Newsletter No. 177
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FreePint
"Helping 73,000 people use the Web for their work"
http://www.freepint.com/
ISSN 1460-7239 24th February 2005 No.177
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IN THIS ISSUE
-------------
EDITORIAL
By William Hann
MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
By Simon J Hassell
FREEPINT BAR
In Association with Factiva
a Dow Jones & Reuters Company
JINFO :: JOBS IN INFORMATION
Part-Time Learning Resources Advisor
Junior Business Analyst
Senior Researcher (Technology & Telecoms)
TIPS ARTICLE
"Website Usability"
By Paula Murdoch
BOOKSHELF
"Online Information Services in the Social Sciences"
Reviewed by Caryn Wesner-Early
FEATURE ARTICLE
"Recycling - A Growth Industry"
By Helen Clegg
EVENTS, GOLD AND FORTHCOMING ARTICLES
CONTACT INFORMATION
ONLINE VERSION WITH ACTIVATED HYPERLINKS
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February's issue of VIP contains the first part of a comparative
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EDITORIAL
By William Hann
How 'usable' is your Web site? I don't mean the quality of the
content, I mean how your visitors actually find that content,
and move around your Web site.
There is a Suggestion Box on the FreePint Web site. From it we
receive a handful of suggestions each week, and recently
received this anonymous message:
"Am I the only person who finds the maze of routes to
study/access/contact/respond with fellow FreePinters all
too confusing?"
The message went on to request clearer ways of finding out what
resources are available on the FreePint Web site.
This really prompted us to think hard about the way that people use
our site. As a result, we have just made some major improvements.
The biggest enhancement is the set of new pull-down navigation
buttons at the top of each page. These make it much easier to navigate
to specific parts of the site quickly <http://www.freepint.com/>.
In this navigation bar there is also a new 'Network' menu, which
enables you to easily jump to other sites in the network, like VIP
(information product reviews and news) or Jinfo (jobs database).
The FreePint 'Help Page' has been cleaned up, and there are new
'Sitemap' and 'Frequently Asked Questions' (FAQs) pages too.
There are also various smaller improvements to the site, like a new
'Return to top' link under each section of the FreePint Newsletter in
the newsletter archive <http://www.freepint.com/issues/>.
In today's edition of FreePint we have a very timely article on Web
site usability, with pointers to some useful resources. This should
help you, as it has helped us, to improve access to the resources that
you manage.
We hope you like the improvements to the FreePint Web site; not least
the new navigation menus. As you can see, we really do take notice of
your suggestions and feedback.
If you have something to say, then please either post it publicly to
the FreePint Bar <http://www.freepint.com/bar> or send it anonymously
via the Suggestion Box <http://www.freepint.com/contact.htm>.
William Hann
Managing Editor and Founder, FreePint
e: william.hann@freepint.com
t: 0870 141 7474
i: +44 870 141 7474
FreePint is a Registered Trademark of Free Pint Limited (R) 1997-2005
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MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
By Simon J Hassell
* Interactive Investor <http://www.iii.co.uk/> - News, market data and
articles about personal finance and investing in the UK, including
stock tips, details of new issues and comparisons of credit card,
loans etc.
* Google UK News <http://www.google.co.uk/news> - Google UK aggregates
news from multiple sources including the BBC and the national and
regional newspapers. Useful for a quick summary of the day's news or
comparing coverage.
* Reuters <http://www.reuters.co.uk/> - News, finance and market
information from the famous news agency. Useful free market quotes
with graphs, related news headlines and links to company reports.
* All Music <http://www.allmusic.com/> - Music resource site for
popular and classical music, with details of releases, reviews and a
search engine for song titles, albums and artists - all presented in
a calm tone.
* New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> - Useful for an overview of
US news and American opinion of world news, including editorials.
Also has a guide to New York - ideal for anybody visiting the Big
Apple.
