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10 Mar 09 - paper reduction; poster reuse; Story of Stuff; packaging; junk mail; pesticides ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.nwpcarchive.org --------------------- From Madalyn Cioci, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, St. Paul, MN: A very concrete question about paper reduction strategies for list serve group: Does anyone have examples of city, county or (preferably) state or federal level offices that have found successful methods of capturing and reusing "second-chance paper" -- paper that was initially printed on just one side -- that doesn't get in the way of management and retention of official records/documents? In moving to use this half-used paper as note pads and in designated "second-chance paper" printers, we've heard many concerns from our file/records manager that using this reused paper results in compromising the integrity of the official files. The main concern I've heard is that the unrelated information on the back side of the paper gets filed along with the relevant file on the front side and gets counted as part of the official record for the topic -- and would be then part of the record in the event of a document request for a legal action. We're looking for case studies where this issue has been thoughtfully considered and a strategy found to get past the barrier and use the half-used paper. Please let me know if you have such. E-mail: madalyn (DOT) cioci (AT) pca (DOT) state (DOT) mn (DOT) us --------------------- From Jeffrey Smedberg, Recycling Program, County of Santa Cruz Public Works Department, Santa Cruz, California: A waste reduction success story: Every employer has to display a wage and hour poster enumerating labor laws affecting employees. We recently took down dozens of these large laminated posters in our County offices because the information was outdated. The blank white backside - an expansive 25" x 39" in size - serves admirably as a wipe board for use with dry erase markers. We advertized the availability to employees and also to the public via the local Freecycle Yahoo group like this: "Give the kids a place to safely draw on the walls. Cut a poster down to size if your shopping list never gets this long." The interest in reuse of this otherwise landfill-bound item has been surprisingly strong. E-mail: dpw179 [ A T ] co [ D O T ] santa-cruz [ D O T ] ca [ D O T ] us --------------------- School board in Missoula, Montana, rules that high school teacher violated district policy by showing "The Story of Stuff" video: - 2/19/09 Missoula Independent article: http://tinyurl.com/ck9vec - 2/22/09 article in The Missoulian: http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2009/02/22/news/local/news03.txt - 2/16/09 article in The Missoulian: http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2009/02/17/news/local/news04.txt (interview with Story of Stuff creator Annie Leonard) - The Story of Stuff video: http://www.storyofstuff.com --------------------- Press release from Kellogg Co. about its testing of a new cereal box with eight percent less packaging (forwarded by Paul Dunn): http://www.convertingmagazine.com/article/CA6633075.html --------------------- Column about junk mail by Kevin O'Brien in the 3/10/09 Cleveland Plain Dealer: WHAT'S IN YOUR ENVELOPE? http://www.cleveland.com/obrien/index.ssf/2009/03/whats_in_your_envelope ..html --------------------- Ontario's ban on cosmetic residential lawn pesticides starts on Earth Day: From the Record newspaper in Ontario, 3/5/09: http://tinyurl.com/ckolv6 --------------------- Second Canadian province, Prince Edward Island, bans cosmetic pesticides: From the Canwest News Service, 3/9/09: http://www.canada.com/plans+cosmetic+pesticide/1370685/story.html - end -