Zero Waste: USAGovernmentThe Office of Solid Waste (OSW) operates under authority of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Their aim is to protect human health and the environment by ensuring responsible national management of hazardous and non hazardous waste. Their goals are:
Individual states adopt federal standards and operate their own waste management programmes. California Integrated Waste Management Board is responsible for managing California's solid waste stream- helping California divert 50 percent of its waste from landfills by 2000 and protecting public health and the environment. Twenty four studies have been prepared by the California Integrated Waste Management Board to highlight successful reuse, recycling and composting programmes in California. These programmes are offered as examples for other cities, counties, and regional agencies in California, as well as other states, provinces, or countries. View these studies at http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/LGLibrary/Innovations/default.htm Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) is a federal-wide (USA) programme run by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that encourages and assists agencies in the purchasing of environmentally preferable products and services. Non-profitThe Grassroots Recycling Network is a North American network of recycling and community-based activists who advocate policies and practices to achieve zero waste, to end corporate welfare for waste, and to create sustainable jobs from discards. Zero Waste America (ZWA) was founded in 1996 as an Internet-based information and advocacy resource for Zero Waste in the USA. http://www.zerowasteamerica.org/ The Zero Waste Alliance is a non-profit organisation of universities, government, businesses and other organisations working to investigate the use of Zero Waste as a strategy to obtain cost savings, competitive advantages and reduced environmental impacts. The Container Recycling Institute (CRI) is a non-profit organisation that studies and promotes policies and practices that shift the social and environmental costs associated with manufacturing, recycling and disposal of container and packaging waste from government and taxpayers to producers and consumers. CRI plays a vital role in educating policy makers, government officials and the general public regarding the social and environmental impacts of the production and disposal of no-deposit, no-return beverage containers and the need for producers to take responsibility for their wasteful packaging. http://www.container-recycling.org & http://www.bottlebill.info Earth 911 is a website that enables all Americans to access accurate, local information to protect their communities' environment. The site is a Public and Private Sector Partnership, which enables economies of scale and scope, promoting this public service across the nation and centralising environmental resources into one user-friendly network. The Materials for the Future Foundation (MFF) is a nonprofit organisation founded in 1992 by a group of San Francisco Bay Area funders and recycling advocates. Its mission is to support community-based initiatives that integrate the environmental goals of resource conservation through waste prevention, reuse and recycling with the economic development goals of job creation/retention, enterprise development and local empowerment. http://www.materials4future.org/ Institute for Local Self Reliance is a non-profit research and educational organisation that provides technical assistance and information on environmentally sound economic strategies. Since 1974 ILSR has worked with citizen groups, government and private businesses in developing policies that extract the maximum value for local resources. They produce some excellent publications on a variety of topics, including waste, wach helping to define the steps towards local self-reliance. Case studies of the recycling achievements of 18 cities in the US. http://www.ilsr.org/recycling/wrrs.html Global Recycling Network is the most comprehensive Recycling Information & Trading Resource on the Internet (US). It offers a one-stop solution to recycling information needs of business users, researchers, publishers and purchasing agents, while spurring the development of international trade of recyclable goods and services. GRN is a free-access public site dedicated to recycling-related information. Clean Washington Centre offers a range of publications, reports, fact sheets, case studies and resources on recycling technologies. The reports cover topics on construction site recycling, glass, industrial by-products, paper, plastics, product marketing and tyres & rubber. The Product Stewardship Institute assists state and local government agencies in establishing cooperative agreements with industry and developing other initiatives that reduce the health and environmental impacts from consumer products. The Institute seeks out the active input from, and cooperates with, environmental groups, business interests, academic institutions, the federal government and related organisations to achieve product stewardship goals. http://www.productstewardshipinstitute.org Webdirectory is a directory of environmental organisations. They offer a wide range of links to sites relating to recycling. http://www.webdirectory.com/Recycling/ Greenbiz has been produced by the nonprofit Green Business Network. The site offers a wealth of news, resources, tools and reports to help companies of all sizes integrate environmental thinking into their operations in a way that creates business value as well as environmental improvement. http://www.greenbiz.com/index.cfm/ This Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment site allows you to estimate the overall environmental impacts from producing a certain dollar amount of any of 500 commodities or services in the United States. It will provide rough guidance on the relative impacts of different types of products, materials, services, or industries with respect to resource use and emissions throughout the U.S. Conservatree, a project of The Tides Center, is a nonprofit organisation dedicated to providing the most up-to-date, no-nonsense, in-depth, insider information about environmentally sound papers and market development, the kind of information people need to make environmentally sound market decisions. The site includes Conservatree's Guide to Environmentally Sound Printing and Writing Papers, listing over 500 papers in the U.S. and Canada with recycled, tree free, and chlorine free attributes. The Independent Designers Network (indes.net) is a group of design consultants and mid-sized firms working in graphic and packaging design and their associated fields. Indes.net is very active in the promotion of green packaging and eco-friendly design. Rather than take a passive approach to design, member firms offer their clients practical ways of being a good world citizen. Indes.net also encourages other design professionals to take an active roll and become more environmentally responsible in their design approaches. As a resource for its members as well as the design community at large, indes.net maintains a 'Design Resource' page full of useful design links. http://www.indes.net/idnref.html The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) develops global guidelines for reporting on economic, environmental and social performance, for corporations and any business, governmental, or non-governmental organisation. The H2E website provides useful tools for hospitals seeking to improve environmental performance, including a comprehensive list of mercury reduction resources and a step-by-step guide to minimising waste. A new H2E listserv provides a forum for health care professionals to discuss technical information and practical strategies for pollution prevention. |