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05 Apr 07 - film; Ikea; bags; consumption; PSI; exchange; jobs; eco-channel ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.nwpcarchive.org --------------------- From Stacey Long, Starbucks Coffee Company, waste and recycling (national), Seattle, WA: I was wondering if Waste Prevention Forum readers might have any reuse or recycling options for some film generated at our roasting plants. The components for four types of film we have are: 1) Polyester, Aluminum Foil, Polyethylene, Adhesives. 2) Polyester, Aluminum Foil, Polyethylene, Poly-1-butene, Ethylene Vinyl Acetate Copolymers, Adhesives. 3) Polyester, Nylon 6, Ethylene Vinyl Alcohol Copolymer, Polyethylene, Adhesives. 4) Polyester, Aluminum Foil, Olefin Polymers, Poly-1-butene, Adhesives. Many thanks! E-mail: StLong [A T] starbucks [D O T] com ---------------------- Note from Tom: Regarding the above posting, please respond to Stacey directly if you have questions or possible uses or markets for these materials. Also note that I will be on vacation April 9-17 and involved in Earth Day public education activities April 18-20, so there will be no Forum during that time. ---------------------- From Patrick Domres, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA, following up on past postings about the durability and quality of Ikea products: I recently remodeled a condo kitchen with Ikea cabinets. They have updated and changed the cabinets to last longer and support stone and concrete countertops. They are particle-board wood and not made from solid pieces of oak or pine. E-mail: Patrick [D O T] Domres [A T] metrokc [D O T] gov ----------------------- From Sarah Grimm, Lane County Public Works, waste management, Eugene, OR, responding to the 3/8/07 news item about Ikea's new policy to charge customers at its U.S. stores five cents for disposable plastic shopping bags: I was pleased to see the story about Ikea charging for the bags they provide, and I am equally pleased to let you know that there was a slight inaccuracy in the news article: They are not the first company to charge for bags. Visiting in-laws in the Chicago-land area last fall, I happened to notice that customers of Aldy's Discount Food Store were bringing and reusing bags when they shopped. I was impressed with this environmental pocket of shoppers amongst a sea of consumerism, until I noticed that the store charges up to 15 cents each for bags to carry groceries home. It is now the only place I shop (willingly) when visiting the area. E-mail: Sarah ( D O T ) Grimm ( A T ) co ( D O T ) lane ( D O T ) or ( D O T ) us ---------------------- Excerpted from an article by Charlie Goodyear in the 3/28/07 San Francisco Chronicle: SAN FRANCISCO EXPECTED TO BE FIRST U.S. CITY TO BAN PLASTIC SHOPPING BAGS The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved groundbreaking legislation March 27 to outlaw plastic checkout bags at large supermarkets in about six months and large chain pharmacies in about a year. The ordinance, sponsored by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, is the first such law in any city in the U.S. Fifty years ago, plastic bags - starting first with the sandwich bag - were seen in the United States as a more sanitary and environmentally-friendly alternative to the deforesting paper bag. Now an estimated 180 million plastic bags are distributed to shoppers each year in San Francisco. Made of filmy plastic, they are hard to recycle and easily blow into trees and waterways, where they are blamed for killing marine life. They also occupy much-needed landfill space. Two years ago, San Francisco officials considered imposing a 17-cent tax on petroleum-based plastic bags before reaching a deal with the California Grocers Association. The agreement called for large supermarkets to reduce by 10 million the number of bags given to shoppers in 2006. The grocers association said it cut back by 7.6 million, but city officials called that figure unreliable and unverifiable because of poor data supplied by markets. The dispute led to a renewed interest in outlawing the standard plastic bag, which Mirkarimi said Tuesday was a "relic of the past." Under the legislation, which passed 10-1 in the first of two votes, large markets and pharmacies will have the option of using compostable bags made of corn starch or bags made of recyclable paper. San Francisco will join a number of countries, such as Ireland, that already have outlawed plastic bags or have levied a tax on them. Final passage of the legislation is expected at the board's next scheduled meeting, and the mayor is expected to sign it. The grocers association has warned that the new law will lead to higher prices for San Francisco shoppers. "We're disappointed that the Board of Supervisors is going down this path," said Kristin Power, the association's vice president for government relations. "It will frustrate recycling efforts and will increase both consumer and retailer costs. There's also a real concern about the availability and quality of compostable bags." Power said most of the group's members operating in San Francisco are likely to switch to paper bags "simply because of the affordability and availability issues." Mirkarimi's legislation is one in a string of environmentally sensitive measures - such as outlawing