[greenyes] A Modest Proposal - "Harp Seal Pelt Packaging Standards"

["Robin Ingenthron" <robin@no.address>]

Hello,

I'm looking for organizations to partner with concerning some big picture,
lifecycle analysis.  We don't have funding yet but are trying to make a
stronger case before we pitch it.  Here's the jist of HSPPS Modest Proposal,
which might be the test case:

New Packaging material:

100% organic
   0% toxic
100% reuseable
100% Renewable resource
$2000 / ton income value

source:  bHSPs - (baby Harp Seal Pelts)

HSPs (Harp Seal Pelts) and bHSPs (baby Harp Seal Pelts) are lead free,
mercury free, zero waste, reuseable, with a strong return aftermarket (could
bring in more funding than aluminum, bringing all recycling programs into
the black).

What inspired this was the EU and Japan legislation to replace lead and
lead/tin solder with silver/tin solder.  The debate so far has been
engineers vs. environmentalists, with the presumption that it's a quality
vs. environment debate.  But just as recycling proved that the "environment
vs. jobs debate" was false (recycling creates more jobs per ton than
extraction), we environmentalists potentially have some blood on our hands
in promoting silver and tin extraction.  The former is the #2 source of
mercury in the environment, above mercury mining and after gold.  The latter
(tin) is increasingly mined from deposits undersea, below coral reefs, in
Indochina.  (Lead, being replaced in solder, is 85% recycled content).

This solid waste disposal cost economy has created some other cases of
recycling myopia.  Not always as severe as the "unintended consequences" of
bHSPPS or lead-free solder, but many "missed opportunities" for pursuing
alternative funding sources, including a lack of focus on Software Upgrades
(In Windows98, Microsoft could have trimmed over 50% of its unused operating
systems size and run swiftly on a PI, eliminating need for "Take Back"), a
lack of focus on federal FCC Bandwidth auctions (to come out next year,
tightening the noose on Digital TV), and no one showing up for Superfund
Reauthorization debates (if Superfund is funded by the raw material
extraction industry, which created 14/15 largest SF sites, recycling would
become extremely attractive as a source of material ) and GMA 1872.

I've posted some previous messages on the "Harp Seal Pelt Packaging
Standard" or Lifecycle Analysis, and got some friendly responses, but what's
lacking in my opinion is funding.  The RCRA Landfill legislation (leading to
the Mobro Barge) was great in creating paid jobs for recyclers like me who
were in it to save trees in the 70s, but now we are kind of comfortable in
our "solid waste diversion economics" and "zero waste" zones.   If someone
out there wants to help pitch this with me, there is some potential
foundation funding.

We have some target funders and just want to line up the best team to pitch
to do the work.  Having just returned from China, Singapore, and Malaysia, I
am convinced that the environmental regulatory community there is beginning
to emulate our "western standards" (China is moving ahead to adapt lead-free
solder, and any discussion I had of lifecycle analsysis was met by blank
stares).

robin ingenthron,
acting president wr3a.org

"bHSP - A renewable, environmentally sound, choice in packaging"