Today's Topics:
Alkaline battery recycling (2 msgs)
Computer Recycling/Demanufacturing
Computer Recycling/Demanufacturing Workshop
EPR for single use propane tanks
HARMING THE ENVIRONMENT IS SINFUL
PARENTS DEMAND RETAILERS STOP SELLING TOXIC TOYS
Web Pages on Extended Producer Responsibility
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Date: Tue, 11 Nov 1997 10:37:54 -0600 (CST)
From: s_hammer@ix.netcom.com
Subject: Alkaline battery recycling
Does anyone have any leads on companies (preferably in the Northeast) who will
recycle alkaline batteries collected by a company here in New York City?
Thanks.
Steve Hammer
Hammer Environmental Consulting
5294 Sycamore Ave.
Bronx, NY 10471
tel: (718) 548-5285
fax: (718) 548-5257
s_hammer@ix.netcom.com
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 1997 18:03:40 -0800
From: Myra Nissen <myracycl@inreach.com>
Subject: Alkaline battery recycling
Try ENSCO West. I haven't heard from them in a while, the company used
to recycle alkaline batteries:
408-369-0799 (Kay Herbal)
310-631-2330 Rancho Dominguez office
Myra
s_hammer@ix.netcom.com wrote:
>
> Does anyone have any leads on companies (preferably in the Northeast) who will
> recycle alkaline batteries collected by a company here in New York City?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Steve Hammer
> Hammer Environmental Consulting
> 5294 Sycamore Ave.
> Bronx, NY 10471
> tel: (718) 548-5285
> fax: (718) 548-5257
> s_hammer@ix.netcom.com
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 1997 01:06:16 -0800
From: Victor Aguiar <vaguiar@ecoact.org>
Subject: Computer Recycling/Demanufacturing
Robin -- I've recently been told about two companies that work with
recycling of logic boards and other electronics. Do you (or does anyone
else) know of:
RCS
Gary Catalano
Fremont
Zak Enterprises
Kurt Schenk
Oakland?
-- Victor
>Gary,
>EPA's Common Sense Initiative has been piloting a computer
>recycling/deconstruction project in San Jose for the past month. Tom
>Bartel, from Unisys Corporation, is the Project Leader, and might be
>interested in speaking. He, or Leah Jung (from Vista Environmental), could
>give you information on the results of the pilot. They also may be able to
>provide you with a case study, if you're at all interested in cooperative,
>public/private approach, in addition to the individual company approach.
>
>Tom can be reached at (602) 224-4221 or at tombartel@unn.unisys.com.
> ----------
>From: CRRA
>To: RMoore; Jango; GreenYes
>Subject: Re: Computer Recycling/Demanufacturing
>Date: Wednesday, November 05, 1997 2:13PM
>
>
>CRRA is organizing workshops for March 1998 on the issue of Reuse and
>Recycling of Electronics (both computers and brown goods).
>
>We have been monitoring all the discussions on sources of info on computer
>recycling and will try to summarize that info for our packets. Thanks to
>everyone who has commented so far - this info has been great!
>
>We also hope to identify good speakers and case studies from California on
>this subject in the next couple of weeks. If you have any ideas for
>speakers
>in California, please let me know ASAP!
>
>Thanks!
>
>Gary Liss
>CA Resource Recovery Association
>916-652-4450
>CRRA@aol.com
>.-
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 1997 17:59:28 -0800
From: Myra Nissen <myracycl@inreach.com>
Subject: Computer Recycling/Demanufacturing Workshop
GB Industrial is able to recycle many of the industrial plastics of the
type made from computer/electronic housings. GB Industrial may be a
good speaker for the March worksop.
Christina Wong
GB Industrial
33397 Railroad Ave.
Union City, CA 94587
510-489-5172
She works closely with iQuest Corp. iQuest cleans wafer cassettes:
Randy Miller
iQuest
4241 Business Center Dr.
Fremont, CA 94538
510-569-0238
Let me know if you want to include information on laser & injet
cartridge recharging, I have several references in that area.
