December 2007

Stop Japanese whaling

I am concerned with the Japanese destruction of the whales.

Articles inform me that Japan intends to destroy 1400 whales in this whaling season (for scientific purposes). All efforts to date have failed to constrain Japanese whaling.

My suggestion is that if the Sierra Club and Greenpeace would propose to the American people that they cease buying Japanese automobiles for a period of six months, that something might be accomplished.

Such a boycott would not involved the U.S. Government. It would be done by advertising in newspapers and magazines. Such a program would be well received by most Americans who are certainly sympathetic to the whales and not at all sympathetic to the Japanese whaling industry.

—W.A. Medlen

Santa Cruz

E-waste recycling opportunity

Recently we noticed a newspaper announcement of a free drop-off for electronic waste on a Saturday in Santa Cruz. Not knowing if they would accept everything we had which we hoped to recycle rather than throw in the trash, we took it all: A non-functioning calculator, some old computer parts, a laser printer, and, particularly annoying to us, a box full of throwaway CDs, cassette tapes, and videocassettes we had accumulated over many years.

We are pleased to say that everything was accepted! We asked if this “e-waste recycling fair” would be repeated in the future. Yes, we were told, and here is the website for more information: www.noEwaste.com.

This event was held by a company based in Fremont by the name of Electronic Waste Management. (We have no other knowledge of, or any financial interest in, this company.) At that website, anyone can request e-mail notification of future free electronic waste recycling events in your local area. We already knew that the City of Santa Cruz conducts occasional pickups for recycling of certain kinds of electronic waste, but it’s good to know that all the old CDs and cassettes can be recycled too, and we would encourage everyone to do so rather than throw them in the trash.

—Jeff Alford and Brenda Barcelo

Santa Cruz

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