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Simon J Hassell is Associate Publisher of AccountancyAgeJobs.com
<http://www.accountancyagejobs.com/>, which features UK finance and
accounting jobs, and ComputingCareers.co.uk
<http://www.computingcareers.co.uk/>, which features UK IT jobs.
Submit your top five favourite Web sites. See the guidelines at
<http://www.freepint.com/author.htm>.
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*** SLA Europe Information Professional Award ***
Each year Factiva sponsors SLA Europe Information Professional Award
(SLA EIP). Nominate yourself or a colleague and win this prestigious
award and an all expenses paid trip to the conference in Toronto.
Entries by 28th February 2005.
For more details about the EIP award visit:
<http://www.sla-europe.org/>
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*** In-depth information management reports from FreePint ***
We will shortly be adding reports on 'freedom of information' and
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* "Information auditing: a guide for information managers"
* "Sharpening Skills; Acquiring Knowledge"
* "E-Newsletters: A Guide for Publishers"
* "Marketing for the Info-Entrepreneur"
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A FreePinter is looking for case law relating to property management
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<http://www.freepint.com/go/b31428>.
An information student at the FreePint Student Bar would like to know
the percentage of students and qualified staff who actually join
professional bodies <http://www.freepint.com/go/s4339>.
There are now over 40 forthcoming information-related conferences and
events listed on the FreePint Events page
<http://www.freepint.com/go/b31424> and the quarterly FreePint Author
Update has just been published <http://www.freepint.com/go/b31414>.
The Author Update has suggestions for ways to contribute articles to
FreePint, VIP and Jinfo, along with details about authoring a
premium report.
Surely there are others who are frustrated about the limitations of
Web site visitor statistics reporting? Are there training courses or
forums for getting it right? <http://www.freepint.com/go/b31433>.
Or is it possible to find out all the domain names that point to a
particular server? <http://www.freepint.com/go/b31460>.
Finally, ResourceShelf <http://www.ResourceShelf.com> has been named
"Best weblog on searching" by Pandia <http://www.onopoly.com/press/>,
and the ResourceShelf Newsletter now has direct links to individual
items.
William Hann <william.hann@freepint.com>
Founder and Managing Editor, FreePint
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JINFO :: JOBS IN INFORMATION
<http://www.jinfo.com/>
Jinfo is a database of information-related job vacancies.
The Jinfo Newsletter is published free every two weeks, and contains
a list of the latest vacancies along with job seeking advice. The
latest editorial is entitled "So You've Got the Interview".
To read the latest Jinfo Newsletter and to subscribe to receive it
twice-monthly by email, visit <http://www.jinfo.com/newsletter/>.
Here are some of the latest featured jobs:
Part-Time Learning Resources Advisor
Varied roles avail outside London - this one in Scotland, at
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To produce company profiles and conduct competitor research, sector
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Recruiter: CMS Cameron McKenna
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Senior Researcher (Technology & Telecoms)
Sector Analyst/Researcher with confidence and high academic standard
to be involved in senior level assignments with top London consultancy.
Recruiter: Glen Recruitment
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NB: There are 22 other jobs in the current edition of the Jinfo
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TIPS ARTICLE
<http://www.freepint.com/issues/240205.htm#tips>
"Website Usability"
By Paula Murdoch
How often have you thought: "I'm not using that site again, I hate
it!" Often I'd guess. But how often do we consider why we dislike
certain sites? One of the reasons could be to do with how usable it
is. This article is aimed at newcomers to usability and will attempt
to highlight the main issues and approaches to take regarding website
usability, testing and design.
What is website usability?
--------------------------
Usability, in general, assesses how easy it is to use a product by
looking at how efficiently users achieve their goals and how
satisfying that process was. Or, put simply, whether it does what the
customer expects, does it well and does it quickly. This is the
essence of what designers should be striving for.
There are some key concepts for consideration when addressing
usability in websites, namely:
* Functionality: What is the purpose of the site?
* Learnability: How easy is it to learn?
