GreenYes Digest V96 #26

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Fri, 22 Jan 1999 16:12:27 -0500


GreenYes Digest Tue, 19 Nov 96 Volume 96 : Issue 26

Today's Topics:
Buy Nothing Day (fwd)
Fwd: Sample Turner Foundation Letter
Local Paper Column on Zero Waste
Resend #20
Tabling Events (3 msgs)
Yale study

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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 1996 02:29:53 -0500 (EST)
From: Hillary M Bergmann <hbergman@sophia.smith.edu>
Subject: Buy Nothing Day (fwd)

I received this from one of my friends and thought you might be
interested (if you didn't already know about it).

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 22:49:27 -0500
From: Jordi <Jordana.A.Schuster@williams.edu>
To: Deanna.L.Zibello@williams.edu, Deborah.C.Brown@williams.edu,
Maureen.E.Merin@williams.edu, Cordelia.C.Dickinson@williams.edu,
Stephanie.J.Silton@williams.edu, schusted@cgs.edu,
hbergman@sophia.smith.edu, cheung@husc.harvard.edu
Subject: Buy Nothing Day (fwd)

>>> PRESS RELEASE
>>>
>>> 29 NOVEMBER: INTERNATIONAL BUY NOTHING DAY
>>>
>>>Sint-Michielsgestel (The Netherlands), October 1996
>>>
>>> Friday, November 29th will be this year's International Buy
>>>Nothing Day: a day full of cheerful and peaceful actions and
>>>activities to confront the shopping audience in the Western countries
>>>with the consequences of over-consumption and the influence of
>>>advertising on our daily lifes.
>>> Buy Nothing Day will be celebrated in Canada,the United States,
>>>England, Ireland, The Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand.
>>> In the U.K. the day is called No Shop Day. In The Netherlands
>>>Niet-Winkeldag will be held on Saturday, November 30th.
>>>
>>> Why Buy Nothing Day?
>>>
>>> 25% of the world's population consumes 80% of the world's material
>>>resources and owns over 80% of it wealth. Although this global elite
>>>includes people in almost every country, it is mainly concentrated in
>>>the Westernised, consumerist nations: the U.S., Canada, western Europe,
>>>Saudi Arabia, Australia and Japan.
>>> Therefore, the vast majority of the world's citizens has to be
>>>content with the resting 20% This leads towards hunger and poverty in
>>>large parts of the world. We must share the natural resources amongst
>>>all world-citizens. 'There is enough on earth for everybody's need, but
>>>not for everybody's greed', Mahatma Gandhi once famously said.
>>>
>>> A change of lifestyle
>>>
>>> The Western lifestyle is a serious threat for Earth's environment.
>>>Although more and more products use less energy and are made of recycled
>>>or less polluting materials, these innovations would completely be
>>>nullified if all world-citizens should live as Western people.
>>> "To archieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for
>>>all people, states should reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of
>>>production and consumption..." (principal 8 of the Rio Declaration on
>>>Environment and Development, 1992).
>>>
>>> Global action-day
>>>
>>> Buy Nothing Day is part of the worldwide anti-consumerism campaign,
>>>started in 1992 in Canada, as a more or less personal statement on
>>>consumerism, by Ted Dave. Since then Buy Nothing Day is spreading over
>>>the world. There are groups now in Canada, U.S. England, Ireland, The
>>>Netherlands, New Zealand and Australia, preparing public- and media
>>>actions on Buy Nothing Day: November 29. You are invited to join them!
>>>
>>> All kinds of actions
>>>
>>> There is a large variety of actions: from creating shopping-
>>>free zones in busy shopping areas by putting sofas, tables, carpets,
>>>standard lamps etc., filled with people with their slippered feet
>>>up. Variation on this theme: creating a 'marked off area' with
>>>participants playing chess, repairing clothes, reading books, painting,
>>>chatting, anything that isn't shopping.
>>> In 1994 an Aberdeen group of 'Enough' set up a market stall selling
>>>'Happiness' at 5 a portion (in reality empty paper bags) and a
>>>Manchester group took this one stage further and launched a new
>>>softdrink "Happiness' in cans. Compete with 'product shots' and their
>>>own slick audio commercial.
>>> In Canada the Media Foundation aired one of their TV un-
>>>commercials during the CNN headline news, pointing out with the aid of
>>>an animated pig the excesses of US consumption. This year the Media
>>>Foundation wants to broadcast a similar ad in the capitals of all G7
>>>nations along with a full page ad in the New York Times.
>>> In The Netherlands activists, dressed up as a clown and a rat
>>>("Stop the rat-race") meddled with the shopping audience in the
>>>centre of Utrecht, spreading leaflets. This resulted in very
>>>enthusiastic reactions from the public and a lot of media-covering.
>>>
>>>Next year Buy Nothing Day will be on Wednesday, September 24. Put
>>>it in your agenda!
>>>
>>> Further information
>>>
>>> The UK anti-consumerism campaign ENOUGH produced a very
>>>informative booklet 'Never Enough?' It's available from Enough in
>>>Manchester and costs only 1,50, including p&p. Cheques payable to:
>>>Enough - Anticonsumerism Campaign'.
>>> The Media Foundation publishes the magazin Adbusters
>>> Omslag has made an action-handbook (in Dutch)
>>>
>>> If you want to know more about Buy Nothing Day-initiatives in
>>>your own country, you can contact:
>>>
>>>* Australia
>>> Ross Kingsley/Nepean Greens
>>> E-mail: pclstaff@zeta.org.au
>>>
>>>* Canada:
>>> The Media Foundation, 1243 W, 7th Avenue, Vancouver BC V6H 1B7
>>> Phone: (604)-7369401. Fax: (604) 737-6021.
>>> E-mail: adbuster@wimsey.com
>>>
>>> Ted Dave (initiator) E-mail: teddave@blackice.org
>>>
>>>* Ireland:
>>> Earth Watch, Harbouw View, Bantry Co, Cork
>>> Phone: ++27-50968 or ++27-50545
>>>
>>>* The Netherlands:
>>> Omslag, Werkplaats voor Duurzame Ontwikkeling, Postbus 163,
>>> 5270 AD Sint-Michielsgestel. Phone: ++73.5941622 or ++30-
>>> 2730100. E-mail: omslag@antenna.nl
>>>
>>>* New Zealand:
>>> Fiona Jack, 32 Livingstone Street, Grey Lynn, Auckland, New Zealand
>>> phone 09-376 5318. E-mail: adbusters@core.co.nz
>>>
>>>* United Kingdom:
>>> Enough, One World Centre, 6 Mount Street, Manchester M2 5 NS
>>> Phone: 0161.237-1630 Fax: 0161-228-2347.
>>> E-mail: ethicon@mcr1.poptel.org.uk
>>>
>>>* United States:
>>> Wetlands, Wetlands Preserve, 161 Hudson Street, New York 10013
>>> Phone: 001-212-9665244.
>>>

