I know that you folks aren't on enough email lists, but here's one that you
should give a look. It's brand new, and it comes from the institute for
self-reliance. they focus on economical, practical ideas to create a
closed-loop economy.
Neil
>Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 22:25:08 -0500
>From: ILSR <ilsr@igc.org>
>Organization: ILSR
>Subject: ILSR’s Waste to Wealth E-Bits -- Vol. 1, No. 1
>
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>
>ILSR’s Waste to Wealth E-Bits -- Vol. 1, No. 1 (July 14, 2000)
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
>Contents this issue:
>1. Welcome to ILSR’s Waste to Wealth E-Bits
>2. Turning Abandoned Buildings into Dreams in the Nation’s Capital
>3. Building Deconstruction Enterprises Take Root in Hartford (CT) and
>Washington (DC)
>4. U.S. Cities Plan to Reduce Greenhouse Gases by Cutting Waste
>5. Web Resources Available on Waste Reduction Record-Setters
>6. New Report Shows America Is Wasting More, Despite Setting Recycling
>Records
>7. ILSR Explores New Rules to Encourage Extended Product Responsibility
>and Discourage Waste Industry Oligopolies
>
>
>1. WELCOME TO ILSR’s WASTE TO WEALTH E-BITS
>
>The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) is a 26-year-old nonprofit
>organization that promotes economic development that minimizes
>environmental damage while maximizing benefits to the local community.
>Our Waste to Wealth Program offers research, policy development,
>technical assistance, and public education and outreach on waste
>reduction and recycling-related economic development.
>
>E-Bits highlights ILSR’s Waste to Wealth Program work, from creating
>jobs and recycling-oriented enterprises, to recycling policies that
>close the loop locally, to model waste reduction initiatives. Welcome
>to our first edition of E-Bits!
>
>For more information, visit our Waste to Wealth web page at
>http://www.ilsr.org/recycling/index.html or contact us at ilsr@igc.org.
>
>Please send all comments, questions, and requests to be added or removed
>from the email list to ilsr@igc.org with WtW E-bits Response in the
>subject line.
>
>
>2. TURNING ABANDONED BUILDINGS INTO DREAMS IN THE NATION’S CAPITAL
>
>On May 12, 2000, Denise Alston, a longtime resident of Washington, DC's
>Ward 5, saw her dreams come true when she became the owner of a newly
>renovated home in her neighborhood. Under an innovative program, the
>Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) and its working partners -- the
>Carver Terrace Community Development Corporation and the National
>Association of Concerned Veterans -- acquired an abandoned building in
>the Ward, rehabilitated it (adding new rooms, more facilities, central
>air, and appliances), and assisted Alston in obtaining funding to
>purchase her new home.
>
>Alston’s was the first home completed under ILSR’s Ward 5 Renovation and
>Reclamation Project, through which the Institute is purchasing and
>rehabilitating abandoned housing in the community. Renovated homes are
>then sold, at cost, to low-income Ward 5 residents. The project also is
>creating training, employment, and business development opportunities in
>the community. To date, nearly 40 jobs have been created or sustained
>through the program, and two new local businesses (housing renovation
>and deconstruction) have been established. ILSR and its partners are now
>working to expand the program to accommodate more DC families interested
>in becoming homeowners. Please visit
>http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54887-2000Jul6.html to see a
>recent Washington Post article on this program.
>
>3. BUILDING DECONSTRUCTION ENTERPRISES TAKE ROOT IN HARTFORD (CT) AND
>WASHINGTON (DC)
>
>Deconstruction is the systematic disassembly of buildings for reuse and
>recycling. It represents an opportunity to stimulate community-based
>businesses and create jobs while supplying reusable materials to
>construction and renovation projects.
>
>In 1998, ILSR met with officials at the Department of Housing and Urban
>Development (HUD) to explain how programs like HUD's Hope VI (which
>provides almost $900 million annually to demolish buildings) could use
>deconstruction to renovate public housing in an environmentally-sound
>manner, while helping HUD meet its community investment obligations. At
>HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo's urging, ILSR implemented a pilot project in
>Hartford (CT) to demonstrate the viability of deconstruction.
>
>ILSR worked with the Hartford Housing Authority (HHA) and Manafort
>Brothers, Inc., a local construction and demolition enterprise, to
>deconstruct six units of the Stowe Village Public Housing Complex. HHA
>provided $50,000 above traditional demolition costs to support the
>training program. The returns were extraordinary. Nine worker-trainees
>were drawn from Hartford public housing; some had grown up in the very
>units they were deconstructing. Training, conducted by the Local 230 of
>the Laborers International Union and ILSR, was completed in six weeks,
>by which time the project had:
>* deconstructed 6 units (8,250 square feet) at Stowe Village;
>* recovered and found markets for all recovered materials, generating
>$9,000 in sales;
>* established a 51% worker-owned deconstruction enterprise;
>* created full-time, high-wage jobs for public housing residents; and
>* created home ownership opportunities for public housing residents.