* Efficiency: How quickly can users perform tasks?
* Memorability: Once learnt, how quickly can someone remember how
to use it?
* Errors: Does the site design cater for the mistakes users will
make?
* Satisfaction: Perhaps the most subjective, but worth considering
in the design.
These have been taken from the well-known usability expert Jakob
Nielsen and his writings can be found at his equally well-known
website <http://www.useit.com/alertbox>.
Good and bad design in usability
--------------------------------
In my experience, the best way to learn about usability is to
look at some really bad designs! An excellent site for this is the
infamous 'Web Pages That Suck' site that was created to supplement a
book of the same name written in 1996. The author of both site and
book has conveniently written a review of the best of worst design in
2004 available from <http://digbig.com/4cqrg>. Richard Eskins has
also written on this subject and he provides useful tips on how to
design your web pages well <http://www.freepint.com/go/n66#feature>.
Essentially though, here's just a tiny slice of what you should be
looking out for:
Accessibility is paramount to effective usability for all. I would
suggest that accessibility can be split into two main concepts -
technical applications and people with disabilities. Much has been
written on accessibility from a disabled access point of view, for
example, Bill Raschen's excellent article on web accessibility.
<http://www.freepint.com/go/n169>.
However, the technical aspects of accessibility should not be
overlooked. The size of a user's screen or the speed of internet
connection can cause severe accessibility problems especially with the
increased use of mobile phone technology and PDAs. Think of children
using 'hand-me-down' computers (this is apparently a problem in
schools) and you can imagine the impact that inaccessible sites - with
slow downloading or excessive scrolling across pages - may have on
internet usage. Think also about the colour schemes you choose for
colour-blind users or those with dyslexia. A site should also be
navigable through the use of the keyboard to aid accessibility, and
non-text material (i.e. images) should ideally have a text
alternative. Consider the language or cultural issues surrounding your
site too.
Sites need a purpose and to help this (and general navigation), the
home page should show all major options available on the site.
Equally, an obvious link back to the homepage should be shown on all
pages. A site map is also a useful addition.
Think about your target audience. Tailor all aspects of the site to
them, but bear in mind the people who may visit your site that you are
not targeting - does the site cater adequately for these people too?
The text used on the site must be consistent, resizable and written
for the medium in which it is displayed, e.g. short, scan-able
sections of text.
Links are vital to usability as they can cause huge navigation issues.
They need to have meaningful labels and be made obvious. Users also
need to know where they will be directed to. Once a user does click a
link, it needs to change colour so they know where they've been.
Embedded adverts, via links in the text, prove hugely unpopular and
may actually hinder navigation. Splash pages and pop-ups, whether
advertisements or not, are almost universally ignored and as such are
best left out of most aspects of design.
Search options are important on websites, especially larger ones. A
bad or very limited search could be a hindrance, for example if the
site search cannot cope with obvious spelling differences or plurals.
Finally, all pages of a site should be small in physical size on the
page and in the time they take to load. The latest guidelines are that
pages must load in less than a second for good usability (See Jakob
Nielsen's 'Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design'
<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html>)
This is by no means an exhaustive list but does give a good
introduction to looking at websites from the perspective of usability.
For more information, go to <http://www.usabilitynews.com> or
<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html>.
Usability testing - why do it?
------------------------------
If a site proves difficult to use in any way for any person, then you
have a usability issue. It may be difficult to acknowledge that a site
requires testing; after all, every site makes sense to the person who
created it.
With the web growing as fast as it is, the importance of making your
site easy to use is becoming evermore important. If there are a
plethora of other sites offering the same information, service or
product, why should a user struggle to use yours? When considering
this in the context of e-commerce, this could mean the difference
between a successful business and an expensive mistake. A company in
the FTSE 100 cannot afford for their website to score badly. It may
also make sense to measure how well your website fulfils user needs by
looking at what a direct competitor does, particularly if they are
doing a better job.
