Consulting Group, Seattle, WA: I was in Bed Bath & Beyond the other day and saw a great little gadget that I thought might interest the group: http://www.simplehuman.com/products/trash-cans/kitchen/cabinet-mount-tra sh-system.html A great way to reuse plastic grocery bags at home! E-mail: susan ( A T ) cascadiaconsulting ( D O T ) com --------------------- Excerpted from a job posting for a Waste Prevention Specialist for the City of El Cerrito, CA (forwarded by Alexis Petru): Job duties may include: Conducting site visits; developing programs; promoting waste reduction, recycling and composting; coordinating special events; and overseeing volunteers. El Cerrito's Integrated Waste Services Division provides a variety of services, including curbside residential and commercial recycling collection, a recycling drop-off center serving 400 users daily, waste reduction education and four community events annually. Planned projects include rebuilding the recycling center (incorporating green building techniques) and increasing commercial recycling. Visit http://www.ecrecycling.org for more information on El Cerrito's programs. El Cerrito is located in the San Francisco Bay Area, just north of Berkeley, and has a population of about 25,000. The salary range is $4,023 to $4,890 per month. Applications are due by 4 p.m. Friday, Aug. 4, 2006. Submit application, resume and cover letter to: Employee Services Division, City of El Cerrito, 10890 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito, CA, 94530. Obtain an application by calling (510) 466-5005. For questions about the position, call Heather Abrams at (510) 215-4350. --------------------- Link to a 6/26/06 radio story by Rebecca Williams on the Great Lakes Radio Consortium (GLRC) environmental news service website: THE HIDDEN COSTS OF "JUNK" MAIL http://www.glrc.org/story.php3?story_id=3067 At this website, you can either listen to the story or read the transcript. Stories from the GLRC news service are carried by more than 140 radio stations in 20 states. --------------------- Link to the Craftster website: http://www.craftster.org This hipster crafting website includes many resources for using salvaged materials, including this forum specifically about reuse: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?board=3.0 ---------------------- Excerpted from a 6/25/06 article by Elizabeth Weise in USA Today (forwarded by Bob O'Neal): "GREEN CHEMISTRY" PAYS OFF When farmers take soybeans or corn and turn them into biodiesel, they end up with a whole lot of glycerin, a colorless, viscous, slick liquid that's the primary ingredient in clear soaps. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that when U.S. biodiesel production hits its stride, it will make about 1 billion more pounds of the glycerin than the market needs per year. Enter Galen Suppes, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Suppes and his team have developed an efficient way to turn that unwanted byproduct into a cheap, non-toxic substitute for antifreeze. On June 26, Suppes was honored with a Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge award in Washington, D.C., according to officials at the EPA and the American Chemical Society. The recipients, whose work prevents pollution through better chemical design, are chosen yearly by a panel of distinguished chemists. Another prize winner this year worked to decrease the amount of toxic waste from seemingly innocuous things such as cereal boxes, potato chip bags and milk cartons. The printing process requires the use of solvents to clean the printing plates. The solvents are volatile, hazardous air pollutants, subject to stringent reporting requirements and expensive to dispose of. Arkon Consultants and NuPro Technologies have found a way to replace them with a less toxic, less volatile and less flammable solvent that's not only biodegradable but made from vegetables. Three other green chemistry awards were also given. One went to Codexis, which used directed evolution to develop microorganisms that make a key ingredient in the popular cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor. Merck won for creating an efficient way to make the active ingredient in a new diabetes drug called Januvia, eliminating 220 pounds of waste for each pound of active ingredient manufactured. And cleaning giant S.C. Johnson & Son won for a program that allows company chemists to spot more toxic products and work on reformulating them. ---------------------- Excerpted from a 6/12/06 article by Jack Neff in Advertising Age (forwarded by Bill Smith): WAL-MART PERSUADES PROCTER & GAMBLE, OTHERS TO REDUCE PACKAGING Retail behemoth Wal-Mart Stores has decided small is beautiful - and is using its clout to get detergent marketers to see things the same way. Laundry heavyweight Procter & Gamble (P&G) is preparing to test doubling the concentration of its flagship Tide and other detergents, thereby cutting package sizes in half, in a move that industry executives and analysts believe stems largely from Wal-Mart's push for environmental "sustainability" - an effort that could lead to sweeping reductions in packaging throughout the industry. But while Wal-Mart's push ultimately should save marketers and retailers substantial money by cutting now-spiraling energy and packaging costs, it's not a move easily undertaken. And having double and triple concentrates in the market threatens to confuse consumers facing an already dizzying array of detergents on the shelf. Detergents aren't being singled out by Wal-Mart. In a research note June 5, Banc of America Securities noted that the retailer's executives told shareholders recently that all marketers need to "right size" their packaging and shift to reusable/recyclable materials within two years or risk losing shelf space. P&G will test the double concentrates across its whole liquid detergent portfolio, which also includes Cheer, Gain and Era, starting in October in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, followed by a national rollout next year, a spokeswoman said. She cited P&G's own sustainability efforts, consumer convenience and retailer interest for the move. The test, she said, will look at how best to market such a major category-wide change to consumers. Unilever's triple-concentrated All Small & Mighty launched late last year, and it's taking a similar step with Wisk this year. That followed the 2004 rollout of the industry's first triple concentrates by stylish Target-oriented household brand Method. But while a broader industry move has been rumored to be coming for more than a year, people familiar with the industry say it has been hard for P&G to come up with more concentrated versions that maintain the same level of fabric protection. The P&G spokeswoman said it would be hard to maintain performance with triple concentrates, but that P&G's double concentrates should be as good as or better than existing detergents. A Unilever spokeswoman said All and Wisk have sacrificed no performance with their triple concentrates. P&G's decision to move to double instead of triple concentrates could "create some consumer confusion," she said, alongside Unilever's triple concentrates. Method's concentrates have caught on mainly at Target, and appear to have lost some share since small All hit the market. And some retailer executives say All Small & Mighty hasn't been a big seller. But it has been a big hit with Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott, who displayed the brand on his desk during an interview with The New York Times last year and has held it out as an example of the sort of sustainability efforts he wants from marketers. - end -