>
>
>

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 14:02:46 -0500
From: CRRA@aol.com
Subject: Fwd: Sample Turner Foundation Letter

Please send similar letters to Turner Foundation ASAP in support of the
proposal to organize a national conference for the Grassroots Recycling
Network to: 1) ratify the 3 messages of Zero Waste, Create Jobs Not Waste and
End Corporate Welfare for Wasting; 2) discuss and adopt strategies and
tactics to promote those messages to the 100 million Americans who currently
recycle; and 3) to stage a media "action" to protest the proliferation of
waste in our society. The current plans call for the national conference to
be held in George, the 1st, 2nd or 3rd weekend of April, 1997.

Turner Foundation has indicated that they might be supportive of this
proposal, but are wanting to see what type of support there is for this
effort. It's critical that letters be sent ASAP. Thanks!

Gary Liss
---------------------
Forwarded message:
From: dkirkwks@igc.apc.org (David A. Kirkpatrick)
Sender: dkirkwks@igc.org
To: jennie.alvernaz@sfsierra.sierraclub.org,
ruth.abbe@sfsierra.sierraclub.org, scott@cnt.org (Scott Bernstein),
Lrecycle@sonic.net (Linda Christopher), aculver@essential.org (Alicia
Culver), debell@spot.Colorado.EDU (Jack DeBell), cri@essential.org (Pat
Franklin), TRASHBUSTR@AOL.COM (David Hurd), UrbanOr@AOL.COM (Dan Knapp),
lynnlandes@earthlink.net (Lynn Landes), ecocycle@bcn.boulder.co.us (Eric
Lombardi), rtp@igc.apc.org (Emily Miggins), ZeroWaste@AOL.COM (Jeff Morris),
aperryb@AOL.COM (Amy Perry), DaveHWill@AOL.COM (Dave Williamson),
youngj@igc.org (John Young), RicAnthony@AOL.COM (Rick Anthony),
dimeanor@AOL.COM (Resa Dimino), ilsr@igc.apc.org, wtlivewell@AOL.COM (Lance
King), crra@AOL.COM (Gary Liss), bplatt@igc.apc.org (Brenda Platt)
Date: 96-11-15 12:07:46 EST

November 13, 1996

Mr. Peter Bahouth
Executive Director
Turner Foundation, Inc.
Suite 1090 - South Tower
One CNN Center
Atlanta, GA 30303

Dear Mr. Bahouth:

I am writing in support of the funding request from the Grassroots Recycling
Network. I have worked as a volunteer on the steering committee for GRN
over the last year. We pulled together the network to respond aggressively
to attacks on recycling and to promote a zero waste vision for America.

