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22 Nov 06 - mail; bags; coins; BarterBee; burning; packaging; restrooms ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.nwpcarchive.org --------------------- From Tom Watson, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA, and the National Waste Prevention Coalition: (Thanks to Colleen Hetzel with the State of Minnesota for letting me know about this.) The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has ended free sign-ups for its Mail Preference Service. They now require everyone to pay a $1 fee. Previously, people could sign up at no charge, or they could sign up online (which they said was faster) for a $5 fee. The online fee is now $1 also (reduced from $5), so I guess that's the good news. But I believe it is definitely a step in the wrong direction that free registration is no longer an option. They have also changed the mailing address, again, if people want to mail in their registration. The new mailing address is: Mail Preference Service, P.O. Box 282, Carmel, NY 10512 (it's an address they have used in the past, but different than the "P.O. Box 643" they have been using most recently). So, because of these changes, any government agencies that distribute printed copies of "Reduce Junk Mail" information need to scrap those and print new ones. My opinion: All of this makes it harder for the public to use the Mail Preference Service, not easier. Maybe it is time for a nationally-regulated "Do Not Mail" list, similar to the successful "Do Not Call" list. Here is the information about the new policies, on the DMA website: https://www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailing And here is a 10/25/06 article about the new policies, from DM News, an industry trade journal: http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-news/direct-mail/38730.html E-mail: Tom ( D O T ) Watson ( A T ) metrokc ( D O T ) gov --------------------- Excerpted from an article by Louise Story in the 11/2/06 New York Times: JUNK MAIL IS ALIVE AND GROWING Remember when the Internet and online marketing were going to spell the end of the direct mail business? Well, it hasn't exactly worked out that way. Over the last year, marketers sent more than 114 billion pieces of direct mail - catalogues, credit card solicitations, coupons and the like - an increase of roughly 15 percent from five years ago, according to the U.S. Postal Service. And in the last year, for the first time, the volume of bulk mail, which is all direct mail, exceeded first class. Marketers are finding that a lot of people prefer junk mail to e-mail "spam" and phone solicitations. And advertisers are finding that old-fashioned mailed ads work, particularly in combination with online offerings and Internet purchases. Advertisers like it that mail ads, which do not get snagged in spam filters, can be aimed at just the right customers and be monitored for effectiveness. Those traits are increasingly important to companies as they slice and dice the American public into finer and finer categories. Marketers are expected to spend $59.6 billion on direct mail this year, an increase of $15 billion since 2000 (about $10 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars), and up more than $4 billion in the last year alone, said Robert J. Coen, the director of forecasting for Universal McCann, an Interpublic agency. About $70 billion is being spent this year on television spots, with another $12 billion on Internet ads and $1.5 billion on marketing e-mail. Direct mail has also received a lift from restrictions that began in 2003 on telemarketers, who are not permitted to phone people who join the national Do Not Call registry. True, a lot of direct mail is thrown out. Only about 2.15 percent of mailed ads lead to a sale or response from customers, according to the Direct Marketing Association, an industry group in New York. But ad executives are happy to play this numbers game because it seems to be working. Retailers spend the most on direct mail; next are manufacturers, mostly advertising to businesses; and then service providers and banks, the Direct Marketing Association's research has found. The Postal Service, suffering from a decline in the number of letters sent between individuals and in customer bills as result of the Internet, depended on direct mail for about a third of its revenue in the last year, up from 29 percent five years ago. --------------------- From Tom Watson, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA, and the National Waste Prevention Coalition: Still on the mail theme: There is a new company called Greendimes that has gotten some very positive publicity recently in several environmental blogs. For an annual fee of $36, Greendimes (http://www.greendimes.com) says they will get you off mailing lists, and monitor the mailers to make sure you stay off the lists. (The name Greendimes refers to the cost of the service, which is about 10 cents a day.) But I'm skeptical. The fee seems excessive - $180 for a five-year period. The claims on their slick website also seem excessive, and in some cases just wrong. The "Frequently Asked Questions" section of their website includes this Q and A: "How does Greendimes stop my junk mail? We've built a database of all the major direct marketing companies (aka junk mailers) and we send a request to remove your name and address from their mailing lists. These companies are required to remove you from their marketing lists." That's misleading at best - I don't know of any laws in the U.S. requiring mailers to remove people from mailing lists. So, for this service, and all other fee-based services for helping to get people off mailing lists - Buyer beware! E-mail: Tom [DOT] Watson [AT] metrokc [DOT] gov --------------------- From David Assmann, San Francisco Department of the Environment, San Francisco, CA, responding to the 10/24/06 item about a new California state law that requires grocery stores to take back and recycle plastic grocery bags, and offer reusable bags for purchase: Although the California plastic bag bill contained some small steps forward, it was opposed in the end by many environmentalists in California because it