The Alameda Co. Waste Management Authority Recycling Guide lists several
companies you refurbish used computers and gives them to schools and
charties. Let me know if you want that info.
Myra
myracycl@inreach.com
510-873-8777
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 1997 10:05:16 -0600
From: "John Reindl" <reindl@co.dane.wi.us>
Subject: EPR for single use propane tanks
Dear List Members -
One of my motivations for Extended Producers's Responsibility is the
hazard and cost of managing used single service propane tanks, such as
those that Coleman makes for camp stoves.
Due to their hazardous nature, it is illegal for them to go to
landfills and refuse collection authorities don't want them in their
refuse trucks. Recyclers in my area also won't take them unless they
are punctured (a big safety no-no for the average citizen). And it
costs our local Clean Sweep program $9 to get rid of a tank, a tank
that only costs $2 at the local K-Mart.
Attached is an article from a summer 1997 newsletter of the Recycling
Council of British Columbia. It appears that Coleman is willing to take
back these containers if some logistical and legislative problems can
be solved. I would like to encourage Coleman to build upon the national
program of battery manufacturers to take back Nickel-Cadmium
batteries and a new program beginning this month by thermostat
manufactuers to take back mercury thermostats. For those of you
interested, I would urge that you contact The Coleman Company, PO Box
2931, Wichita, KS 67201-2931, telephone (800)835-3278.
Thank you,
John Reindl, Recycling Manager
Dane County, WI
=============
PROPANE CYLINDERS
Recoup's Materials Recycling Markets reports that the Recycling Council
of Ontario (RCO) and the Association of Municipal Recycling
Coordinators (AMRC) are working on promoting safe and economical
disposal of single-use propane cylinders. An AMRC survey of Ontario
provincial parks found that many face growing stockpiles of empty or
near-empty cylinders left behind by campers. Park officials say they
know that people want to do the right thing because when bins are set
out for collection, they are soon overflowing, but camper donations
have not been enough to pay for the $1-2/cylinder disposal costs and
transportation. Campers who take their used cylinders home with them
could dispose of them through their local (municipally-funded) HHW
collection programs, if they exist. John Hanson, RCO executive
director, believes that product stewardship is the answer. "A better
solution is to encourage manufacturers to take an active role by paying
the cost of container collection and recycling and by educating
consumers through disposal instructions on the product. The AMRC's
Cynthia Hyland suggests a container deposit system. Don Maclam, of
The Canadian Coleman Company Ltd., says that they would like the
cylinders back, but that there are issues to consider before any
retail-based take-back system could be brought in, such as dangerous
goods transportation laws, high staff turnover at stores selling their
products, and the fact that they are made in the U.S. In British
Columbia, such single-use containers end up in the garbage as there
are no other alternatives at present. The BC Recycling Hotline has
received over 400 calls about this problem item so far this year -- 77
in the month of July alone.
Contact: John Hanson, RCO (416) 960-1025; Cynthia Hyland, AMRC
(519) 823-1990.
reindl@co.dane.wi.us
(608)267-1533 - fax
(608)267-8815 - phone
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 1997 10:38:19 -0500
From: "Bill Sheehan" <bill_sheehan@mindspring.com>
Subject: HARMING THE ENVIRONMENT IS SINFUL
HARMING THE ENVIRONMENT IS SINFUL, PRELATE SAYS
Theology: Declaration by Bartholomew I, Orthodox Christian leader,
is believed to be a first by a major religious figure.
Los Angeles Times, Sunday, November 9, 1997
By LARRY B. STAMMER, Times Religion Writer
SANTA BARBARA--In a pronouncement that political and church
leaders called an unprecedented religious defense of the
environment, His All Holiness Bartholomew I declared here Saturday
that the degradation of the natural world is "sin."
The remarks of the spiritual leader of the world's 300 million
Orthodox Christians were believed to be the first time that a
major international religious leader has explicitly linked
environmental problems with sinful behavior.
"To commit a crime against the natural world is a sin,"
Bartholomew told a symposium on religion, science and the
environment that drew an estimated 800 participants at St. Barbara
Greek Orthodox Church here.
