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11 May 08 - pesticides; packaging; Oregon; bags; PSI; jobs; EcoConsumer; mail ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.nwpcarchive.org --------------------- Excerpted from a 4/24/08 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News article (related stories forwarded by Carl Woestwin and Lisa Niehaus): MAJOR CANADIAN CHAINS TO STOP SELLING LAWN AND GARDEN CHEMICALS Home Depot and Canadian Tire will stop selling traditional lawn and garden chemicals by the end of this year, instead offering alternatives to environmentally harmful treatments, the companies have announced. Home Depot's Canadian stores will phase out the sale of cosmetic pesticides by the end of 2008, the company said this week. Canadian Tire announced that it, too, would phase out the use of cosmetic pesticides, and anticipates that stores in Ontario will no longer be selling the pesticides by the end of this summer. The decision follows the Ontario government's announcement this week to join Quebec in banning the sale and use of cosmetic pesticides. --------------------- Federal Trade Commission seeking comments on the regulation of "green" packaging claims (forwarded by Thor Peterson): https://secure.commentworks.com/ftc-packagingworkshop Comments are due by Monday, May 19, 2008. --------------------- From David Allaway, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Solid Waste Policy & Program Development, Portland, OR: This year's Association of Oregon Recyclers Conference June 5 - 7 in Seaside, Oregon, has a significant waste prevention and reuse component to it. On Thursday June 5, the plenary session will focus on Pacific Northwest waste prevention efforts, including King County's EcoConsumer public education effort (Tom Watson, King County, WA), Multnomah County's in-house waste prevention effort (Molly Chidsey, Multnomah County, OR), and Oregon's Waste Prevention Strategy (David Allaway, Oregon DEQ). On Friday June 6, the Conference keynote will be given by Lisa Wise, Executive Director of The Center for a New American Dream, who will address the U.S. trends in consumption and consumerism and share waste reduction promotion ideas for state and local governments, nonprofits, and businesses in the waste and recycling field. A "Climate Change 101" panel on Friday will include information about the role that prevention plays in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and why conventional greenhouse gas accounting systems significantly undercount the impacts of materials (and what could be done about it). Saturday June 7 has two more panels with strong waste prevention/reuse components. "Deconstructing Waste Generation" has Lisa Wise, a "sustainability psychologist", and a marketing professor exploring the sociological, psychological, and marketing forces behind rising consumption, and what these fields tell us about a more sustainable approach. "Salvage, the Spoils of Recycling" features three creative Oregon programs that are emphasizing reuse before recycling. For more details, go to http://www.aorr.org/2008_annual_conference.htm --------------------- Multimedia presentation, "Battle of the Bags: Paper or Plastic," from MSNBC.com (forwarded by Logan Harris and Rob Van Orsow) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23358591 --------------------- The 4th National Product Stewardship Forum (forwarded by Erin Linsky): http://www.productstewardship.us/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=28 4 The forum, which is put on by the Product Stewardship Institute (PSI), will be held June 3-5, 2008, in Boston. --------------------- Job opening for a Waste Prevention and Recycling Program Specialist for Seattle Public Utilities (forwarded by Pat Kaufman): http://wald1.seattle.gov/personnel/employmentsystem/PostingDetails.aspx? postingID=94b2fa22-91d2-4ec7-beee-f66cf7edceb4 This person will design and administer complex new waste reduction and recycling programs stemming from a Seattle City Council resolution and other initiatives that accelerate city waste reduction and recycling goals, and require SPU to put into effect additional strategies. The salary range for this position is $28.74 to $33.44 per hour. The deadline for applications is Tuesday, May 13, 2008. --------------------- Job opening for supervisor of the Technical Services Unit, Washington State Department of Ecology, Solid Waste and Financial Assistance Program, in Lacey, WA (forwarded by Gerard Buan): http://www.ecy.wa.gov/jobs/NB00011532.pdf The responsibilities of the unit, which includes about 13 professional staff, include: the Electronics Recycling Program; the statewide Biosolids program; organic waste reduction; and initiatives in the Beyond Waste Plan. The monthly salary range for this position is $4,693 - $6,665 . The application deadline is Wednesday, May 21, 2008. Lacey is located just outside Olympia, the state capital. -------------------- From Tom Watson, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, and the National Waste Prevention Coalition: Our King County EcoConsumer website, which is in the process of being revamped, now includes videos or links for a number of EcoConsumer segments that have run recently on Seattle newscasts and public affairs programs. On http://www.KCecoconsumer.com, click on "EcoConsumer News & Media" to see the clips, which are primarily on the "KOMO4 News Videos," "KCTS9 Connects Videos" and "Other Clips" pages. EcoConsumer is a broad environmental public education program, managed by King County Solid Waste Division, which includes a major emphasis on waste prevention. -------------------- Excerpted from a 3/19/08 article by Lyndsey Layton in the Washington Post (forwarded by David Assmann and Rob Van Orsow): U.S. POSTAL SERVICE FIGHTS JUNK MAIL LEGISLATION Chris Pearson, a state legislator in Vermont, had a sense that the people were with him when he proposed a bill last November to allow residents to block junk mail. He got media attention, radio interview requests and e-mails from constituents eager to stop the credit card offers, furniture catalogues and store fliers that increasingly clog their mailboxes. Then came the pushback from the postmasters, who told Pearson and other lawmakers that "standard" mail, the post office's name for junk mail, has become the lifeblood of the U.S. Postal Service and that jobs depend on it. Barred by law from lobbying, the Postal Service is nonetheless trying to make its case before a growing number of state legislatures that are weighing bills to create Do Not Mail registries, which are similar to the popular National Do Not Call Registry. The agency has printed 3,000 "information packets" about the economic value of standard mail, with specific data for each of the 18 states that have considered a Do Not Mail Registry. It has dispatched postmasters to testify before legislative committees around the country. "The Postal Service has come in and clobbered legislators," said Todd Paglia, executive director of ForestEthics, an environmental group that has collected 289,000 signatures on an online petition to Congress that calls for a National Do Not Mail Registry. "It's really a people-versus-special interest kind of battle." The Postal Service is working closely with the Direct Marketing Association , the trade group that represents retailers and the printing industry, in its new campaign - Mail Moves America - which is designed to quash the Do Not Mail initiatives. So far, their efforts appear effective. None of the states where Do Not Mail legislation has been introduced since 2007 has approved a law. And no similar legislation is pending in Congress. Sean Sheehan of the Center for a New American Dream, a progressive group based in Takoma Park, said state efforts may precede national action, just as they did with the Do Not Call Registry. "Federal legislators are more sensitive to the heavy lobbying of the paper industry, as well as the impact on the postal service, whereas a lot of state legislators are really more in tune with local needs," Sheehan said. "It's local governments that have to pay millions to truck that trash out to landfills." So far in the 2008 campaign cycle, the Direct Marketing Association has made $141,877 in contributions to federal candidates, including $6,610 to Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), who chairs the subcommittee that oversees the Postal Service and does not face reelection until 2012. Perhaps surprisingly, environmental groups - whose members say they are concerned about junk mail - are cool to the idea of a registry that prohibits marketers from sending mail to those enrolled and that fines violators. One reason may be that most environmental groups are themselves junk mailers. They use standard mail for their solicitation letters. - end -