Today's Topics:
Factors influencing rural recycling rates
Thermoset plastics
Zero Waste Doc.
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Date: Tue, 22 Oct 1996 11:26:58 -0400
From: Garbagegaz@aol.com
Subject: Factors influencing rural recycling rates
Clinton County is hoping to conduct a survey of residents to find out how we
can improve recycling rates in rural communities. Has anyone done such a
survey? If so, I'm looking for any information on the factors influencing
rural recycling rates: income, education, employment type, age, etc.
It will help in our survey design process to know which factors have proven
to be significant indicators in other research projects.
Reply to :
Gayle Miller
garbagegaz@aol.com
Clinton County, MI
Thanks for the help!
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Date: Tue, 22 Oct 1996 15:47:54 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ann Schneider <aschneid@cats.ucsc.edu>
Subject: Thermoset plastics
Hi Myra:
Did anyone refer you to the new plastics company starting up in Oakland.
They've received grants to work on auto plastics and other types of
thermosets. CHristi Beeman will have the name of the company. As of
last Feb. they weren't quite ready to accept plastics other than the
materials they were testing the equipmnt on.
HP and other computer manufacturers are accepting their own thermoset
plastic housings and putting them back in new housings. I'll have to
work on a contact.
We hosted a plastic round table last Feb. several brokers attended that
handled industrial plastics. I'll have Robert call you with their
names.
Ann
On 4 Oct 1996, Myra Nissen wrote:
> I have a customer who generates a large amount of thermoset plastics. Anyone
> know about recycling the stuff?
>
> Thanks, My
>
>
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Date: Tue, 22 Oct 96 09:15:54
From: roger.diedrich@sfsierra.sierraclub.org
Subject: Zero Waste Doc.
There is a lot of good material here and I commend the authors for this.
Some brief comments and suggestions:
I agree with several others on the need to address waste reduction more
explicitly. Most notable near the beginning after "In order to reach this
goal, we have to do away with waste, that is:" I would add a first * with
somethig like "Strive to reduce our material consumption levels"
The discussion of banning materials seems to be different in that it is an
implementation strategy. If such are to be included in, then other strategies
should be mentioned, in particular, those that support waste reduction. This
may take us beyond where we ever have gone before, because we quickly get into
changing human behavior. Can we ban advertising? How do we get couples to
stop buying 5-bedroom houses and filling them with furniture and gadgets?
We need to develop incentives to design for durability and recyclability.
Has anyone seen the comic strip "Mutts" which has been doing a series on
waste. In my favorite one, the main characters, a dog and cat (mutts, I
guess) confront a rat on a pile of trash. Rat: "my empire grows daily"
next panel, rat: Consume, peoples, consume!!! keep selling, keep buying!! keep
dumping!!! faster!faster! Out with the old!! out with the new!! more, more
more for me!!! Last panel, rat: "Only the rat wins the rat race."
If we want this to be "market driven" then we should mention strategies such
as manufacturer's responsibility and eliminating virgin materials subsidies.
I agree with the comment on conflicts between wasting and recovery as methods
of management. This, I believe, points to the need for better information and
more rigourous waste management planning.
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End of GreenYes Digest V96 #4
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