It is much more difficult to assess the overall satisfaction of a
site, for instance the 'look' or 'feel' of it and how pleasant it is
to use. User testing can give a broad opinion but this has always been
notoriously difficult to measure. So what kinds of tests are there?
How do we perform these and make reasonable, unbiased assessments?
Types of usability tests
------------------------
There are many ways to carry out usability testing on your site. A
useful starting point is via Usability First:
<http://www.usabilityfirst.com/methods/index.txl> but there are
several other sites that are equally authoritative. Essentially,
depending on resources available, you can use evaluation
criteria/checklists, field studies, interviews, observation,
prototyping, heuristic studies and automated evaluation. This last
type of study is about using technology to test technology. Some
useful starting points are the free automated tools like Dr HTML
<http://www.fixingyourwebsite.com/drhtml.html> and others from
Optiview <http://digbig.com/4cpnm> but again, there are countless
other tools available.
In isolation, automated evaluation may not give an entire picture of
how usable a site is, but it could be a swift way of testing an early
site to remove obvious issues before setting up user testing. It is
widely recognised that observation is one of the most effective tests.
This is especially true for companies with limited resources, because
as long as impartiality is maintained, you can clean highly valuable
results from observing people performing specific tasks on your site.
Microsoft appears to agree with the notion that user testing is
fundamental to usability testing, as they use approximately 750 people
in testing both software and websites every month
<http://www.microsoft.com/usability/lab.htm>.
Remember that testing a new site or a problem site already in
existence is not where the story ends. When the changes required have
been implemented, reviews should ideally be maintained.
What do I do now?
-----------------
As Information Professionals, the importance of getting a message
across in a clear, accurate and effective way is close to all our
hearts. We have seen the ways in which information on a site can be
blurred due to inadequate planning and implementation at the design
stages and insufficient attention to the factors which influence
effective usability.
There is no denying that trying to ensure a website is 100% usable is
almost impossible. But there are many authoritative guidelines
available today that give site designers the tools to address
usability in ways that may not have been considered as little as five
years ago. This in itself is an important point as there is certainly
still some way to go.
So, what do you do now? Hopefully, this article has provided a basic
introduction to why and how you should perform usability testing and
has highlighted some of the good and bad in website design. Try using
some of the links - another good general resource is Usable Web at
<http://usableweb.com> - and perhaps the next time you find a site
that you decide never to go back to, you might at least learn how not
to design a site; I know I do!
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Paula Murdoch is a Records Manager for Instant Library Limited
<http://www.instant-library.com> (part of Tribal Group
<http://www.tribalgroup.co.uk>) and currently manages a disparate team
of information specialists for one of Instant Library's highest
calibre clients. During her current tenure, Paula has also contributed
enormously to a large-scale office relocation and directed the
information solutions that are inextricably linked with this type of
project. She began her information career in public libraries before
moving to the private sector in early 2002. She is also currently
studying part-time for her BA in Information and Library Studies at
the University of Central England in Birmingham. Paula is writing for
FreePint in a personal capacity.
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Related FreePint links:
* 'Internet Webmaster' articles in the FreePint Portal
<http://www.freepint.com/go/p183>
* Post a message to the author, Paula Murdoch, or suggest further
resources at the FreePint Bar <http://www.freepint.com/bar>
* Read this article online, with activated hyperlinks
<http://www.freepint.com/issues/240205.htm#tips>
* Access the entire archive of FreePint content
<http://www.freepint.com/portal/content/>
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*** Jinfo :: Jobs in information ***
<http://www.jinfo.com/>
Jinfo is a database of information-related job vacancies
where you can search for and advertise job postings.
The Jinfo Newsletter is published twice-monthly and lists
the latest jobs and gives career advice and tips.
