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01 Oct 07 - Vermont; Oregon; mail; swaps; Dumped; index; jobs; Blackle; toxics; PSI ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.nwpcarchive.org --------------------- From Carolyn Grodinsky, Waste Management Division, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Waterbury, VT: Over the last year, the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources has been working on a statewide planning process to look at strategies to prevent waste in Vermont. This effort involves a broad group of stakeholders focusing on construction waste, organics, recyclable products, and household hazardous waste/electronics. Info on this process is at: http://www.anr.state.vt.us/dec/wastediv/R3/DECwpPLAN.htm We have luckily been able to build off the research and work from Oregon in this area. Our work has morphed to some degree into waste reduction, and much of what we see as priorities needs more funds than we have available from our state's trash tax. I'm interested to learn from efforts around the country (and internationally) about programs that have tied their funding sources to energy (or climate change) programs. For example, our energy efficiency program, Efficiency Vermont, is funded through a charge on electric bills (http://www.efficiencyvermont.com/pages/Common/AboutUs) Have your program or other programs you know of been able to acquire funds through these types of energy efficiency or climate change programs? Another request: Our stakeholders have been interested in finding out more about labeling programs that promote waste prevention. We talked about the successful Energy Star program and if there were ways we could somehow piggyback waste prevention, reuse and recycling onto this very successful program. While this may be stepping outside of what we all do, it gives us a chance to think outside the box of who we work with and how we implement our programs. Any ideas and discussions on these two topics would be appreciated. E-mail: Carolyn [DOT] Grodinsky [AT] state [DOT] vt [DOT] us --------------------- Note from Tom: I received the above message from Carolyn on Aug. 27, and I apologize for the long delay in posting it. As many of you may have noticed, recently I have not had as much time to edit and send out this listserv, the Waste Prevention Forum, because of pressing local projects. (I moderate the Forum, and coordinate the National Waste Prevention Coalition, as part of my job with King County Solid Waste Division in Seattle.) I plan to continue moderating the Forum, but it may not be as frequent as it once was. Thanks for your continued support of this listserv! -------------------- Link to a 9/16/07 article by Scott Learn on the front page of the Portland Oregonian: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1189837605 62650.xml&coll=7 This article describes the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality's efforts to deal with consumption and waste prevention issues. For further information on Oregon's efforts, you can contact David Allaway at Allaway (DOT) David (AT) deq (DOT) state (DOT) or (DOT) us (In case this article is taken out of the "free" section on the Oregonian's website, you can also find it here: http://www.relocalize.net/want_not_waste_not_is_the_next_green_step) -------------------- Link to information about the Center for a New American Dream's junk mail reduction campaign: http://www.newdream.org/junkmail This website includes info on the legislation introduced in 14 states in 2007 to create a "Do Not Mail" opt-out list. From that website, you can also send a message to urge your state's governor to endorse the second annual Junk Mail Awareness Week, which is taking place this week, Oct. 1-7. Here is the direct link: http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/newdream/campaign. jsp?campaign_KEY=5059&t=default.dwt (Junk Mail Awareness Week is another project of the Center for a New American Dream.) ------------------- Link to information about Swap-O-Rama-Rama: http://www.swaporamarama.org Swap-O-Rama-Rama is a clothing swap and series of do-it-yourself workshops involving creative reuse of used clothing. Cities where swaps are scheduled in October and November include: Milwaukee; Silver Spring, MD; Phoenix; Austin, TX; Vancouver, WA; and Vancouver, BC. For more info on those events, see: http://www.swaporamarama.org/events.htm Scroll down. ------------------- Link to the website for "Dumped," a British reality show (forwarded by Marcia Rutan): http://www.channel4.com/lifestyle/green/dumped/about-dumped/index.html From the website: "Eleven unsuspecting volunteers are left marooned on one of Britain's biggest landfill sites for three weeks. Their challenge? To survive off the rubbish the rest of us have thrown out.... Dumped aims to highlight Britain's mountain of waste. Every year each of us throws away half a tonne of rubbish and with only a little over a quarter being recycled, most of the rest ends up in landfill.... Why are we in such a mess, and what can we all do about it? Watch Dumped to find out." ------------------- Link to information about the Consumer Environmental Index (forwarded by Jeff Morris): http://www.zerowaste.com/default.htm The Consumer Environmental Index calculates the waste, energy and toxic impacts caused by the three stages of production, use, and disposal of goods and services purchased by consumers. It was developed by a team of economists and environmental life-cycle experts managed by the Sound Resource Management Group, based in Bellingham & Olympia, Washington. ------------------- Link to a job posting for a Pollution Prevention Specialist for the San Mateo County Environmental Health Division, Redwood City, CA: http://www.crra.com/jobsrfp/jobs/sm.html The annual salary range is $72,509 to $90,626. The deadline for applications is Oct. 4, 2007. ------------------- Link to a job posting for a Solid Waste Planner II for the Sacramento County Waste Management and Recycling Department, Sacramento, CA: http://www.crra.com/jobsrfp/jobs/cosac.html This position includes planning related to source reduction. The annual salary range is $66,456 to $80,760. The deadline for applications is Oct. 9, 2007. ------------------- Link to Blackle, a website designed to reduce energy used in website searches: http://www.blackle.com Since it apparently requires a little bit more power to display a white screen than a black screen, this website lets you start your Google searches with a black screen. (Note from Tom: To read my brief posting about this in my EcoConsumer blog, go to http://www.KCecoconsumer.com Click on the blog, and scroll down to "Paint it black.") ------------------- Link to an 8/15/07 article, "The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products" by Vanja Petrovic, on the AlterNet website (forwarded by Jeff Gaisford): http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/59714/?page=1 ------------------- Link to a "save the date" announcement about the fourth annual National Product Stewardship Forum June 3-5, 2008, in Boston: http://www.productstewardship.us/2008Forum This event is a project of the Product Stewardship Institute (PSI). - end -