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24 Oct 06 - mail; food; phone books; consumption; bags; calculators; bubble wrap ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.nwpcarchive.org --------------------- Link to a webpage where people can opt-out of receiving mailings from ADVO (forwarded by Karen May): http://www.advo.com/consumersupport.html ADVO describes itself as the nation's leading direct mail media company, with revenues of nearly $1.4 billion and shared and solo advertising programs reaching an average of 67 million households each week. --------------------- From Donald Van Dyke, California Integrated Waste Management Board, Business Resource Efficiency and Waste Reduction Section, Sacramento, CA, responding to the 9/22/06 posting about the Eating Green calculator, from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which shows the effects of a person's specific diet on health and the environment: (Note: The calculator is at: http://www.cspinet.org/EatingGreen/calculator.html) I think that this sort of Web site will hinder the distribution of this sort of book ("Six Arguments for a Greener Diet," which is promoted on the Web page). While I do not argue the strains on both the environment and health created by eating meat, and in general I applaud advocating the reduction of meat consumption, I find it wholly unfair of the Eating Green calculator to not address the environmental and health strains caused by eating other kinds of foods. This calculator does not address the same sorts of issue from fish consumption, or from the consumption of highly hybridized and conventionally grown vegetables. Nor does it cut any slack for small-scale free-range meat and dairy. As such, I think this sort of Web site will be received by most of those whom they want to persuade as more of a slap in the face than an enticement to reexamine old habits. The calculator may reduce the positive impact of the book. The Score your Diet page on the same CSPI Web site, http://www.cspinet.org/EatingGreen/score.html, does only slightly better. However, it too is unfairly biased toward the non-meat diet. This other calculator gives credit in the health column for eating low-fat cheese, but not for eating extra lean pork. Just my opinion. I also sent a copy of this e-mail to CSPI. E-mail: dvandyke (AT) ciwmb (DOT) ca (DOT) gov ---------------------- From Carolyn Starrett, Product Stewardship Institute, Boston, MA, following up on recent postings: The Product Stewardship Institute, Inc. (PSI) is undertaking a project to address issues regarding telephone books. PSI was approached by multiple state and local governments who are struggling to deal with consumers' frustration at receiving so many books, as well as having to pay for their disposal. This project is underway. Our intent is to work on collaborative solutions with key stakeholders, and the next phase is to identify industry stakeholders to interview for their perspective. Please forward this e-mail to anyone who may put us in contact with the appropriate person at the larger phone book publishers (AT&T, R.H. Donnelly, Verizon, others). The Project Summary is at: http://www.productstewardship.us/displayPage.php?pageid=340 If you are interested in participating in this project or helping to fund it, please contact me. Thank you. E-mail: carolyn [A T] productstewardship [D O T] us Phone: 617-236-4866 ---------------------- Link to a 10/2/06 column by Umbra Fisk in Grist (an online environmental magazine) about reducing consumption (forwarded by Susan Salterberg): Note from Susan: This article is excellent and says so well what I try to address in my workshops. http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2006/10/02/reduce ---------------------- From Tom Watson, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA, and the National Waste Prevention Coalition: CALIFORNIA PLASTIC BAG LEGISLATION A bill signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Sept. 30 requires all California grocery stores to take back and recycle plastic grocery bags. It also includes these waste prevention-related provisions: - "The operator of the store shall make reusable bags available to customers within the store, which may be purchased and used in lieu of using a plastic carryout bag or paper bag." - "The manufacturer of a plastic carryout bag shall develop educational materials to encourage the reducing, reusing, and recycling of plastic bags and shall make those materials available to stores required to comply with this chapter." The full text of the bill is at: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/ab_2401-2450/ab_2449_bill_2006093 0_chaptered.pdf The governor's signing statement is at: http://gov.ca.gov/pdf/press/ab_2449_sign.pdf ---------------------- Link to the TravelMatters Individual Emissions Calculator, which measures how much greenhouse gas a person generates as a result of their daily transportation activity (forwarded by Elizabeth Willmott): http://www.travelmatters.org/calculator/individual This calculator is a project of the Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood Technology. ---------------------- Link to the SafeClimate Carbon Footprint Calculator, which measures carbon dioxide emissions for a household from home energy consumption and transportation by car and plane: http://multimedia.wri.org/safeclimate_calculator.cfm This calculator is a project of the Washington, DC-based World Resources Institute. ---------------------- Link to an online bubble wrap-popper (forwarded by Ellen Conrad): Note from Tom: Have you ever popped all the bubbles on a sheet of bubble wrap, just because it was fun, and then felt bad because you couldn't reuse it anymore? I have. Well, here's a less-wasteful alternative: http://www.therightfoot.net/mystuff/whatever/swf/bubblewrap.swf - end -