explicitly barred local governments from imposing a fee on bags at the grocery store. E-mail: David [D O T] Assmann [A T] sfgov [D O T] org --------------------- From Christine McCoy, City of Alexandria, VA, solid waste program: My friend Judy Hafner has been working on the Presidential $1 Coin Act for a while now, and the US Mint just unveiled the new designs for the coins that will be released next year. The Mint will introduce four new coins each year and will follow the order of each President's service. The goal is to increase circulation and usage of the $1 coins. The first coin (George Washington) will be released and available at your local bank on Thursday, February 15, 2007. The Federal Reserve estimated in 1995 that replacing dollar bills with coins will save the government $500 million a year. That's mainly because coins last for about 30 years, more than 16 times longer than dollar bills. The savings would likely be much bigger today, because the number of $1 bills in circulation has risen 40 percent in the past decade. The savings go directly to the US Treasury. So, while collecting and using these new coins, you can claim that you're just doing your part for deficit reduction. Here is a link to a news article in USA Today about this: http://www.usatoday.com/money/2006-11-19-dollar-coin-usat_x.htm Below is a link to the pictures Judy took at the unveiling at the National Portrait Gallery: http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=z4rpojj.afk6 295v&Uy=7046t4&Ux=0 Enjoy! E-mail: Christine ( DOT ) McCoy ( AT ) alexandriava ( DOT ) gov -------------------- From Patty Moore, Moore Recycling Associates, Sonoma, CA: BarterBee (http://www.barterbee.com) is a website where you can turn in your old games, movies and music for points and use those points to buy other games, movies and music that other people no longer want. Seems pretty cool. E-mail: patty ( AT ) moorerecycling ( DOT ) com -------------------- From Susan Salterberg, Center for Energy and Environmental Education, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA: I am trying to locate one or more good illustrated children's books on backyard burning or open burning of trash. Also, any lesson plans on the topic. I have found some lesson plans at http://www.airdefenders.org/teacher/curriculum.htm, but no children's books. Can anyone help? Thanks. E-mail: salterberg ( A T ) uni ( D O T ) edu -------------------- Excerpted from an article by Julia Finch and Rebecca Smithers in the 11/14/06 Guardian newspaper, London, England (forwarded by Jeff Gaisford): TOO MUCH PACKAGING? DUMP IT AT CHECKOUT, URGES UK GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL Fed up with green beans on black plastic trays? Tired of cucumbers in tight-fitting plastic jackets? Have you had enough of bananas in bags? Then, according to a government minister, you should remove the offending packaging - and dump it at the checkout. Shoppers were urged yesterday to take direct action to force supermarkets to cut the excessive and wasteful packaging that goes direct from the shop shelf to the household garbage bin. The environment minister Ben Bradshaw advised food shoppers to leave excessive wrapping at the tills and to report the stores to government consumer protection agencies in an attempt to cut the amount of unnecessary plastic sent to landfill sites. He said shoppers were "bombarded" with excessive food wrappers and warned that he would consider new laws to force shops to cut back on waste if they had not voluntarily made reductions by 2010. His hardline approach was announced after a meeting with the UK's 13 biggest grocers to discover what progress they were making in cutting back. Mr. Bradshaw said it was "unacceptable" that packaging had increased by 12 percent between 1999 and 2005, and now accounts for one-third of an average household's total waste. The big grocers signed up to an agreement last year, called the Courtauld commitment, to slash packaging waste within five years and also to tackle the amount of food that goes to waste. So far, the 13 retailers have cut packaging waste by 35,000 tonnes, according to figures from the government's Waste and Resources Action Programme. However, the WRAP target is for cutbacks of 340,000 tonnes by 2010. Yesterday it was confirmed that three of the biggest food manufacturers - Heinz, Northern Foods and Unilever - have added their names to the Courtauld pledge. Mr. Bradshaw said it was important for shoppers to be aware that recycling was not necessarily the best option. "It is better than throwing stuff away, but reduction is better still," he said. He illustrated his comments with examples of wasteful packaging - such as four apples, wrapped in polythene and presented on a polystyrene tray - which cannot be recycled. He acknowledged that all the supermarkets had come up with plans to cut packaging, but said: "We need to see the delivery of those plans. We need to see quantifiable reductions." While saying he would like to see targets for waste reduction spelled out in and included in annual reports, Mr. Bradshaw also urged shoppers to force the grocers to move faster by taking direct action. After paying for their goods, shoppers should remove "excessive and unnecessary" wrappers and leave them behind. Mr. Bradshaw said consumers should be aware that legislation to curb excess packaging was already in force and that offending retailers and food manufacturers were liable for prosecution. For example, Burtons - under license to Cadbury's - was fined 2,000 pounds (about $3,800 U.S. dollars) for excessive packaging of chocolate finger biscuits. The maximum fine that can be levied under existing laws on "essential packaging requirements" is 5,000 pounds (about $9,500 U.S. dollars). -------------------- Link to an article by Anne Vazquez in the October 2006 Today's Facility Manager magazine (first seen in the Building Owners and Managers Association newsletter): MAKE A SPLASH: GREEN YOUR RESTROOMS http://www.todaysfacilitymanager.com/tfm_06_10_sustainable.php This article, aimed at commercial facility managers, discusses waste reduction (buying chlorine-free paper products), as well as buying recycled-content paper products. - end -