Search the database and subscribe to the newsletter at:
<http://www.jinfo.com/>
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FREEPINT BOOKSHELF
<http://www.freepint.com/bookshelf>
"Online Information Services in the Social Sciences"
Reviewed by Caryn Wesner-Early
This book was originally listed in the FreePint Author Update as
simply "Online Information Services." This, it turns out, was a
fairly accurate description. The half of the book which deals with
setting up, marketing, and managing online information services is
very general, and could be used in any course on the subject. What
makes it specific to social sciences is the first half, dedicated to
case studies of libraries and other services serving a social service
clientele. I expect that when this book is used as a textbook,
Chapters 12 on will be assigned as class reading, with occasional
reference to the preceding eleven chapters of case studies.
For this reason, this book would be an excellent candidate for
becoming an e-book. It would be more usable with clickable links
within the text to illustrations from the case studies. The extensive
link lists in the back of the book, as well as most of the references,
would also be more useful that way. (In fact, the core chapters could
be used as a general information science text, and links could be
keyed to case studies from any specialty.) That said, this book does
not really present any usability problems as it is.
Chapters 13-22 provide good guides to topics such as management of
online services, marketing, usability, metadata, and so on. They are
effective in translating management and computer issues to
"library-ese," relating the broader subjects to their narrower library
uses gracefully. Other topics with which librarians may be more
familiar, such as selection, subject classification, and metadata, are
also dealt with clearly and succinctly. Each chapter begins with a
definition of the subject, then explains processes involved in it.
Some authors have created tables and checklists to make clear the
steps in a process or the parts of a task. Throughout the book, main
ideas are boiled down to their essence and boxed as "Top Tips". Most
of these tips don't really stand alone, but if one is leafing through
the book looking for useful ideas, they highlight such ideas for
further study.
This book should be very popular with professors teaching library
courses related to the social sciences, but it could profitably be
read by any library school student. It would also be useful to a
library planning or starting an online information service, as well as
to any new staff hired for such a department.
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Caryn Wesner-Early is a librarian who is contracted to the United
States Patent Office for database and Web searching.
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FEATURE ARTICLE
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"Recycling - A Growth Industry"
By Helen Clegg
Introduction
============
Did you know that there are over 60 million rats in the UK? That's
more than the country's human population. Rats have increased as
rubbish has increased. And this isn't just a problem confined to the
UK. It's a problem in all industrialized countries and will become one
in the developing economies too. One way of reducing the amount of
rubbish we produce -- and thus reducing the rat population -- is to
recycle.
Government information
======================
Governments in industrialized nations have recognized the need for
limiting waste production and encouraging the promotion, prevention
and recycling of materials. In the EU, there are a number of Council
Directives, which can be found at
<http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/s15002.htm>. This is a good
starting point for finding out about current European legislation on
recycling and waste management. One of the problems with recycling is
making this industry more attractive to both companies and citizens.
The EU has identified four types of action which could increase the
competitiveness of the recycling industry; these can be found at
<http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l28065.htm>
The Environment Portal of the European Commission at
<http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/environment/waste/index.htm> gives a
concise overview of the waste situation in Europe. For detailed
statistics on the environment, choose "Resources" from the menu, then
"Statistics" - this is a quick way of navigating to the relevant
section of the Eurostat website. If you are just interested in UK
statistics, go to the Department of the Environment's website at
<http://www.defra.gov.uk>. Choose "Environment", "Statistical Topics",
then "Waste and Recycling", which will bring you to
<http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics/waste/index.htm>. Here
you'll find hyperlinks to key facts on household waste and recycling,
material recycling and regional recycling and recovery. According to
statistics collected by the Department of the Environment, recycling
has been growing steadily in the UK since 1983/1984, but still only
makes up a fraction of the waste produced by households. For example,
in 2002/2003, the average household produced 521 kg of waste during
the year, of which a massive 446 kg was not recycled - that's 85.6% of
household rubbish which ended up in landfill sites. If you're
interested in finding out which types of materials are recycled the
most, check out the pie chart depicting material recycling. It shows
that in 2002/2003, plastics and textiles made up only 2% of materials
that were recycled. When you think about all the plastics bottles and
containers purchased by consumers on a daily basis, that's not a lot.
