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03 Jan 00 - the future; archive; reusable shipping envelopes ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive --------------------- >From Darin Cosgrove, Reuses.com, Brockville, Ontario: Happy New Year, NWPC forum! Does it feel like the future to you? It does to me, a little bit. On the weekend I opened up a time capsule that I created 17 years ago when I was 12 years old and obviously awed enough by the approaching date to want to send a message to my "future" self. The capsule contained a large drawing I had made, consisting mostly of dozens of items from my family's home at the time. There were a couple of humourous reuse-related surprises inside. Like the picture of my old Star Wars R2D2 toy (recently "reused" by George Lucas in 1999) and a likeness of my family's manual typewriter, which met its nemesis in the form of our first computer (a Commodore 64) only three years later in 1985. Ironically, because we didn't have the heart to throw it away, we lugged that old typewriter around through the intervening years and just 7 weeks ago I gave it away through my city's reuse Web site! What a riot! But the real reason I write isn't just to reminisce. It's to let everyone know about a small change to the NWPC forum archive Web site which quietly (and uneventfully) ticked over into Y2K over the weekend. I have simplified the main index of the archive - which was getting quite lengthy - by moving the list of last year's postings to a secondary page (accessible through a prominent link on the front page). The current year's postings will continue to accumulate on the home page as usual. Have a look, at: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive Hope everyone has a successful 2000 and beyond. Welcome to the future! E-mail: darin [ AT ] reuses [ DOT ] com Note from Tom: Thanks again to Darin for doing such a wonderful job of maintaining the Forum archive for us! --------------------- >From Tom Watson, National Waste Prevention Coalition coordinator: Although they have been around for more than a year now, I'd like to call a little more attention to the reusable paperboard envelopes that are being used by United Parcel Service (UPS) for overnight shipping. Paul Dunn, with the city of Omaha, recently sent me one of these envelopes. I had seen one before, but this time I looked at it more closely, and was really impressed with it! UPS began developing these reusable envelopes several years ago, and then sped the project along once they began participating in a larger "environmentally improved packaging" effort with the Alliance for Environmental Innovation. (The Alliance is a partnership of the Environmental Defense Fund and the Pew Charitable Trust). For more information on the UPS/Alliance project, see the website at: http://www.edfpewalliance.org/ups_index.htm The envelope is designed to easily be used twice. You fold a flap down, tear off a strip to expose an adhesive, and fold the flap back up. It's a great design. The envelope says "Reusable" in big letters on both sides. This is a very visible example of a major corporation embracing waste prevention. As far as I know, neither Federal Express nor the U.S. Postal Service have an envelope like this. Using recycled-content materials is great, and UPS, FedEx and the Postal Service are all leaders in that area. But designing for reuse and reduction is even more of a leap. Hats off to UPS for showing the way! I hope it really pays off for them, by reducing their paper expenses and attracting new customers! E-mail: tom [DOT] watson [AT] metrokc [DOT] gov - end -