Category: Information Tools

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P2 Go Bragh: Kiss Me, I Recycle

Cheers to the folks at Green Guardian for using the upcoming holiday to promote container recycling. GreenGuardian.com is a web site created to promote environmentally responsible purchasing and disposal choices among the citizens of Minnesota’s Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. The site is sponsored by the region’s Solid Waste Management Coordinating Board (SWMCB) and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), and is organized into sections geared specifically toward residents, businesses and children.

I receive their electronic Green Tips newsletter, and was pleased to see them taking the opportunity to tie St. Patrick’s Day to raising environmental awareness. The lead story in the latest newsletter was entitled “Kiss Me, I Recycle” and is an obvious play on the “Kiss Me, I’m Irish” slogan you’re likely to see emblazoned on t-shirts, buttons and hats starting this weekend. (Incidentally, the SWMCB web site provides a handy “Kiss Me, I Recycle” St. Patrick’s Day button template for anyone interested in wearing green and simultaneously promoting green activities.) As eluded to in my previous post, there are likely to be lots of bottles and cans associated with St. Patrick’s Day festivities, and the SWMCB and MPCA are trying to ensure that folks consider recycling and are aware of how to properly recycle as well as what can be recycled. The “Kiss Me, I Recycle” story links to a helpful can and bottle recycling guide on GreenGuardian.com. The guide not only tells you what and how to recycle (which is strictly speaking, not pollution prevention since it’s an “end of the pipe” sort of activity) but also highlights the energy savings associated with recycling, as well as the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, air and water pollution, and water consumption that result from recycling containers as opposed to throwing them in the trash–all of which are important environmental benefits that are certainly complimentary to P2 activities.

This sort of campaign got me thinking about opportunities for similar outreach activities on college campuses. For example, I’ve heard that Mather House at Harvard University has a “green happy hour” for St. Patrick’s Day that involves the promotion of recycling, sustainability and waste reduction. I’m curious to know if other campuses have been involved in similar activities, perhaps on a wider scale. If you know of a “Green St. Patrick’s Day” event or promotion at a college or university, or if your organization, like SWMCB and MPCA, is tying environmental awareness campaigns to St. Patrick’s Day, please take a minute to share what you’ve done in the “Comments” section for this post.

Kiss Me, I Recycle

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An experiment in social tagging using EPA documents

[Post author: Scott Butner]

Social tagging (also known as social bookmarking) is a practice that has been gaining some steam over recent years — it relies on the actions of a large crowd of users to assign topical categories (“tags”) to documents or other information objects (photos, videos, etc may also be tagged) in order to help categorize their meaning.

Some popular web sites, like Flickr, del.icio.us, even Facebook — make use of tags, as do most blogging applications.  The basic idea is one that has sometimes been called “folksonomy” — creating controlled vocabularies by consensus and from the bottom up.

This is the sort of thing that gives librarians bad dreams at night, or so I’ve been led to believe.  So it’s somewhat ironic that a group of library science types has launched a pilot project to improve the accessibility of EPA documents by opening them up for tagging via the popular del.icio.us web site.

Now, it’s not clear to me what this group is expecting to accomplish.  I’m not even sure it’s clear to them.  But it seems to revolve around the issue of “findability” of EPA data — an important issue, as Wikipedia and other social media continue to gain ground on more authoritative sources of information about regulations.

I’ll continue to monitor this experiment, and report back if anything interesting happens.

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The beginning of my GLRPPR blogging career…

[Post author: Scott Butner]

So.

The other day, I was invited to make the occasional contribution to this blog. I was handed a password and a user ID, few constraints and even less guidance as to what would be an appropriate set of topics on which to record my thoughts. I guess they figured someone who has been doing P2 related work for 20+ years can be expected to say something relevant now and again, even if only by accident.

This is akin to giving your 16 year old son the keys to the Porsche (and no, I do NOT have a Porsche — yet) and telling him to “feel free to take it out for a spin, but don’t get in any trouble.”

Yeah, that’ll work out real well.

Well, we will see what we will see. I promise to try and be well-behaved. If I find myself diverted down some back-country dead end miles from the Information Superhighway, I will rely on our readers, and the good folks at GLRPPR to point me back in the direction of the main road.

What I intend to write about — mostly — is the intersection between pollution prevention (and other forms of technical assistance) and information technology. How do we put the right information — in accessible forms, at the right time, and most importantly in the right context — in the hands of people who are faced with decisions that make a difference to the environment? How can emerging technologies and trends — social computing (turning loose the wisdom of the crowd), semantic web technology, even this blog — play a role in producing a greener world?

