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29 Sep 03 - labels; video; Best Buy; batteries; movies; campaigns; crank; conference ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive --------------------- From Lisa Friend, RE Sources, Bellingham, WA: LABELS FOR REUSE OF MAILING ENVELOPES Can anyone recommend a good source for "we are reusing this envelope" labels? The Washington Department of Ecology made some available a few years ago, and we've been using them on mailing envelopes. We could produce our own, but if there are some nice ones out there, we could use those and recommend them to our "Business Pledge" participants, too. Thanks. E-mail: recycle ( AT ) re-sources ( DOT ) org --------------------- From Kyle Pogue, California Integrated Waste Management Board, Sacramento, CA: Does anyone have or know of a video that promotes office waste prevention and that also includes information promoting the use of recycled-content paper and refillable toner cartridges? A jurisdiction I'm working with wants to show a video like that to employees who are skeptical about using recycled-content materials and reusables. Thank you. E-mail: KPogue [AT] CIWMB [DOT] ca [DOT] gov --------------------- Excerpted from a message from Gary Straus, ReCellular Inc., Dexter, MI, following up on the 9/24/03 items about Recellular's cell phone collection programs and the separate Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC) battery collection program: We have just rolled out a program in all the Best Buy stores that may solve the battery issue that was mentioned in the RBRC article (that retail clerks often did not know that their store was offering the RBRC program). Best Buy has put in very nice fixtures in the middle of their stores. The installation is being done over the next two months, but the announcements are already in the Sunday paper inserts. The fixtures have three "slots" - one for cell phones, one for rechargeable batteries, and one for printer cartridges. So we will be helping them to recycle and reuse all these items. No little box behind the counter or in the back room. The clerks WILL be trained, per their Environmental Services Manager, Brenda Mathison, who visited our facility last week. I thought this info might be a helpful follow-up to the RBRC story. We will have similar programs in a few other large retailers in the first quarter of 2004. E-mail: gstraus [ A T ] recellular [ D O T ] com --------------------- From Don Offinger, Pitney Bowes Inc., Stamford, CT, responding to the 9/24/03 article about the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC) battery collection program: A concern that I have with using the RBRC program is that the batteries must be managed under the Universal Waste rules at the generator site, and I don't see how RBRC fulfills their role in that. E-mail: Donald ( DOT ) Offinger ( AT ) pb ( DOT ) com --------------------- Excerpted from a 9/29/03 Reuters news service article, following up on recent postings about Disney's new disposable DVDs: DISNEY LAUNCHES ANOTHER NEW DVD ALTERNATIVE Walt Disney Co. is launching a home movie service in three test markets called MovieBeam that stores films in a set-top box and updates itself automatically via television broadcast airwaves. The MovieBeam project, which will offer films for all but one major Hollywood studio, marks Disney's second attempt in recent weeks to break into home film distribution. The Burbank, California-based company recently began offering disposable DVDs from its Buena Vista home video unit through retail stores, and it has also signed up with online download services CinemaNow and Movielink. The MovieBeam set-top box, which is being manufactured by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., is similar in size to a DVD player and holds 100 movies on a 160-gigabyte hard drive, like TiVo and other brands of personal video recorders, the company said. Disney will send new movies, about 10 per week, to a digital receiver on the set-top box. The service will launch first in Jacksonville, Florida; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Spokane, Washington, Disney said. MovieBeam requires a $6.99 monthly subscription fee, which covers the use of the box, while individual movie "rentals" on the service cost $3.99 for a new release and $2.49 for an older film. Movies can be watched for 24 hours. The set-top box stores 100 movies and swaps out about 10 of those each week. MovieBeam gets the films at the same time as the pay-per-view cable television window, which is after video stores get the newest releases. Like disposable DVDs, MovieBeam promises the convenience of never having to return rented movies or pay late fees, said Disney Executive Vice President Salil Mehta, who develops new technologies for Disney. Some 30 million households rent at least four movies per month, he said. --------------------- Link to the website for "BE SAFE," a new national campaign to build support for the precautionary approach to pollution prevention (forwarded by Lisa Friend): http://www.besafenet.com This campaign is led by the Center for Health, Environment & Justice. --------------------- Link to the new "Buy Different" campaign, a national effort to encourage young people to choose environmentally friendly products: http://www.ibuydifferent.org This campaign is sponsored by the Center for a New American Dream and the World Wildlife Fund. (Note from Tom: The main page for this website has not been loading completely, but all the information on this site - and there's a lot of it - seems to be accessible.) --------------------- Excerpted from an article by Michael Barbaro in the 9/17/03 Washington Post: TAKING POWER INTO YOUR OWN HANDS How do you provide power for flashlights and radios without batteries or electricity? Try hand cranking. Mostly because of fears about terrorist attacks, natural disasters and power blackouts, there is increasing demand for hand-cranked radios, flashlights, cell phone chargers and other devices. Americans are expected to spend an estimated $10 million this year on hand-operated gadgets, according to manufacturers and distributors, up from about $2 million in 1998. The military has used hand-crank technology in communications devices for decades. But over the past five years, manufacturers have dramatically refined the concept - turning, in the case of the radio, one minute of hand cranking into one hour of power. It remains a niche business, conducted largely through catalog, Internet and specialty-store sales. But that appears to be changing. Major retailers, including Restoration Hardware, Ace Hardware and RadioShack, are beginning to carry the crank-driven devices. Top electronics companies, such as Aiwa, Philips and Sony, now make hand-operated gadgets. Hand-crank converts say they have considered the alternatives. There are batteries, of course. But those are expensive, they die quickly, and disposal is an issue. Solar power, while useful for businesses and homes, is not generally applied to individual electronics. And fuel cells are not yet widely available to consumers. In a hand-cranked device, humans - rather than, say, batteries - provide the energy for an electrical current. With each circular turn of the external crank, gears rotate inside the device, dramatically amplifying the amount of energy generated by its human source. Every 100 revolutions of the crank, for example, can produce 1,000 revolutions within the gearbox. A motor then translates the energy into a low-level current, which is stored in a rechargeable battery. As a rule of thumb, the bigger the handle, the more energy it produces. Because the technology is simple, most crank-operated devices are relatively inexpensive. For $25, Hammacher Schlemmer offers a hand-cranked cell-phone charger. The device, about the size and weight of a matchbox, can power six minutes of talk time with two minutes of cranking. For $64, Sustainable Village, a Boulder, Colorado-based retailer, sells the Aladdin Hand-Powered Generator, which can be used to recharge cell phones, batteries and CD players. Rather than turn a crank, consumers repeatedly squeeze a handle. Coleman Co.'s rugged line of hand-operated radios and flashlights, most designed for outdoor use, comes in bright colors and sleek shapes. The high-end touches belie the original vision of the hand-operated machines. Manufacturers designed the gadgets as life-and-death tools for foreign travelers in developing countries. "They are not meant to be fashionable," said Steve Troy, Sustainable Village's founder. ----------------------- Excerpted from a message from Maggie Clarke, Hunter College, City University of New York, New York City: The Air and Waste Management Association's annual conference and exhibition is going to be in Indianapolis June 22-26, 2004, and there are several sessions related to zero waste and waste prevention. The deadline for submitting abstracts has been extended until October 6. For a list of the sessions and contact people, and information on how to submit abstracts, see: http://everest.hunter.cuny.edu/~mclarke/awma-wm.htm E-mail: mclarke [ AT ] hunter [ DOT ] cuny [ DOT ] edu - end -