Meanwhile, if you want to know which area of the country is the best
at recycling, check out the regional recycling web page. The West
Midlands is number one for municipal recycling, yet the South East has
the best recycling rate.
For recycling information on the USA, the best place to start is the
Environmental Protection Agency <http://www.epa.gov>. Click on
"Recycling" under "Quick Finder" at the top of the home page to go to
the section on recycling. This section provides a short overview,
including information on the recycling process, facts and figures,
publications on the industry and links to related organizations and
associations. The facts and figures section is interesting. For
example, in the section on individual state recycling rates, New York,
South Carolina and South Dakota all have a rate of over 40%, which is
quite high. When it comes to remaining landfill capacity in each
state, Tennessee, Alabama and Vermont all have only between five and
ten years capacity left, so these states are likely to increase their
recycling activities.
Non-governmental information
============================
There are lots of non-governmental organizations that collect and
disseminate information on recycling. In Europe, the Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) <http://www.oecd.org>
produces some objective information. Much of the research and papers
written on recycling can be quickly found by navigating to the
Environment Directorate home page, then searching the sub-site with
the keyword "recycling". This search retrieves 78 documents,
including one by the International Association of Electronics
Recyclers. The paper gives a forecast to the end of 2005 of millions
of units recycled, as well as an electronics recycling industry
process model. As new product development of electronics products is
getting faster, and their lifecycles shorter, recycling of electronic
components will likely gain in importance.
ASSURRE <http://www.assurre.org> aims to be the leading European
association promoting sustainable resource management. This site has
some good fact sheets and case studies in pdf format on glass,
plastic, paper, aluminium and steel recycling, which you'll find under
"Publications". Each fact sheet describes the key environmental
benefits, recycling process and gives examples of potential markets
for the recycled materials. ACRR, the Association of Cities and
Regions for Recycling <http://www.acrr.org>, is another useful source
of information. Under "Prevention and Recycling" the site has a number
of documents about waste reduction, sustainable consumption in cities
and producer responsibility. Moreover, buried deep in the site are
some great facts about recycling. Did you know that recycling one
aluminium can saves enough energy to run an 100 watt light bulb for 20
hours, a computer for three hours or a television for two hours? Did
you know that if every country recycled as much as Germany does,
nearly one third less wood would be needed worldwide to produce paper?
And did you know that the energy saving from recycling one glass
bottle will power a washing machine for ten minutes? For more of these
facts go to
<http://www.acrr.org/resourcities/recycling/recycling_did.htm>.
Wastewatch <http://www.wastewatch.org.uk>, one of the leading UK
organizations promoting waste reduction, reuse and recycling, also has
some wacky waste facts on its website under the information tab, which
takes you to <http://www.wasteonline.org.uk>. This is where you'll
find all the information on waste and recycling. Check out the "Search
our library" facility if you're not sure where to find what you're
looking for. It's a very simple search tool, divided into themes and
filters, current topics and keywords. My search on "reduce, reuse and
recycle" retrieved 100 documents including information sheets on
battery recycling and tyre recycling.
If you live in the UK and you don't know where your nearest recycling
point is, go to <http://www.recycle-more.com>, which bills itself as
the one-stop recycling information centre. Click on bank locator, type
in your postcode and a map appears with flashing red circles,
indicating where your nearest recycling point is! In its "Recycling
Specifics" section, this site has some excellent information on the
different materials that can be recycled. The sections deal with why
recycling is important, facts and useful contacts. For plastics,
there's also a useful plastics identification chart to help consumers
readily identify the different types of plastic containers.
The UK organization WRAP, the Waste and Resources Action Programme,
<http://www.wrap.org.uk> produces a number of useful market research
studies. Click on the "Procurement" tab and then choose "Market
Research" from the menu, to find out which topics WRAP has been
researching. The most recent report is about assessing the market
share of recycled content in financial services sector procurement,
which you can download for free. Use the simple search box on this
page to search for other market research studies.
