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NRC Congress - Mon AM
NRC Congress - Monday Night
Thank You Cards
Trying to find publication (2 msgs)
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Date: Mon, 22 Sep 1997 09:04:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: STEVESUESS@aol.com
Subject: NRC Congress - Mon AM
Good Morning Zero Wasters,
The NRC Congress starts this morning, yet we've already had the members
meeting, the plenary, the big bash... And many people are already having a
hard time getting up this morning.....
The first thing that is weirder than weird is having this "back to the
Earth - environmental types - have a conference in Orlando - virtual reality
land. I keep waiting for Roger Rabbit to walk by.
Last nights party was at MGM studies in a virtual city, with an orgy of
junk food and 3-D effects. As we arrived, we walked thru a miniature "Arch
de Triumph" AND WERE GREETED BY CROWDS OF ADORING FANS who were fighting for
autographs, photos, and just to touch us. (They were hired by the NRC to
greet us thus! The likes of John Young were caught wildly ranting and raving
about the inhumanness of the situation as - in Johns case - he was eating one
Mickey Mouse ice cream after another.... Gerry Liss pointed out that just
as America loves Disneyland, it too loves Recycling - and we should just give
them what they want and learn from Disneys genius of manipulating
perceptions!
The NRC Board did not meet Sunday as planned, but rather meet on
Saturday before we arrived. Horace, a Board member, was going to introduce a
Zero Waste resolution, but was caught up in a local situation and was unable
to be at the Board meeting. Bill Shaken - leader of the GRN, and writer of
more than numerous Zero Waste proposals - was at the Board meeting and did
NOT introduce the idea!
On Sunday I was at the SROC meeting as the new CRRA representative to
the NRC and brought up the Zero Waste topic. In addition I was fascinated by
a discussion on how to grow recycling organizations. There was much talk
about lack of money, concern about consensus, diversity and divisiveness - I
had a strong dejavu of my early days on the CRRA Board. I told them that the
best way to infuse excitment was to get controversial, to open up lots of
discussions, to get away from the fear the immobilizes many of these groups...
. In my opinion that is how we got the CRRA moving again.
The NRC had its members meeting Sunday as well - It was scheduled for
two hours and lasted one. It included the eleven NRC Board candidates making
statements as well. We did get a brief Zero Waste discussion moving, but
because of NRC rules did not get far. Again - Bill Sheehan an NRC Board
member said nothing, and did nothing to support us.
(I am very disapointed in Bill Sheehans lack of effort on the part of
Zero Waste, and would like for the GRN to seek a stronger president.)
I gotta go and hear Frank Ackermann and Lynn Scarlett tell us why we
recycle now.... (Brenda Platt is there to counter them, but has a cold and I
fear just like with everything else, everything is image here, and the images
are really weird. Perhaps Ricks methods of having a good smoke is a good
antidote......)
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Date: Mon, 22 Sep 1997 23:41:48 -0400 (EDT)
From: STEVESUESS@aol.com
Subject: NRC Congress - Monday Night
Helllloo Zero Wasters,
Well I've survived another day in virtual reality world. Frankly I am
so tired, I was just asked how many drinks I'd had. Answer: Zero!
So I am skipping the dance and going to try to get some sleep.
Today found more than 200 people wearing Zero Waste buttons. Edgar
Miller however will still not wear one. Bill Heehnan (Czar of the NRC and
Steel Can big wig) finally went to Rick Anthony and asked him to explain what
this Zero Waste thing was. After Rick did his spiel, Bill said that this
seemed to be the same as what Steel Can wanted and took a Zero Waste button.
I have not yet seen him wearing it - but then I've not seen him at all.
At the policy session this morning featuring the likes of Frank
Ackermann (of Why do we Recycle fame) who was very careful to present himself
as a strong environmentalist, Brenda Platt (who described herself to the
moderator as "a radical") and was the only one to consistently bring up Zero
Waste, Lynn Scarlett (The Reason Foundation) who actually said nothing I
couldn't not agree with today (made several of us wonder), Richard Denison
(EDF) who was really the only one to focus on the environment, and Ed Boisson
(formerly of the CIWMB, now in Vermont) who was the one to state Zero Waste
was not for now. I of course spent the rest of the day beating him up - He
has the button, but has not yet put it on. He is feeling guilty and is
waffling....such a typical liberal)
After the session, there were several panel discussions. I joined the
NRC policy panel run by Edgar Miller, who went out of his way to give me
plenty of time to explain Zero Waste. All of the ten or so panelists took
the Zero Waste button when I was finished.
I spent the afternoon talking to people at the exhibit hall - talked two
people into wearing Zero Waste buttons - people who at first did not want to
even have one.
We had a GRN steering committee meeting from 6-8PM, which was attended
by Sen. Donzella James as well as the rest of us. This was the FIRST meeting
of the GRN (Rick Anthony was the only one who went to the Sunday meeting, and
he stayed in the room the whole two hours to talk to anyone who wandered by)
This meeting was held to organize the GRN session (which is described as a
GRN meeting in the conf. Manuel) which will be held tomorrow from 1-4 and
thru which the goal is to enlist 300 more members.