"For humans to cause species to become extinct and to destroy
the biological diversity of God's creation, for humans to degrade
the integrity of the Earth by causing changes in its climate,
stripping the Earth of its natural forests, or destroying its
wetlands . . . for humans to contaminate the Earth's waters, its
land, its air, and its life with poisonous substances--these are
sins."
Bartholomew heads the mother church of Orthodox Christianity,
the See of Constantinople, now known as Istanbul, Turkey. His
jurisdiction includes the Greek Orthodox churches in Canada, the
United States and South America, as well as in Turkey, Australia
and Asia. He is also considered to be the "first among equals" of
the nine Orthodox patriarchs, each with his own self-governing
church, because Bartholomew's church was founded in AD 36 by St.
Andrew the Apostle.
Bartholomew's declaration, made on the second day of a
three-day swing through Southern California during a monthlong
visit to the United States, was viewed as a significant
development in the awakening of organized religion to the
despoilment of the natural order.
Until relatively recently, organized religion has left
environmental protection to environmental activists, concerned
scientists and political figures. Likewise, environmentalists have
either ignored religion, or complained that churches and
synagogues have been merely lukewarm on environmental causes while
concentrating most of their energies on hot-button issues
involving abortion rights, religious discrimination, racism,
economic justice and human sexuality. Recently, for example, state
Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angles) told a meeting of the Society of
Environmental Journalists in Tucson that while organized religion
decries genocide, infanticide and homicide, it has failed to speak
out against "biocide--the killing of the planet."
Bartholomew's statement here Saturday was viewed as a watershed
event by several participants who are not Orthodox Christians,
including Paul Gorman, who has closely watched developments
involving religion and the environment.
"That litany of environmental degradation under the rubric of
sin was the first time a significant religious leader has so
explicitly designated crimes against creation as sin," said
Gorman, executive director of the National Religious Partnership
for the Environment. The partnership, based in New York, includes
all major old-line and evangelical Protestant churches, Jewish
denominations and Roman Catholics.
Gorman said Bartholomew's declaration points to "a whole new
level of theological inquiry into the cause, and depth and
dimension of human responsibility by lifting up that word--sin."
Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, who also spoke at the
symposium, told the audience that Bartholomew's pronouncement will
be seen in the future as "one of the great, seminal important
religious statements of our time."
It also points to a developing new alliance between
environmental activists and religion. Indeed, among those present
here was Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club.
Pope, in remarks delivered Friday night, said environmentalists
had made a "profound error" in failing to understand the mission
of religion in preserving creation. That failure, he said, was all
the more obvious considering the fact that believers of all faiths
have historically been active in sweeping political causes, from
the civil rights movement to opposing the war in Vietnam.
"Yet for almost 30 years we stubbornly, proudly, rejected what
we knew," Pope said. "We ignored the fact that when Americans wish
to express a sense of a community that is wiser and better than
they are as individuals, they gather to pray." He said the
environmental movement would no longer ignore the power of
religion to make a difference.
The patriarch's undiluted criticism of environmental
destruction and elevation of it to a grave moral failing was
another of the increasingly strong signals that a broad span of
organized religions is awakening to a crisis.
To be sure, other religious figures and institutions have
spoken out in defense of what many term "caring for creation."
In 1971, the Anglican Church declared that environmental abuse
was "blasphemy." In December 1989, Pope John Paul II argued that
answers to environmental destruction cannot rely solely on better
management or a more rational use of the Earth's resources. The
environmental crisis, he said, is a symptom of a deeper moral
crisis.
"The dramatic threat of ecological breakdown is teaching us the
extent to which greed and selfishness--both individual and
collective--are contrary to the order of creation, an order which
is characterized by mutual interdependence," the pontiff wrote in
a paper titled "The Ecological Crisis: A Common Responsibility."
He added, "Modern society will find no solution to the ecological
problem unless it takes a serious look at its lifestyle."
Bartholomew, who has come to be known as the "green patriarch,"
has been especially outspoken on the issue. He has sponsored
symposiums on pollution in the Black Sea, which borders a
half-dozen countries in which Orthodox churches are active, and
has designated the first day of September each year for an annual
message on protecting creation.