In Germany, one of the major organizations concerned with recycling of
sales packaging materials is Duales System Deutschland AG, whose
trademark is the Green Dot, or Gruener Punkt
<http://www.gruener-punkt.de>. The green dot is printed on over 460
billion pieces of packaging a year and means that the manufacturer of
the packaging has already paid a licence fee for the collection,
sorting and recycling of its packaging. The website is in English as
well as German and contains some good information on why it is so
important to separate different types of materials. It also contains a
useful dictionary of recycling terms, which you can reach by clicking
on the "Dictionary" hyperlink on the home page. The Internet Eco-
Guide, which you'll find in the Eco Magazine section lists hyperlinks
to more resources, but many of these are German.
Did you know that Nike and Dell have partnerships with the US National
Recycling Coalition, a non-profit organization? Read more about
Nike's "Reuse-a-Shoe" Partnership and Dell's "No Computer Should Go To
Waste" Partnership on the NRC's website at
<http://www.nrc-recycle.org>. This website has a good resources
section, which includes hyperlinks to recycling economic information,
waste prevention tools and a professional services directory.
For recent news on the recycling industry, check out
<http://www.recyclingtoday.com>, a US portal. I read with interest
that automotive manufacturer Ford has recently signed a deal in Europe
to shred its vehicles.
Industry information
====================
Glass
-----
The Glass Packaging Institute (GPI) <http://www.gpi.org> is the voice
of the glass container industry in the USA. The institute's website
has a good section on recycling, which includes a useful "Teacher's
Guide to Glass Container Recycling". This guide is split into material
for primary and secondary schools. Many consumers will be aware that
recycling points have containers for different colours of glass. The
web pages of the GPI explain why separating the different colours is
important. Glass manufacturers need recycled glass that has been
separated by colour to ensure quality and colour consistency of new
containers.
The British Glass Manufacturers' Confederation
<http://www.britglass.org.uk> is the voice of the glass industry in
the UK. To navigate to the section on recycling, click on "Industry",
then on "Recycling". Here you'll find information on the recycling
cycle, the glass recycling code and a link to the Glass Recycling
Report 2004 in pdf format. The report underlines the fact that the
EU's directive on packaging and packaging waste requires the UK to
recycle 60% of all glass packaging by 2008. Facts and figures include
the number of tonnes of glass recycled in the UK from 1998 to 2004
and glass sector carbon dioxide reductions from 1979 to 2007.
Plastic
-------
As consumers we use plastic bottles and containers every day. Many of
these containers end up in landfill sites instead of being recycled.
To find out more about plastics recycling, a good starting point is
the Petcore website <http://www.petcore.org>. Petcore is a non-profit
European association, whose aim is to foster use and development of
PET containers and to facilitate both PET recycling and the
development of recycled end materials. Navigate to "PET and the
Environment" to find information on sorting and processing, recycled
products and the importance of upstream design. Under "PET recycling
throughout Europe", you'll find a list of plastics recovery
organizations for the major European countries. Many packaging
producers have transferred their obligation to recover and dispose of
packaging under the EU Directive 2004/12/EC to these recovery
organizations.
If your interest is the recycling of plastics found in the different
parts of cars, then check out the website of Plastics In End-Of-Life
Vehicles at <http://www.plastics-in-elv.org> This organization is a
network of stakeholders whose aim is to advance the technology and
practice of recovery and recycling of end-of-life vehicles. Click on
the "Material Recycling" hyperlink to find general and technical
papers on automotive plastics recycling. If you want to find out about
upcoming events, check out the "News and Events" web page; for example
in March 2005 the fifth international automotive recycling congress is
taking place in Amsterdam.
