Excerpts taken from the
Waste Reduction & Disposal Guide
Marion County Solid Waste Management
http://www.co.marion.or.us/mswm/index.htm

Think 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 takes some thinking about, because it’s not just one thing, it’s lots of things. There are many different examples of waste prevention, such as:

• When a company that sends catalogs makes it easy to be removed from 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 grass cycling).
• At the office, printing or making copies on both sides of a sheet of paper, instead of using 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.
• Avoid using chlorine-containing plastics, such as polyvinyl chloride (vinyl siding, vinyl flooring, #3 plastic bottles, PVC pipe, etc.), which produce extremely toxic dioxins when incinerated and are also not conducive to recycling due to their chemical properties.
• Select products that are not over-packaged.
  • Avoid items that have excessively large boxes just so the manufacturer can present more advertising.
  • Avoid items that have excessive amounts of bubble plastic covering them.
  • Buy bulk groceries in reusable containers rather than pre-packaged product in throwaway containers.
• Speak out to retailers, manufacturers, and government authorities to demand less wasteful and less toxic alternatives from the products’ sources.
• Be creative and come up- with your own ways to prevent dumping material into the waste stream.
  

Waste prevention or source reduction happens anytime you reduce the amount of material used and/or the toxicity of the material used to accomplish any task, when you reuse a product in its original form, or you use repairable, refillable, durable products that result in a longer useful life.

Tired of getting all that Junk Mail?

lf you prefer not to have your name and address exchanged for marketing purposes or are tired of unwanted mail, there are several steps you can take to be removed from mailing lists.

You can remove your name from most national mailing lists by contacting the Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA) Mail Preference Service, P.O. Box 9008, Farmingdale, NY 11735-9008. It will put you into the "delete" file which is sent to subscribing organizations several times a year. You should see a reduction in catalogs, magazine offers, credit card solicitations, sweepstakes, and other national advertising mail.

Companies that do not participate in the DMA program must be contacted directly. Notify the customer service department and request that your name and address not be provided to other companies.

Would you like more tips on getting rid of unwanted mail or waste prevention? Please contact Marion County Department of Solid Waste Management at 503-588-5169.