>
>ILSR is working to replicate this project in other cities. In
>Washington, DC, ILSR and its working partner, Sustainable Community
>Initiatives (SCI), launched a similar program. A local deconstruction
>contractor helped train ten DC residents to deconstruct buildings by
>taking down public housing units, donated to the project by the DC
>Housing Authority. After completion of the training project, ILSR and
>SCI helped the workers form their own deconstruction co-op, the Ivy
>City-Trinidad Dream Team Inc. (ICT Dream Team). The co-op recently got
>its first contract to deconstruct a building in the District.
>
>For more information on deconstruction and ILSR's Deconstruction
>Initiative, please visit ILSR's web page at
>http://www.ilsr.org/recycling/builddecon.html
>
>
>4. U.S. CITIES PLAN TO REDUCE GREENHOUSE GASES BY CUTTING WASTE
>
>Waste and global warming -- the two topics are connected. The more we
>waste, the more greenhouse gases we produce. Wasting results in more
>energy consumption, more manufacturing emissions, more landfill methane
>emissions, and less carbon uptake in forests.
>
>The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) in
>Berkeley, California, is helping more than 60 cities develop action
>plans to stem climate change by reducing greenhouse gases. In 1999,
>ILSR teamed up with ICLEI to help six participants in ICLEI’s Climate
>Change Protection Campaign integrate waste reduction initiatives into
>their action plans. In addition to designing specific initiatives, we
>estimated the costs of implementing the recommendations, and analyzed
>their potential to reduce greenhouse gases.
>
>Our 16 recommendations for Riviera Beach, Florida, ranged from
>establishing a drop-off recycling station and requiring new buildings
>contain space for recycling, to expanding waste reduction in government
>offices. Implementing these measures could reduce annual waste disposal
>in Riviera Beach by 9,900 tons and reduce annual greenhouse gas
>emissions by 23,000 tons, the equivalent of taking more than 13,000 cars
>off the road.
>
>For more information on the Campaign go to:
>http://www.iclei.org/us/US_ccp.html
>
>
>5. WEB RESOURCES AVAILABLE ON WASTE REDUCTION RECORD-SETTERS
>
>What do San Jose (CA), Seattle (WA), Madison (WI), Worcester (MA),
>Portland (OR), Ann Arbor (MI), and Dover (NH) have in common? They all
>operate record-setting waste reduction programs. ILSR documents these
>and other waste reduction record-setters in a series of new
>publications, including:
>* Cutting the Waste Stream in Half: Community Record-Setters Show How
>(171-page report, EPA-530-R-99-013; fact sheet packet, EPA-530-F-99-017)
>
>* Don’t Throw Away That Food: Strategies for Record-Setting Waste
>Reduction (EPA-530-F-98-023)
>* Complex Recycling Issues: Strategies for Record-Setting Waste
>Reduction in Multi-Family Dwellings (EPA-530-F-99-022)
>* Building Savings: Strategies for Waste Reduction of Debris from
>Buildings (EPA-530-F-00-001)
>
>Some of these resources are now available as PDF files on our web site:
>http://www.ilsr.org/recycling/wrrs.html. They are also available free
>in hard copy format through the RCRA hotline 1-800-424-9346 (within
>U.S.), 1-703-412-9810 (outside U.S. and Washington, DC metro area).
>
>
>6. NEW REPORT SHOWS AMERICA IS WASTING MORE, DESPITE SETTING RECYCLING
>RECORDS
>
>The good news is: U.S. citizens are recycling more than they did in
>1980. The bad news is that the amount of waste landfilled and
>incinerated annually has grown by 19.2 million tons in the last 20
>years. These are among the findings of a new report, Wasting and
>Recycling in the United States 2000, which ILSR wrote for the GrassRoots
>Recycling Network (GRRN). The 64-page report summarizes the state of
>wasting and recycling in the U.S., details recycling’s many
>environmental and economic benefits, introduces the concept of zero
>waste planning, and concludes with an agenda for action. A must-have
>for recycling advocates.
>
>Copies of Wasting and Recycling in the United States 2000 are available
>for $25 from GRRN. To order or for more information, go to
>http://www.grrn.org//w2kinfo.html.
>
>
>7. ILSR EXPLORES NEW RULES TO ENCOURAGE EXTENDED PRODUCT RESPONSIBILITY
>AND DISCOURAGE WASTE INDUSTRY OLIGOPOLIES
>
>Next time you visit your supermarket, drugstore, or department store,
>note how many products are produced or packaged with durability, waste
>prevention, or recyclability in mind. Precious few. In fact, over the
>last several decades, many manufacturers have taken two giant steps
>BACK, switching to disposable or single-use products, and from
>recyclable materials to NON-recyclable materials. Increased consumption
>means increased waste, more landfills, more incinerators, and more
>toxins in our air, earth, and water.
>
>At the same time, interstate shipments of waste have risen dramatically,
>fueled in part by growing consolidation in the waste industry. National
>trash hauling firms are padding their bottom lines by padding landfills
>-- which THEY own! -- instead of encouraging recycling and reuse.
>
>ILSR has launched a research project to explore new rules that can help
>counter these trends. In the next year, we’ll be looking at ways to (1)
>encourage extended product responsibility without hampering local
>productive capacity, and (2) discourage waste industry oligopolies.
>Contact Brenda Platt at <bplatt@ilsr.org> if you are interested in
>receiving our upcoming Facts To Act On article series based on the
>project’s research.
>
>
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