Already, many communities and companies are responding to our vision or
coming to them on their own. Businesses are realizing that they can be more
profitable by striving for zero emissions. Cities are beginning to plan for
the end of their reliance on landfills and incinerators. Full recovery
systems relying on source reduction, reuse, recycling and composting are
becoming more feasible each day. Clearly, with the unbridled consumerism of
American society, we need to advocate a vision for living a full life
without material, energy and toxic waste generation.

I work fostering economic development through recycling. For example,
KirkWorks helps organize recycling investment forums to bring private and
public investors together with recycling entrepreneurs. I am active in the
Grassroots Recycling Network because I understand the recycling companies
are competing in an unfair marketplace against subsidized mining, timbering,
petroleum, and waste disposal companies. We need to motivate everyday
recyclers to support campaign finance reform and political change to level
the marketplace for sustainable ventures. GRN is our best hope for pulling
together this coalition.

We look forward to your support and hope you can join us at our organizing
conference in Atlanta in April of 1997.

Sincerely,

David A. Kirkpatrick
Principal, KirkWorks

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 13:11:08 -0800 (PST)
From: "David A. Kirkpatrick" <dkirkwks@igc.apc.org>
Subject: Local Paper Column on Zero Waste

GreenYes folks...

Copied is the first column of three planned for the Durham, NC Herald Sun
daily newspaper. Please email me suggested edits by November 25 or comment
to the whole list if appropriate. I will post a summary of comments sent to
me as well as the follow-up columns. Feel free to adapt them for your local
papers if you see fit.

Sincerely,

David Kirkpatrick

*************************

ZERO WASTE - IS IT A CRAZY OR REASONABLE GOAL FOR DURHAM?

Column 1 of 3 for the Herald-Sun Newspaper
Draft 11/18/96

Durham=92s solid waste and elected officials are facing a dilemma similar to
that many of us faced in the polling booth =96- choosing the lesser of two
evils. Do we build a new landfill in Durham or do we construct a transfer
station and ship our waste to an out-of-county landfill? I propose we
consider a third alternative =96 building the public and private
infrastructure for near total recycling of Durham discards and pursuing a
zero waste goal for the next century. By "total recycling" I mean waste
prevention, recycling, composting, repairing or reusing all discarded=
materials.

"Zero waste" =85 am I crazy or just wildly idealistic? Probably a little of
both, but so are many others. Many companies are striving for and have
nearly achieved zero emissions and zero waste, such as Hewlett Packard in
CA, Interface Carpets in GA, Wellmark Corp. in Asheboro, and Main Street
Caf=E9 in Durham. These companies are working to achieve higher=
profitability
by eliminating environmental liabilities and sometimes generating new scrap
product revenues. =20

At the local government level, several cities have achieved nearly 50%
diversion from landfills, including Seattle, San Jose, Twin Cities, MN and
Takoma Park, MD. Canberra, the capital of Australia, has set a zero waste
goal by 2010. Here in North Carolina, the state legislature has established
a goal of 40 percent per capita waste reduction by June 30, 2001. By
targeting big industrial generators some rural counties have already
exceeded the goal, including Northampton (53.7% per capita waste reduction)
, Richmond (50.5%) and Stokes (48.7%). Alamance County, including
Burlington, reports 34.8% waste reduction, achieved in part by a landfill
ban on a wide range of recyclable commodities, in conjunction with a
comprehensive recycling program. =20

Durham has also made much progress -- achieving 10.6% per capita waste
reduction from 1988 to 1995 -=96 the best record of NC=92s urban counties of
Durham=92s population or larger, according to the state=92s solid waste
management report. We have achieved this through some of the state=92s=
first
recycling and composting programs, instituted around 1990, combined with
higher landfill tipping fees. However, with the right investments, public
policy, and civic and business leadership we could move towards 100%
reduction of our mixed waste disposal in the next few years. =20

Why pursue zero waste? Because disposal of mixed solid waste is inherently
dangerous to the environment and public health -- whether handled in
landfills, incinerators, pyrolysis plants, mixed waste composting or other
"black box" garbage processing facilities. When we mix our refuse together
- we unfortunately sometimes include batteries, waste oil, pesticides,
chemicals, and other toxics that will eventually contaminate groundwater,
the air, or the soil. By providing opportunities to separate and recycle
all of our discarded materials =96 hazardous materials will have "nowhere to
hide" in mixed garbage containers and will have to be reduced at the source,
recycled, or treated separately. =20

