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11 Jul 01 - job; fire extinguishers; refillables; electronics; disposables; toothbrushes ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- Excerpted from a job posting sent by Dan Blue, Community Environmental Services, Portland State University, Portland, OR: POSITION AVAILABLE - SUSTAINABILITY COORDINATOR - FACILITIES, PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY, PORTLAND, OR The Sustainability Coordinator will provide leadership for all sustainability practice efforts on campus. He/She will promote the development of sustainability targets and action plans for individual university units and coordinate the many sustainability activities emerging on campus. The coordinator will evaluate purchasing practices; develop waste reduction and recycling programs; explore and implement water conservation programs; promote sustainable building practices; and educate students, faculty and staff about such sustainable practices. This position requires a bachelor's degree, although a master's degree in public administration, environmental science or a related field is preferable. The applicant must possess strong communication skills and have prior experience in coordinating, organizing and implementing programs and events. Salary is competitive, with an excellent benefits package. Send a letter of interest and resume with the names, addresses and telephone numbers of three references to: Chair of the Sustainability Coordinator Search Committee, Portland State University, Facilities, PO Box 751, Portland, Oregon, 97202-0751. Application review will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. Dan Blue's e-mail: blued [ AT ] pdx [ DOT ] edu ------------------ From Stephanie Davis, Waste Reduction Remedies, Berkeley, CA: Besides taking an expired fire extinguisher to onešs household hazardous waste site or event (if they accept these) - what can one do with them? - Are they really useless past the expiration date/when the pointer indicator is in the red zone? (Mine, half-way in the green zone after 10+ years, reads: "Discard when pointer is in the red area." Išm guessing there are a lot of fire extinguishers in municipal landfills. Besides the toxic contents, these are pressurized canisters that can explode under the pressure of landfill gases. Not a good thing.) - Can they be "refurbished" so the owner can continuously reuse the canister and only the contents are disposed or recycled? - Can the contents be recycled? - Does it make a difference whether it is an individual or a large facility (with multiple fire extinguishers) in the ability to refurbish/recycle,­ if this is done at all? - If recycling is an option, does anyone know what companies do this? Thanks for any info on this. E-mail: ScD18 [ A T ] WasteReductionRemedies [ D O T ] com -------------------- From the 7/1/01 Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) "Waste to Wealth" electronic newsletter: REFILLABLE BEVERAGE CONTAINERS In Germany, citizens consume more than 70 percent of all drinks in refillables. In Austria, 95 percent of beer and 65 percent of soft drinks are sold in refillable containers. In Finland, refillables make up 95 percent of beer and 99 percent of soft drinks. Closer to home, many Canadian provinces promote refillables too. All beer and soft drinks produced in Prince Edward Island province, for instance, are in refillable glass bottles. Throughout Canada, 91 percent of beer sales are in refillable bottles. What policies promote refillable beverage containers? Which ones can best be replicated in the U.S.? What are the economic and environmental impacts of switching to refillable containers in the U.S.? Under a joint project with the GrassRoots Recycling Network (GRRN), ILSR is addressing these and other questions. GRRN will publish a booklet on the subject by the end of the year. For more information on this project, contact Brenda Platt at: bplatt (A T) ilsr (D O T) org -------------------- From Barbara (Nichols) Zaccheo, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), WasteWise Program, Washington, DC: Readers of the waste prevention listserver may be interested in a new EPA fact sheet entitled "Electronics: A New Opportunity for Waste Prevention, Reuse, and Recycling." It is on the Internet, in Adobe Acrobat Personal Document Format, at: http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/elec_fs.pdf. The fact sheet includes sections on: - What products are considered consumer electronics? - Why prevent electronics waste? - How to reduce electronics waste. - Reusing, donating, and recycling electronics. - Where can I recycle my computer? - Buying green. - What EPA is doing to encourage reuse, recycling, and greener purchasing of electronics. - A list of publications and organizations on these topics. The EPA contact for this fact sheet is Gordon Hui at: hui [ DOT ] gordon [ AT ] epa [ DOT ] gov E-mail: Zaccheo ( D O T ) Barbara ( A T ) epamail ( D O T ) epa ( D O T ) gov -------------------- Excerpted from a 5/14/01 article by Susanna Duff in Waste News (this follows up on previous postings about the new disposable cell phone): DISPOSABLE LAPTOP AND CELL PHONE Randi Altschul - who invented a disposable cell phone made primarily from paper - also has a patent for a disposable laptop computer made from paper. The disposable cell phone invented by Altschul, of Dieceland Technologies Corp., will reportedly be called the Phone-Card-Phone, and will be available later this year. It will be distributed by General Electric. According to the patent for the phone, it would be the thickness of three credit cards, and would be made from recycled paper products and an elongated flexible circuit. Users will be able to make only outgoing calls, and they can add more minutes or throw the phone away after the calling time is used up. -------------------- Excerpted from a message sent by Rosy Ayala, Recycline, Inc., Somerville, MA, and from information on the Recycline website: Recycline, Inc., makes oral care products, primarily Preserve brand toothbrushes. All of our products and packaging are made from as much recycled material as possible. We also provide for the recycling of our product and packaging by supplying consumers with a postage-paid mailer to return the used material to us. Recycline forwards the returned package-mailer, product, and packaging to a plastic lumber manufacturer to be used as feedstock. At replacement rates of only two times per year, it is estimated that toothbrushes account for over 50 million pounds of waste annually in the United States. By using recycled plastics in our Preserve brand toothbrushes and by providing a recycling option for used Preserve toothbrushes, we seek to reduce the reliance on our natural resources and our country's landfills. Our recycling mailer system has been an effective first-step to our product stewardship policy, but as we grow, it becomes less efficient. It is expensive for Recycline and cumbersome and time-consuming for consumers and retailers. In addition, mailing individual toothbrushes around the country to be recycled is not necessarily the biggest win for the environment in the long run. Also, the recycling rate of this program is not as high as we would like. We wish to explore alternatives that will be more environmentally and economically efficient. One such alternative may be an "identifier bag" recycling system, through which Recycline's (and other partner companies') used mixed-plastic products and packaging would be sealed in a recycling bag and recycled through local curbside and dropoff-site programs. However, there would be significant challenges to a program like this. We are seeking the input, advice and assistance of recycling industry experts in developing an efficient and effective program to provide for responsible recycling or reuse of our products and packaging. Please e-mail comments to: ra [AT] recycline [DOT] com (Note from Tom: Although this posting deals with recycling, there are definitely some waste prevention angles too, which is why we are running it in the Forum. If your response deals exclusively with recycling, send it to Recycline directly, but if it deals with reduction or reuse, feel free to send it here to the Forum as well. - end -