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04 Jun 07 - paper; food; LendList; foam; jobs; packaging; lawns; reliability ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.nwpcarchive.org --------------------- Link to the website for "Paper Cuts," the City of Seattle's internal paper reduction campaign (forwarded by Marcia Rutan, responding to the 5/24/07 posting seeking examples of local governments with a double-sided paper policy): http://www.seattle.gov/papercuts This website includes paper use totals and reduction percentages for each city government department, through first quarter 2007. --------------------- Link to a summary of "Understanding Food Waste," a March, 2007, report from the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) in England (first seen in the Resource Recycling electronic newsletter): http://www.wrap.org.uk/downloads/FoodWasteResearchSummaryFINALADP29_3__0 7.a2aeb39b.pdf This report explores how and why food is wasted in the home. --------------------- Link to LendList.org (forwarded by Kinley Deller): http://www.lendlist.org This website makes it easy to let friends or group members know what you are willing to lend to them, track who has what, and see what they are willing to lend to you. This Vancouver, BC-based site was started by Jordan Klassen. --------------------- Link to the website for Foam-Free Seattle, an organization advocating for a City of Seattle ban on the use of polystyrene by food establishments (first seen in the Real Change newspaper): http://www.foamfreeseattle.org --------------------- Link to a job opening for an Analyst in the Washington, DC, office of SustainAbility, an international consulting firm (first seen in the Ethical Performance newsletter): http://www.sustainability.com/insight/article.asp?id=952 This job will involve research, support and proposal development. The salary is "commensurate with experience and is in the range between NGO (non-governmental organizations) and corporate pay." The deadline for applications is this Wednesday, June 6, 2007. SustainAbility is a London-based company with offices in Washington, DC and Zurich, Switzerland. It specializes in "helping companies understand and respond constructively to the challenges of sustainable development and corporate responsibility." --------------------- Link to a job opening for a Waste Reduction Services Coordinator for Yolo County, Woodland, CA (first seen in the Resource Recycling electronic newsletter): http://www.yolocounty.org/org/HR/empopps/Waste%20Reduction-Recycling%20S pec.pdf The annual salary range is $47,760 to $58,044. However, depending on the candidates' qualifications, this position may be filled at a lower lever, Recycling Specialist, which has an annual salary range of $40,992 to $49,824. The deadline for applications is Friday, June 15, 2007. Yolo County is located just west of Sacramento. -------------------- Link to "A Study of Packaging Efficiency As It Relates to Waste Prevention," published in February, 2007, by Robert Lilienfeld: http://cygnus-group.com/use-less-stuff/2007PackagingEfficiency.pdf This report is featured on the American Chemical Council's "PlasticsResource.com" website. Its conclusions include: - "Reducing packaging weight continues to offer significant opportunities to minimize net discards, and thus conserve both materials and energy while reducing the generation of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. This is true for all materials and packaging types." - "The product-to-package weight ratio is an excellent indicator to use when trying to make topline decisions about packaging efficiencies." This report updates Lilienfeld's 1995 study on the same topic, available at http://cygnus-group.com/use-less-stuff --------------------- Link to the website for the SafeLawns Foundation, a non-profit based in New Gloucester, Maine (first seen in the Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center bulletin): http://www.safelawns.org The foundation's goal is to educate people about the benefits of organic lawn care and gardening. One of its projects is the Million Acre Challenge (http://www.safelawns.org/Million-Acre-Challenge.php), seeking pledges from businesses, institutions and individuals to convert one million acres of property to organic management by 2010. -------------------- Excerpted from the cover story of the May 2007 Consumer Reports magazine, published by Consumer Union, a non-profit based in Yonkers, NY: MOST AND LEAST RELIABLE BRANDS - Based on the Annual Product Reliability Survey. In 2006 alone, more than 950,000 readers told us about their experiences with 30 kinds of products. Products were purchased in 2000 or later. Washers - Reliable: Frigidaire, GE, Kenmore and Whirlpool for front-loaders. Frigidaire, GE, Kenmore, Roper and Whirlpool for top-loaders. - Among the more repair-prone: Amana, Fisher & Paykel, and KitchenAid for top-loaders. - Most repair-prone: Maytag for front-loaders. Dryers - Reliable: No brand stood out as especially reliable. - Among the most repair-prone: Amana and KitchenAid. Dishwashers - Reliable: Amana and Whirlpool. - Most repair-prone: Asko and Fisher & Paykel. Refrigerators - Reliable: GE, Kenmore and Whirlpool for both top-freezer and side-by-side models. Amana and Kenmore for bottom-freezers. - Among the more repair-prone: Sub-Zero for side-by-sides. - Most repair-prone: Maytag for top-freezer models. Sub-Zero built-ins for bottom-freezers. Electric ranges - Reliable: GE, Hotpoint and Whirlpool. - Most repair-prone: Amana, Jenn-Air, KitchenAid and Maytag. Gas ranges - Reliable: GE and Hotpoint. - Most repair-prone: Amana, KitchenAid and Viking. Vacuum cleaners - Upright - Reliable: Eureka and Kirby. - Among the more repair-prone: Fantom and Simplicity. Vacuum cleaners - Canister - Reliable: Rainbow. - Most repair-prone: Eureka, Hoover, Kenmore and Miele. (Note that canister vacuums tend to be less reliable than uprights in general.) - end -