But while the theological basis for Saturday's declaration has
been consistently voiced by Bartholomew, until now he has
hesitated to go so far as to call environmental destruction a sin.
As recently as his Black Sea symposium two months ago, he stopped
short by calling it a "spiritual and moral issue" even though
other Orthodox clerics did name it as sinful.
Bartholomew said Saturday that responsibility toward creation
requires voluntary restraint. "Excessive consumption may be
understood from a world view of estrangement from self, from land,
from life and from God," he said. "Consuming the fruits of the
Earth unrestrained, we become consumed ourselves by avarice and
greed. Excessive consumption leaves us emptied, out of touch with
our deepest self."
"We are of the deeply held belief that many human beings have
come to behave as materialistic tyrants. Those that tyrannize the
Earth are themselves, sadly, tyrannized," the prelate said. "If
human beings treated one another's personal property the way they
treat their environment, we would view that behavior as
antisocial."
Bartholomew took note of the growing public debate over climate
change just weeks before a major international conference in
Kyoto, Japan, to fashion a treaty to reduce emissions of
pollutants that contribute to alterations in the climate.
"Many are arguing that someone else should address the problem,
or that they should not have to take action unless everyone else
does," Bartholomew said. "This self-centered behavior is a symptom
of our alienation from one another and from the context of our
common existence."
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 1997 15:40:08 -0600
From: Susan Snow <sksnow@1stnet.com>
Subject: PARENTS DEMAND RETAILERS STOP SELLING TOXIC TOYS
I am only a messenger. For more information, contact persons below.
Susan Snow
------------------------------------------------------------------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Maurci Jackson, Parents Against Lead (773) 324-7824
Charlie Cray, Greenpeace (312) 563-6063
Joe Di Gangi, PhD, Greenpeace (312) 563-6065
Jonathan Goldman, L.E.A.D. (773) 292-4990
PARENTS DEMAND RETAILERS STOP SELLING TOXIC TOYS
Dangerous Additives, Including Lead and Cadmium Found in Vinyl (PVC)
Toys
NOVEMBER 11, 1997 - CHICAGO, Illinois (GP) - Shocked
about recent revelations that vinyl (PVC) toys contain toxic
chemicals such as lead and cadmium, a group of parents and consumer
activists called on retailers such as Toys "R" Us today to demand
that the company stop selling vinyl (PVC) toys.
The groups protested at 11:00 outside the Toys "R" Us store
in downtown Chicago (10 S. State St.). The protest came after
reports released by Greenpeace in October revealed high levels of
lead and cadmium in vinyl products purchased at a number of local
retailers.
Lead is a toxic metal that can cause brain damage and learning
disabilities. Cadmium, also a toxic metal, can cause cancer and
other health effects. Both metals were found to leach out of a
variety of vinyl products over time.
"Children should be able to play with Barbie and Tweetie
without being poisoned by vinyl," Dr. Joe Di Gangi of Greenpeace
said. "It's a shame that parents have to be vigilant when it's the
job of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and retailers to
ensure that parents are not sold toys which can leach toxic
chemicals."
"We want Toys "R" Us to act responsibly and stop selling
toys that contain toxic chemicals," said Maurci Jackson of Parents
Against Lead (P.A.L.)
Greenpeace also released the results of a second round of tests
conducted by an independent lab on toys recently purchased at the
Toys "R" Us store in Chicago. The toys contained levels of lead that
would trigger a product recall if they were painted toys.
The Greenpeace Report, "Lead and Cadmium in Vinyl Children's
Products," as well as comments on the report by independent experts,
are available at the Greenpeace website:
<http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/campaigns/toxics>
--end--
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 1997 09:28:34 -0600
From: "John Reindl" <reindl@co.dane.wi.us>
Subject: Web Pages on Extended Producer Responsibility
Dear List Members -
My thanks to everyone who responded to my request for information on
Webpages on Extended Producer/Product Responsibility.