These are the sorts of questions that have kept me up at night for the past 20 years. Well, those questions, and “where’s the remote control?” — that one’s usually good for a few hours. And while, as a researcher, I have always been more interested in the questions than the answers, I’ll try to at least point to people and programs that I think may be on the right track in some way.

So. We’ve got a full tank of gas, the keys to mom and dad’s car, and miles of road ahead and behind us. The iPod is filled up with songs.

It’s time for a road trip.

We may not get there very fast, but then again, it’s all about the journey, right? At least, that’s what I always told my parents when my trip to the grocery store ended up with me 80 miles down the highway, wondering if they’d hidden any gas money in the car.

We’ll see how far we get before they take away my keys.

road trip

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P2 for Winter Recreation

For those of us who live in the Great Lakes Region, it’s the time of year when snow and ice set the scene. Visions of a winter wonderland may be inspiring you to participate in any number of wintry recreational activities, including skiing, ice skating, snowmobiling, etc. Before you join in any reindeer games, however, you may want to take a moment to consider how P2 applies. Here are some resources to help you out.

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Technical Reviewers Needed for Two New GLRPPR Topic Hubs

P2Rx LogoGLRPPR has developed two new school-related Topic Hubs as part of the P2Rx Topic Hub project. Before any Topic Hub is published, topical experts review its narrative portions for accuracy and completeness.

“Energy Efficient Schools and Students” describes energy efficient practices and research available to schools and introduces resources that support changes in operations, maintenance, and behavior. Numerous ways exist to reduce escalating energy costs and this Topic Hub assembles guidelines and comprehensive energy programs, identifies educational efforts and case studies, and provides examples of best practices for schools.

“Sustainable School Design” addresses many areas, including: indoor air quality; energy consumption and options; construction materials; education materials; water use; waste management; transportation; community interaction; landscaping and the building envelope. It draws upon the myriad resources available to school administrators, school boards, and community planners with the hope that these tools will guide the design of more optimally sustainable schools. The Topic Hub deals with the big issues of construction and retrofitting, siting and commissioning, and actual design of new and remodeled schools. Pollution prevention opportunities and alternative technologies that include lighting, acoustics, air quality, and well-being needs for students and school staff for a healthy and safe learning environment, are presented.

If you’re interested in reading the narrative portions of these hubs and providing some voluntary feedback, please contact Joy Scrogum or Bob Iverson. We’re looking for 2-4 experts to evaluate each of these new hubs; one person may evaluate both hubs if they desire. If you are selected to review the hubs, we’ll contact you with a link to the information you’ll need to read and further instructions. Your name will be included in the “Acknowledgments” section of the final published Topic Hub as a “Technical Reviewer.” See the Acknowledgments section of the Pollution Prevention for Arts Education Topic Hub for an example.

Our greatest asset is the technical expertise of our members and their willingness to share their knowledge with colleagues throughout the region. We appreciate your input and look forward to working with those selected to review these new resources.

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Check It Out: Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency (DSIRE)

Don’t let the name fool you–this useful database includes information on state, local utility, and selected federal incentives that promote renewable energy. Established in 1995 (and originally named the Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy), DSIRE is an ongoing project of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC), funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Power Technologies and managed by the North Carolina Solar Center. In addition to renewable energy incentives, DSIRE has recently expanded to include state and federal incentives for energy efficiency upgrades, purchases of energy efficient products or systems and construction of new energy efficient buildings. Even if you’re already familiar with DSIRE, be sure to check the site regularly, especially the “New/Updated Incentives” list to see what new opportunities are available, and to keep on top of changes to existing incentive programs.DSIRE logo

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New GLRPPR Sector Resource: Pharmaceutical & Personal Care Product (PPCP) Wastes & Impacts

GLRPPR is pleased to announce the availability of a new compendium of resources on Pharmaceutical & Personal Care Product (PPCP) Wastes & Impacts. This compendium focuses on the environmental impacts of pharmaceutical and personal care product residues in the environment, as well as on how to properly dispose of such products to avoid environmental contamination. As with any Sector Resource, expert contact information and lists of relevant events and funding opportunities are provided, as well as relevant Help Desk questions and answers. An RSS feed is available. This sector resource includes a link to the recently released Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant guide Disposal of Unwanted Medicines: A Resource for Action in Your Community, which also happens to be the GLRPPR Site of the Month for September 2007.

This new Sector Resource is a work in progress, so subscribe to the RSS feed or check the web site frequently for updates. If you have suggestions for resources to include, please email them to Joy Scrogum.