Styrofoam food containers and encouraging clean-fuel construction vehicles at city job sites - adopted by the city in recent months. "We're thrilled," said Jared Blumenfeld, director of the city's Department of the Environment, after the vote. "It's been a long time in the making." Blumenfeld said it takes 430,000 gallons of oil to manufacture 100 million bags. Compostable bags will make it more convenient for residents to recycle food scraps, he said. Recycling of paper bags also is far more active today than it was when the plastic bag was first introduced to U.S. consumers. The lone dissenting voice in the board chamber was Supervisor Ed Jew, who noted that 95,000 small businesses in San Francisco will continue to use plastic bags. Jew, who in his third month in office has taken to critiquing his colleagues for being too quick to burden residents and businesses with new mandates, complained that Mirkarimi's legislation has taken too much of the board's time. ----------------------- Link to a blog on the website of Portland (OR) City Commissioner Sam Adams, who is asking city residents whether they would like Portland to follow San Francisco's lead and ban plastic bags: http://www.commissionersam.com/node/2336 ----------------------- Link to the website for the "Running the Numbers" photo series by Seattle photographer Chris Jordan, which uses images and statistics to illustrate consumption and social issues (forwarded by Karyn Kaplan and Sarah Grimm): http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=7 ----------------------- Link to information on the third National Product Stewardship Forum May 30-31, 2007, in San Francisco (forwarded by Erin Linsky): http://www.productstewardship.us/2007Forum This conference is hosted by the Boston-based Product Stewardship Institute. ----------------------- Link to BoneyardNW, a new free online exchange for buyers and sellers of used commercial construction materials in the Portland (OR) region (forwarded by Jody De Simone): http://www.boneyardnw.com This is a service of Metro, an elected regional government serving three counties in the Portland metropolitan area. ----------------------- Link to a job listing for executive director of the non-profit Solana Center for Environmental Innovation, Encinitas, CA: http://www.solanacenter.org/ED_Job_Description[1].pdf No salary range is listed. No deadline is given for applications. This job was posted on the Californians Against Waste green jobs website on 4/2/07. Encinitas is just north of San Diego. The center's programs include environmental education, pollution prevention, composting, recycling, waste reduction, sustainable living and renewable technologies. ---------------------- Link to a job listing for a deconstruction manager for BRING Recycling, a non-profit in Eugene, OR (first seen on the Association of Oregon Recyclers listserve): http://www.bringrecycling.org/decon_manager.html The annual salary range is $29,500 to $36,000. The application deadline is April 23, 2007. --------------------- Excerpted from an article by Richard Siklos in the 4/5/07 New York Times: NEW DISCOVERY CABLE CHANNEL WILL FOCUS ON GREEN LIVING Discovery Communications, the cable channel operator, plans to start a 24-hour channel focused on eco-friendly living, as part of a push into the rising environmental movement. The company will next year rebrand its Discovery Home Channel with a name that has not been selected but will reflect its position as the centerpiece of an initiative called PlanetGreen. The new cable channel will be carried initially in 50 million homes. PlanetGreen is one of the biggest efforts that a media company has made to tap into the growing movement that has spawned everything from green cars, food and architecture to green weddings and talk of a green Olympics. Magazines like Vanity Fair, Domino, Outside and Fortune have recently published green issues, and of course, the Oscar-winning documentary on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth," which featured Al Gore, is at the vanguard. In addition to satisfying the interests of viewers, Discovery Communications chief executive David Zaslav said advertisers now have distinct green budgets in the same way that they have online budgets. Mr. Zaslav said that the Discovery Channel and its offspring, which includes the Animal Planet and the Learning Channel, have always championed environmental causes like wildlife preservation. However, the new cable channel would specifically promote an environmentally-friendly lifestyle. "To be able to rebrand an existing channel and launch with over 50 million homes in 2008 is a big statement to where the world is today," Mr. Zaslav said. "Five years ago, people would have said, 'Who are those lefties talking about green?' Today, green means responsible." Mr. Zaslav, who has shaken up the executive ranks of Discovery since becoming its president and chief executive in November, said a priority was to create a companywide green initiative that he viewed as a natural progression of the cable operator's core business in documentaries and other nonfiction programming. As part of PlanetGreen, the company's headquarters is expected to become carbon neutral. Also, Discovery plans to hold a PlanetGreen Innovation Conference gathering business leaders, scientists and conservation experts. - end -