JUNK MAIL REDUCTION * REUSE * PACKAGING REDUCTION * AND MORE Updated April 27, 2007 Telephone Book Reduction Project Reduce Business Junk Mail Postal Service Partnership Project Other Coalition Projects Waste Prevention Resource Center -- Useful links Waste Prevention Forum E-Mail List Serve Contact Us Waste prevention is a simple concept: If you create less waste, you consume fewer resources and you don't have to spend as much money to recycle or dispose of your waste. Individuals and businesses can often save a significant amount of money through waste prevention. Waste prevention means reusing things, instead of buying new stuff. It also means "reducing." When a company reduces the amount of packaging for a product, that's called "source reduction," which is a form of waste prevention. Reducing toxics is also waste prevention. The National Waste Prevention Coalition (NWPC) was founded in 1994. It is primarily made up of people in the solid waste management field. Our members work for local governments, state governments, non-profit organizations, universities, consultants and others. The goals of the NWPC are to prevent waste from being created, and to reduce the use of resources. What are some examples of waste prevention? Is recycling waste prevention?
	National Waste Prevention Coalition Projects The Business Junk Mail Reduction Project helps businesses cut down on the amount of unwanted mail they receive. The National Junk Mail Reduction Campaign also has launched a number of other activities, in addition to the Business Junk Mail Reduction Project, to help reduce the amount of unwanted advertising mail. The Telephone Book Reduction Project helps reduce the amount of unwanted phone books. The NWPC offers an Information Clearinghouse for waste prevention. The NWPC has responded to requests for information on waste prevention from hundreds of agencies, businesses, organizations and individuals. If you have any questions, please e-mail us. Here is additional contact information for the Coalition:
	Tom Watson, Coordinator National Waste Prevention Coalition c/o King County Solid Waste Division 201 South Jackson St., #701 Seattle, Washington, 98104-3855 phone (206) 296-4481 fax (206) 296-4475 e-mail: tom.watson@kingcounty.gov Top of page
	The Waste Prevention Resource Center -- A Webful of Waste Prevention There are dozens of waste prevention-related sites on the web! Here are a few that may prove useful. To suggest additional links, e-mail us. COMPREHENSIVE King County EcoConsumer Waste Prevention World. Operated by the California Integrated Waste Management Board. Includes the Waste Prevention Information Exchange, information on waste prevention at home and for businesses, and sections on grasscycling (leaving grass clippings on the lawn instead of bagging them) and reuse. State of Minnesota "Reduce Waste: If Not You, Who?" Campaign. Waste prevention tips and other information from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. REUSE The Reuse Development Organization (ReDO) site. ReDO is a national organization that promotes reuse. The website for Dump & Run, an organization that promotes the collection of college students' castoff items in the spring, so they can be sold to incoming students in the fall. Share The Technology, a non-profit, maintains this site. Their goal is to match people or organizations willing to donate usable computers with schools or non-profits. JUNK MAIL AND JUNK FAXES (also check out the Coalition's own National Junk Mail Reduction Campaign, if you haven't already) How to Reduce Junk Mail. Guide produced by King County (WA) Solid Waste Division. Reducing Junk Mail. Comprehensive information from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. The junk mail reduction campaign from the Center for a New American Dream. Unwanted faxes. Information on what to do about this problem, from the Federal Communications Commission. ORGANICS Natural Lawn Care Program. From Seattle Public Utilities. Master Composter. An extensive home composting site maintained by Mary Tynes of Plano, TX. Urban Home Composting. A site with abundant links, from the Vancouver, British Columbia, office of City Farmer, Canada's Office of Urban Agriculture. BUSINESS (sites in our other categories may also include information pertinent to businesses) Cutting Paper. Information about office paper use and efforts to reduce it, from Bruce Nordman of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's WasteWise program. WasteWise is a voluntary waste reduction program that has more than 1,300 businesses and agencies as partners, including many major corporations. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Product Stewardship website describes the concept and provides information on projects underway around the U.S. VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY The Center for a New American Dream. The center promotes responsible consumption. A list of voluntary simplicity resources on the Internet, provided by the Garden, a Seattle-based network of people devoted to personal growth. MERCURY REDUCTION Information on reducing the use of mercury in homes and hospitals, from Health Care Without Harm, a national coalition for environmentally responsible health care. Click on "Mercury." Mercury Policy Project. Based in Montpelier, VT, this project promotes policies to reduce the use of mercury. Hospitals for a Healthy Environment, a project of the American Hospital Association, the Environmental Protection Agency, Health Care Without Harm, and the American Nurses Association. Click on "Mercury." REGIONAL Western Electronic Product Stewardship Initiative. TECHNICAL Enviro$en$e. Assists industries with pollution prevention, which is the industrial equivalent of waste prevention. Funded in part by the Environmental Protection Agency. Includes many pollution prevention links. The National Pollution Prevention Roundtable. University of California Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Project. Goal of project is to develop and promote the use of integrated, ecologically sound pest management programs in California. Includes links to other IPM sites. MISCELLANEOUS Paint calculator. This site, from the Local Hazardous Waste Management Program of King County, WA, allows you to enter the dimensions of a room or rooms and calculate exactly how much paint you need, avoiding waste. Global Stewards. This site, created and maintained by Lea Dutton of San Rafael, California, includes a number of tips, resources and links related to waste prevention. Pay-As-You-Throw. This U.S. Environmental Protection Agency site provides detailed information on pay-as-you-throw programs, also known as variable-rate pricing for garbage collection. These programs provide financial incentives for waste prevention and have proven successful around the nation. INFORM. This New York City-based non-profit environmental research and education organization has published a number of groundbreaking reports on waste prevention. Top of page
	Examples of Waste Prevention The concept of waste prevention is simple -- not creating waste in the first place. But in the real world, waste prevention can be confusing. It's not just one thing, it's lots of things. There are hundreds of different examples of waste prevention. Here are just a few: When a company that sends catalogs makes it easy for customers to get off its mailing list (by calling an 800 number, for example). When a homeowner mowing the lawn leaves the grass clippings on the lawn, instead of bagging them and having them collected at the curb. This is called grasscycling. At the office, printing or making copies on both sides of a sheet of paper, instead of on just one side. When a janitorial business begins using a cleaning product that is less toxic. Using rechargeable batteries (including the new reusable alkaline batteries) instead of the standard single-use alkaline batteries This detailed definition of waste prevention is from the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance: Waste prevention, or source reduction includes: Reducing the amount of material used and/or the toxicity of the material used to accomplish any task. Reuse of a product in its original form. Use of repairable, refillable, durable products that result in a longer useful life. IS RECYCLING WASTE PREVENTION? No. With recycling, you need to collect a material, transport it, make it into a new product and market that product. Waste prevention means not creating the waste in the first place. Recycling conserves resources -- making a product out of recycled materials is better than using virgin materials -- but waste prevention is even better. Unlike recycling, most forms of waste prevention require little, if any, transportation, processing and marketing. Top of page
	Contact Us Because of limited time and resources, we may not be able to respond to your requests for information as quickly as we would like. But we do want to hear from you! In addition to questions, please give us your ideas. Tell us about your experiences. For example, if you're writing about junk mail, tell us about the good and bad mailers that send you stuff, your local government's junk mail education program, ideas to make mailings less wasteful, etc. Thanks! tom.watson@kingcounty.gov Tom Watson, Coordinator National Waste Prevention Coalition c/o King County Solid Waste Division 201 South Jackson St., #701 Seattle, Washington, 98104-3855 phone (206) 296-4481 fax (206) 296-4475 Top of page
	This site is coordinated through the King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.

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