Beyond the public health and environmental liability concerns, we are losing
economic opportunities by burying our discards. A waste stream analysis
generated by the state estimates that the paper, glass, aluminum and steel
cans and #1 PETE and #2 HDPE bottles in Durham County=92s "trash" would be
worth about $3.9 million dollars if all were recovered and sold to recycling
processors =96 yet we are recovering only about one-fifth of these=
commodities
currently. If we attracted or starting manufacturing businesses that not
only processed our scrap materials but made new products - such as glass
tiles, molded fiber packaging, cellulose insulation, or plastic containers -
the local sales revenues and job creation would be that much greater. The
Institute for Local Self-Reliance estimates that processing recyclable
materials generates 10 times more jobs on a per ton basis than landfilling,
while recycling based paper mills and plastics manufacturers employ 60 times
more workers than do landfills. Especially with upcoming welfare reform and
the recent loss of two manufacturing employers in downtown Durham, these
manufacturing jobs could offer new employment to citizens of our inner city
neighborhoods.=20

If I have convinced you that a zero waste goal makes sense as an
environmental and economic development strategy for Durham, your next
question might be "How can we do it?" and "Is it affordable?" In my next
column, I will note that if we can separate our discarded materials into a
few reusable, recyclable, and compostable streams, there are companies
interested in profitably recovering nearly all of our materials. In the
third and final column, I will suggest some immediate next steps to move
Durham towards total recycling and away from reliance on either local or
out-of-town landfills.

**********************

David Kirkpatrick
----------------------
KirkWorks
Post Office Box 15062
Durham, NC 27704-0062

919/220-8065 (Voice)
919/220-9720 (Fax)
Dkirkwks@igc.apc.org (Email)

KirkWorks website:
www.ils.unc.edu/~fesss/homepg.html

Southeastern Recycling Investment Forum website:
http://www.state.sc.us/commerce/srifmenu.htm

------------------------------

Date: 18 Nov 96 10:02:18 EST
From: "Richard R. Rust" <73641.2242@CompuServe.COM>
Subject: Resend #20

Please resend digest #20. I lost it and want to get D. Kirkpatrick's info.

Thanks,
RRust

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 11:03:14 -0500
From: Bridgetgap@aol.com
Subject: Tabling Events

We are looking for innovative or effective tabling ideas for our
environmental education organization. Our audience is broad - kids, urban
core, professionals. Please forward any suggestions you may have on how to
attract and motivate in a tabling setting. We would like ideas on how to
most effectively and, hopefully, interactively get information out. Thank
you in advance.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 11:46:24 -0400
From: WOODY GETZ <WGETZ@fre.fsu.umd.edu>
Subject: Tabling Events

Who is "We"??
Sincerely,
Woody Getz
Sierra Club, Western Maryland Group/Maryland Chapter
CRoWD (Citizens for Responsible Waste Disposal)
FAR (Frostburg Area Recyclers)
Member, Allegany County (MD) Solid Waste Management Plan Committees,
1991-92 & 1995-96

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 12:02:29 -0400
From: WOODY GETZ <WGETZ@fre.fsu.umd.edu>
Subject: Tabling Events

To ??,
Sorry, I should have attached the original posting to which I was
responding.
Curiously,
Woody Getz
Sierra Club, Western Maryland Group/Maryland Chapter
CRoWD (Citizens for Responsible Waste Disposal)
FAR (Frostburg Area Recyclers)
Member, Allegany County (MD) Solid Waste Management Plan Committees,
1991-92 & 1995-96
========================================================================
wgetz@fre.fsu.umd.edu wrote:
> Who is "We"??
> Woody Getz
> Sierra Club, Western Maryland Group/Maryland Chapter
> CRoWD (Citizens for Responsible Waste Disposal)
> FAR (Frostburg Area Recyclers)
> Member, Allegany County (MD) Solid Waste Management Plan Committees,
> 1991-92 & 1995-96
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bridgetgap@aol.com wrote:
>
> We are looking for innovative or effective tabling ideas for our
> environmental education organization. Our audience is broad - kids, urban
> core, professionals. Please forward any suggestions you may have on how to
> attract and motivate in a tabling setting. We would like ideas on how to
> most effectively and, hopefully, interactively get information out. Thank
> you in advance.

------------------------------

Date: 18 Nov 96 22:25:43 EST
From: Myra Nissen <76275.1032@CompuServe.COM>
Subject: Yale study

A while ago there was information on a report from Yale. I missed the msg.
Can anyone give me some information about how to obtain the study?

Myra

------------------------------

End of GreenYes Digest V96 #26
******************************