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08 Aug 11 - back in saddle; Ray Anderson; cribs; phone books; Reuse Alliance
** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM **
-- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition
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(Unless otherwise noted, all postings below are by Tom Watson, King County Recycling and
Environmental Services, Seattle, and the National Waste Prevention Coalition. Contact me at tom
(D O T) watson (A T) kingcounty (D O T) gov
or 206-296-4481.)
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BACK IN THE SADDLE
No, it's not your imagination - it's been a heckuva long time since I have sent out one of these
updates. I have always thought of this listserv as outreach and networking for the national waste
management field (industry outreach), and in the past few years, almost all my time has been spent
on local public outreach, through the mainstream media and social media. So this listserv has
languished a bit. But I just can't bring myself to end the listserv entirely, because a number of
you over the years have said you appreciate it.
So, I will try to keep these coming, although I do hope you can also take advantage of the much more
timely social media such as Twitter and Facebook. I use Twitter (link) as my main way now to send out
enviro info to anyone who wants it, locally or nationally, and I receive a lot of great info via
Twitter too. Because of the public-outreach media work I do for our King County EcoConsumer program,
I get a ton of press releases and hear about a lot of stuff, and I can just send out those tidbits
of info and links to stuff immediately on Twitter, which is great. I'm not quite as fond of
Facebook, but some folks prefer it over Twitter, and we are trying to beef up our EcoConsumer
Facebook (link) presence. My EcoConsumer blog (link) is one other source of info, entertainment,
ranting, etc., that you might want to check out occasionally.
But none of those do quite what this listserv does - specializing in waste prevention (reduction and
reuse), and aimed at people in the waste management field - so that's why I'm going to try to keep
this sucker going. Thanks for your patience, understanding and support!
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REST IN PEACE RAY ANDERSON
Heard the very sad news that Ray Anderson died today at the age of 77. As founder and chairman of
the board of carpet maker Interface Inc., he because the most visible green industrialist in the
nation. He was a leader in reducing waste, both toxics and solid waste, and was incredibly
influential in showing the business community the practical side of reducing our environmental
impact.
In the next few days, there should be some great tributes and obituaries published about his life
and achievements, and I'm looking forward to reading those. As a starter, here's a short piece I
wrote about Ray Anderson (link) when I was lucky enough to interview him in 2009.
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NEW CRIB LAW COULD MEAN INFLUX OF WASTE
By December 28, 2012, day care centers, other child care facilities and hotels will have to replace
their old cribs with cribs meeting new federal safety
standards (link). Gail Gensler, with King County Water & Land
Resources, called to let me know about this. She said someone contacted her, worried that lots of
old cribs will be going to the landfill. I think it's a valid concern. These cribs won't be reusable
as cribs, but Gail thought maybe the cribs (or parts of them) could be reused as pet cages, or for
art projects, or possibly some of the wood in them could be reused. One challenge is that the U.S.
Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends disassembling the cribs before discarding them.
Possibly some innovative local or regional projects in your area could help divert some of this
waste. Since this does not take effect for 16 months, there may be time to get something going.
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PHONE BOOKS UPDATE
Some of you will remember what a lonely battle it was when the National Waste Prevention Coalition
(which is actually more like a very informal network, at least at this point) began working on the
problem of unwanted phone books more than eight years ago. Residents were complaining to many of us
with local governments, but the industry just laughed at us. "People can't opt out," the industry
pretty much told us. "Just tell then to recycle them."
We didn't accept that response, of course, and eventually a number of local governments began
pooling small amounts of funding for the national Product Stewardship Institute (PSI) to tackle the
issue. PSI did a great job, other local and state governments got interested and today, we're
finally seeing some real progress. Although no state opt-out or opt-in law for phone books has been
passed yet, Seattle (link) opened the floodgates with the first city opt-out program, and then San
Francisco (link) came through with the first city opt-in system. The phone books industry is fighting
both those ordinances, and any proposed state legislation, with lawsuits or threatened lawsuits, of
course. But the tide is definitely turning, as seen in PSI's very useful listings of phone book
legislation (link) proposed or enacted nationwide.
Thanks to all of you around the country who have supported these efforts to reduce unwanted phone
books!
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REUSE ALLIANCE
This national non-profit organization (link) has more than 50 local and regional member
organizations, which are involved in reuse all over the nation. Check them out! And next year, in
October, 2012, they will have their big two-day national conference right here in the Northwest, in
Portland!
That's all for this time. Thanks for reading!
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