Here is a reality of this group: Many of these people come from states
that have virtually no, or at the least tiny tiny recycling programs. To
these people this conference is an unimagined concentration of recyclers, a
virtual hot bed of radicals. To these people 50% is unimaginable, Zero Waste
is insane. To these people America Recycles Day is the best thing that ever
came along - It is the God sent opportunity to put the word "recycling" in
front of their constituents, and they are eternally thankful to the likes of
the Steel Can institute and other corporate sponsors who are making this
happen. Of course there are those who do not believe these things at this
conference......
And finally - here is the distilled argument for Zero Waste that I am
using on this group, and it works:
All of us here at this conference are here because we want to conserve
resources, we want to reduce waste. Everyone admits that once we get to the
25,35, 50% targets we have, that we will not go home and call it done, but
rather we will raise the target. Well isn't the logical extension of those
actions the goal of Zero Waste? Pretty much everyone agrees to that line of
thinking... They just begin the "buts...." there.
I tell them to deny that we are working on a Zero Waste goal is to be
deceptive! We are not telling the truth, we are liars! We are deceptive to
ourselves, and more importantly we re deceiving the public! Through this
deception we find ourselves needing to invent more complicated reasons for
our actions, which leads to things such as the garbage barge. Through these
acts of deception we arm the opposition such as the Tierneys of the world who
sense this deception and find our lies. The pubic can feel this deception as
well and thus only reluctantly supports us. Even worse - we deceive
ourselves, and this leads us to creating all kinds of paths to our stated
goals that all to often take us away from our true goal.
Why do we deceive ourselves? We deceive ourselves because we've come so
far away from this Zero Waste way of life, that we are hard wired in our
genes to live, that we've lost sight of it and we do not know how to go back
to it! We put our heads in the sand - we sweep the waste under the carpet,
close our eyes and hope it will go away. We do not seem able to face the
reality that the emperor really does not wear clothes and all the
consequences of that realization. So like drunks on the tracks we shift the
blame, we deny the problem, we move into the fantasy world - AND I KEEP
WAITING FOR ROGER RABBIT TO WALK UP TO ME ASK I GIVE MY TALK AND TURN ME OVER
TO THE CARTOON PATROL!
If we want the public to support our recycling efforts we have to give
them the truth, and we have to give then a vision that they can follow. Zero
waste is the truth and it is the vision - the public will follow that vision.
They will not follow the mass of confused rules and contradictory overly
long arguments that fill the airwaves of todays unreality!
Everyone who has heard that speech ha put on the fucking button -
everyone except Ed Boisson! I'm still working on him!
Any suggestions??????
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Date: Mon, 22 Sep 1997 18:42:03 -0400 (EDT)
From: SEEK251@aol.com
Subject: Thank You Cards
Hi, Myra,
RE: Your asking about sources for recycled content thank you cards in the Bay
Area. I'm sure there are lots out there, but two easily available sources
are:
Shoebox cards, by Hallmark - very prominent in stores that carry Hallmark
cards - I don't know if these are packaged in groups like "thank you cards."
I've just seen them as individual cards, which include some thank you's. I
just checked some a few days ago and they are still showing postconsumer
content in their ID on the back.
Another good source, and one which probably provides some packages, if that's
what you're looking for, is Brush Dance cards, in Mill Valley. They sell in a
lot of stores all over the Bay Area, state-wide and nationally. I called to
ask them for some locations in the East Bay. They said their cards are sold
in Papyrus stores, which should be pretty available since they have a lot of
outlets. They're also sold at Creations in Fremont and Pioneer Bookstore in
Hayward. There are a number of other outlets, too. If these aren't convenient
for you, you can check with Brush Dance for more locations, at 800/531-7445.
Hope this helps,
Susan Kinsella
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Date: Mon, 22 Sep 1997 11:53:58 -0600
From: "John Reindl" <reindl@co.dane.wi.us>
Subject: Trying to find publication
I am trying to track down the publication "Creating Local Jobs from
Environmental Protection. Focus on Recycling and Small Business", T.
Paul Robbins, March 1992.
Can anyone help out with some more details?
Thanks much!
John Reindl
reindl@co.dane.wi.us
(608)267-1533 - fax
(608)267-8815 - phone
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Date: Mon, 22 Sep 1997 14:47:00 -0500
From: max_pot@greenbuilder.com (Pliny Fisk)
Subject: Trying to find publication
You can reach T. Paul Robbins at P.O. Box 1374, Austin, TX 78767. Good luck!
Austin Green Building Conference
Oct 30-Nov 2, 1997
http://www.greenbuilder.com/conference/
--
http://www.greenbuilder.com
telnet://fc.greenbuilder.com:3000
modem: 512.462.0633
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End of GreenYes Digest V97 #229
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