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More Sites Added to GLRPPR’s P2 Search

In May, GLRPPR announced the new P2 Search tool, designed to search several different pollution prevention (P2) related web sites simultaneously. Now we’re pleased to report that the total number of sites currently included in this search engine is 45. GLRPPR Help Desk Librarian Laura Barnes has added the “GreenBiz” family of web sites (www.greenbiz.com, www.greenerbuildings.com, www.climatebiz.com and www.greenercomputing.com), as well as OSHA, CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to this customized Google search tool. The complete list of sites included in P2 Search is available at http://www.glrppr.org/search/p2_search_list.cfm. If you have suggestions for other web sites you think should be included in P2 Search, contact Laura Barnes.

We appreciate feedback on P2 Search. Our thanks go out to Harmony Madill of Environment Canada’s Canadian Pollution Prevention Information Clearinghouse (CPPIC), who contacted us recently after trying out P2 Search and noticing that some documents available on CPPIC weren’t showing up in the search results, even though they were showing up in the results of a standard Google search. Laura Barnes did some investigating and discovered that P2 Search was looking at the index of the English version of the CPPIC site (it’s available in English and French, of course), rather than the more generic http://www.ec.gc.ca/cppic (sometimes you can be too specific). Laura remedied the situation by broadening P2 Search to include the entire Environment Canada domain. Nice catch, Harmony!

You can add P2 Search to your own web site or to your customized Google homepage (iGoogle) by following the links and instructions available in the lower right hand corner of the P2 Search homepage. Code is provided for adding the tool to your web site, so if you’re not technically savvy or not authorized to alter your organization’s web site, you’ll need to provide this to your webmaster. If you do this, tell us about it to help us get a feel for how many people are using this option. Happy searching!

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WasteCap Wisconsin June 2007 Bulletin Available

Ok, so end-of-pipe recycling is not technically considered pollution prevention in the strictest sense of the term; it is often argued that only in-process recycling counts. But folks interested in P2 also tend to be interested in diverting waste from landfills, especially if that waste can be turned into an asset and put to further use, at the source or otherwise. Plus, many P2 professionals are becoming more and more interested in the concepts of product stewardship and extender producer responsibility, which include thinking about how to reuse and recycle materials once they’ve served their original purpose. Information on recycling and recycled-content products is also of interest in matters of environmentally preferable purchasing and green building. So, beneficial reuse is part of my personal sense of the intention of pollution prevention, and yes, I am going to talk about end-of-pipe recycling in this P2 blog. Gasp if you must, and direct all criticisms to me (Joy).

WasteCap Wisconsin LogoIf you’re interested in beneficial reuse in general, and specifically in construction and demolition debris recycling, electronics recycling, and organic material recycling (composting, food donation, scraps for animal feed, etc.), check out WasteCap Wisconsin’s web site. They offer case studies, publications, training opportunities, and other resources on these issues. They also produce a monthly e-mail bulletin chock full of case studies, resources, news, information on recycling technologies, legislation, events, and profiles of member organizations. The June 2007 issue is available online, and archived issues are available all the way back to 2005. Information on signing up for the bulletin is available on the WasteCap Wisconsin home page.

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New P2 Search Tool Available on GLRPPR Web Site

P2 Search Box

The Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR) is pleased to announce the new “P2 Search” function available on the GLRPPR web site. Powered by Google, this search box allows you to search 37 web sites simultaneously for pollution prevention (P2) and related information. These sites include the U.S. EPA web site, each of the Pollution Prevention Resource Exchange (P2Rx) Center web sites, all of the national compliance assistance centers, the Department of Energy (Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy as well as the Office of Science and Technical Information), P2 Gems, the Canadian Centre for Pollution Prevention (C2P2), Environment Canada’s Canadian Pollution Prevention Information Clearinghouse (CPPIC), UNEP, Europa (European Union portal), and Australia’s environmental portal.

Note that when you type in a search phrase, the results page will feature links at the top allowing you to refine your search by limiting your search to the compliance assistance centers, energy efficiency-related sites, international sites, the P2Rx centers or to U.S. federal government sites.

Also, please be aware of the fact that unlike a standard Google search results page, the results page for this specialized Google search will not tell you the total number of results at the top of the page (e.g. “Results 1-XX of YYYY for your search phrase.”). Ten results are shown per page. Scroll to the bottom of the results page to advance to subsequent results pages and to get a feel for the total amount of information your search retrieved.

Take it for a test drive and let us know what you think. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for sites to add to the search, contact GLRPPR Help Desk Librarian Laura Barnes at lbarnes@wmrc.uiuc.edu.