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26 Aug 09 - newsstands; terms; office paper; consumerism; Twitter; textbooks ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.nwpcarchive.org --------------------- New report from Green America (formerly Co-op America) about how magazine publishers can reduce waste at the newsstand: http://www.coopamerica.org/about/newsroom/releases/2009.08.25.cfm --------------------- From Jay Shepard, Washington state Department of Ecology, Olympia, WA: Here's a thought: My, how things have changed. In the mid 1800s, disposable meant "free for use" or "available", such as "the number of disposable workers is limited" or "my income disposable for investment is $XXX." Now it means "designed for or capable of being thrown away after being used" or "disposable income that can be spent." Here is another: "The term waste is being eliminated from the commercial vocabulary, as it is realized more and more that practically all residues and refuse material are the potential source of valuable by-products. We hardly realize how many of the great commercial undertakings of the present day are built up on the utilization of that which was regarded once as waste material." - From "The Raw Materials of Commerce," J. Henry Vanstone, 1929 E-mail: jshe461 (A T) ECY (D O T) WA (D O T) GOV --------------------- Paperless Express, a comprehensive new paper use reduction guide for businesses, from StopWaste.Org, Oakland, CA (forwarded by Justin Lehrer): http://www.stopwaste.org/paperless (StopWaste.Org is the Alameda County Waste Management Authority and the Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Board, operating as one public agency.) --------------------- Opinion piece by Andy Coghlan in New Scientist magazine, posted 8/7/09 (first seen on http://twitter.com/kaskadia): CONSUMERISM IS "EATING THE FUTURE" http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17569-consumerism-is-eating-the-fu ture.html?full=true --------------------- From Tom Watson, King County Recycling and Environmental Services, Seattle, and the National Waste Prevention Coalition: TWITTER UPDATE Just wanted to mention that I still feel that Twitter has been useful in my work. I learn a lot of valuable info through articles, reports, people's opinions, etc. cited on Twitter. I currently receive the Twitter postings from more than 250 people, and more than 400 folks are signed up to see my postings. You can look at mine (without signing up) at: http://twitter.com/ecoconsumer It's definitely not for everyone. Many people just aren't a good fit for this type of communication, because of their work styles or their personality. I use Twitter almost exclusively for work purposes (mostly my public education work as part of our King County EcoConsumer program), although I like to include some personal stuff when it's relevant, because that makes it more interesting. I do really wish there were more people on Twitter dealing with waste prevention issues (reduction and reuse). If you know of anyone like that, please let me know. I only know of a few, and there must be more out there. The biggest advantages of Twitter are that it's so instantaneous and easy. This listserv you're reading right now is usually not that timely, is somewhat unwieldy by current standards, and it's hard for me to find time to put it together and send it out. But with Twitter on the other hand, if I hear of something interesting, I just blast it right out. And because of that Twitter immediacy, I often hear of environmental developments before others do. Let me know if you have any comments, questions or critiques - about Twitter or anything else. (Note that I will be out of the office much of early and mid September.) Thanks! E-mail: tom [ D O T ] watson [ A T ] kingcounty [ D O T ] gov ---------------------- 8/14/09 Associated Press article (forwarded by Jamie Cahillane): PUBLISHER SAYS IT WILL RENT TEXTBOOKS TO COLLEGE STUDENTS http://bit.ly/ikP0m ---------------------- Chegg textbook rental service: http://www.chegg.com - end -