Obviously, this list can never really be totally inclusive or complete,
but I hope that it is a starting point and welcome future
recommendations for additions.
John Reindl, Recycling Manager
Dane County, Wisconsin
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
Web Sites on Extended Product Responsibility
November 11, 1997
http://www.kirkworks.com/prodresp.htm
A draft resolution for local governments in support of producers
sharing responsibility for reducing product waste
http://www.rec.hu/poland/wpa/cpb4.htm
A 14 page article by Greenpeace on Extended Producer
Responsibility as a strategy to promote clean production. Good
background article from June 1995.
http://www1.whitehouse.gov/PCSD/Publications/EPR.html
Proceedings of the Workshop on Extended Product Responsibility
held October 21-22, 1996 at the White House Conference Center,
published February 1997
http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/pcsd/tf-reports/amer-top.html
Homepage of the President=92s Council on Sustainable Development
report Sustainable America. A New Consensus for the Future.
Links to the 7 chapter report, along with the preface, definition and
vision statement, we believe statement, and introduction. Chapter
2 includes the endorsement for extended product responsibility.
http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/reduce/epr
The 140 page report on Extended Product Responsibility: A New
Principle for Product-Oriented Pollution Prevention, June 1997
from the US EPA
http://www.rec.hu/poland/wpa/p2cp-eu.htm
Pollution Prevention and Clean Production Europe homepage;
has links to sites in 16 European countries.
http://www.emagazine.com/0597feat2.html
Seven page article entitled =93The Producer Pays=94 from the May-June
1997 issue of E/The Environmental Magazine. Includes a
discussion of the German Green Dot system, who=92s who in the
promotion of this concept in the US and some examples of
voluntary manufacturers=92 responsibility in the US.
http://www.lu.se/IIIEE/research/products/epr/epr_old.html
------------------------------
Date: (null)
From: (null)
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/.html1997/bills/senate/sbill0846.full.html
The full text of the North Carolina bill to require manufacturers to
take back 14 different categories of products.
http://www.legis.state.wi.us/lc/recycle/lcspubs.html
Lists the publications of the Wisconsin Legislative Council Special
Committee on the Future of Recycling, including three bills on
product responsibility -- WLCS: 0229/1 banning the sale of
products with intentionally added elemental mercury,
WLCS: 0255/1 banning wood pallets from landfills and
combustion without energy recovery, and WLCS: 0257/1,
assigning manufacturers=92 and retailers=92 responsibility for 10 types
of products.
http://www.raymond.com/recycle
The site of Raymond Communications information for its Take It
Back! conferences and its newsletters -- State Recycling Laws
Update, Recycling Laws International. Includes a talk on producer
responsibility for plastics given at the Pennsylvania Recycling
Conference on May 5, 1997 as
http://www.raymond.com/recycle/prc.htm
http://www.reason.org/es223.html
An executive summary of policy study 223 by Lynn Scarlett, et. al of
the Reason Foundation, entitled Packaging, Recycling, and Solid
Waste. Limited to packaging, this paper only deals with their
estimated costs of the various approaches, and does not describe
benefits.
http://eerc.ra.utk.edu/cleanprd/default.htm
Homepage for the University of Tennessee Center for Clean
Products and Clean Technologies. The director, Dr. Gary Davis, is
one of the lead proponents in the US for extended product
responsibility. Site has only a short description of their program
and lists 4 organizations that have provided funding.
http://www.concentric.net/~Armweb/producer.html
By the Minnesota Association of Recycling Managers, provides links
to other homepages on producers responsibility, including listings
by type of material and to relevant Minnesota statutes.
The homepage for the Recycling Council of British Columbia,
including their newsletters, with a heavy focus on producers=92
responsiblity.
http://www.sipeb.aoyama.ac.jp/mirror/www.rutgers.edu/raw/gsm/dpp
/links.html
For those interested in knowing about clean technology programs at
universities or research institutions, this Rutgers University
webpage has links to many sites of interest.
reindl@co.dane.wi.us
(608)267-1533 - fax
(608)267-8815 - phone
------------------------------
End of GreenYes Digest V97 #273
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