The UK's leading authority on plastics waste management is Recoup,
<http://www.recoup.org>. Recoup's aim is to provide expertise and
guidance across the plastics supply, use and disposal chain. The
organization has an excellent website packed with useful information,
ranging from fact sheets and technical reports, to promotional tools
and educational resources. If you're thinking about developing a
plastics collection scheme and are wondering how to go about it, then
this is the place to come.
The American Plastics Council <http://www.plasticsresource.com>
devotes a section of its website to recycling, which you can get to by
clicking on the "Recycling and Beyond" hyperlink on the home page.
Here you'll find recycling statistics and facts, as well as the 2003
national post-consumer plastics recycling report in pdf format. The
report gives detailed statistics on the state of the US plastics
recycling industry.
Aluminium
---------
Aluminium is another material that can be recycled successfully, thus
making the best use of energy and natural resources. ALUPRO, the UK
aluminium packaging recycling organization's website
<http://www.alupro.org.uk> is the place to go if you need to find out
facts and figures on aluminium recycling in the UK, or if you want to
set up a community project to collect aluminium cans as a way of
fundraising. To take an informative interactive recycling plant tour,
go to <http://www.aluminiumcanrecycling.com>, a website run by Novelis
Inc, the world's second largest aluminium company.
Rubber
------
Automotive rubber tyres are a very valuable resource because their
physical and chemical properties mean that they can be 100% recycled.
But according to ETRA, the European Tyre Recycling Association
<http://www.etra.eu.com>, over one billion post-consumer tyres, which
could otherwise be recycled, are accumulated in the world each year.
ETRA provides useful information on state of the tyre recycling
industry in its "Publications" section. Here you'll find the basic
facts about tyres, EU tyre disposal routes and a great list detailing
the various ways in which tyres can be recycled. Automotive tyres can
be used to create sea embankments, sound barriers, artificial reefs,
coastal stabilization and - the one I like best of all - antistatic
shoe soles.
Electronic parts
----------------
With new electronics products being churned out at an ever-increasing
rate, so the challenge to dispose of and recover the materials becomes
more significant. The International Association of Electronics
Recycler's website, at <http://www.iaer.org> is mainly for members, but
there's a good overview of the industry if you click on the "About
electronics recycling" hyperlink. More in-depth information on the
electronics recycling is in the association's industry report, which
can be ordered online. The monthly newsletters are free and contain
interesting tidbits on this emerging industry. For example, there's a
hyperlink to an article on eBay about the eBay initiative on recycling
and refurbishing.
On 13th February 2003, the EU WEEE Directive became law. This
directive aims to increase the recycling and recovery of waste
equipment. You'll find a pdf copy of the directive on ICER's website
at <http://www.icer.org.uk>, as well as a directory of WEEE recyclers.
ICER is the Industry Council for Electronic Equipment Recycling.
In the USA, the Electronic Industry Alliance has organized a consumer
education initiative, at <http://www.eiae.org> This is a web-based
information resource providing consumers with recycling and reuse
information for used electronics. Click on "View National Programs" to
locate schemes in different states.
Conclusion
==========
This article has only scratched the surface of recycling resources on
the internet. There are many other useful websites and portals, as
this really is a growth industry. Indeed, the OECD estimates that by
2020, we could be generating 45% more waste than we did in 1995 - a
frightening thought. If you want to get involved in recycling, start
by locating your nearest recycling point. Another good way is to buy
products that have been made from recycled materials. Check out
<http://www.recycledproducts.org.uk> for a comprehensive list. You'll
find refuse bags, greetings cards and laser printer paper, all made
from recycled materials and available for purchase through
distributors. Finally, if you have a bike you no longer need, why not
recycle it through <http://www.re-cycle.org>? This organization
collects second-hand bikes and ships them off to Africa where they are
given a new lease of life.
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Helen Clegg has over 15 years worth of research experience and has
worked for a number of international strategic management
consultancies and two European manufacturing companies. She is a
Board Member of SLA Europe and an Associate of the Chartered
Institute of Marketing.
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