Buying Recycled


Stimulating the supply of recycled materials and demand for recycled products are essential to economizing. Today’s volatile materials markets require that we make a commitment to purchase products made from recycled goods that would otherwise be thrown away.

The increases in recycling rates across the United States have slowed and in some cases the rates have declined. There are many reasons for the plateaus and declines – the booming economy (use of consumer goods is increasing faster than recycling rates), satisfaction with existing recycling programs and the fact that we are recycling most of the easier materials to recycle.

In order to increase these rates, there must be an increased demand for products made from recyclable materials. Merely collecting recyclables is not recycling. Recycling does not occur until a product made from recycled materials is purchased and used by a consumer. Therefore, governments, businesses, institutions and consumers must increase their use of recycled products.

Industry has invested billions of dollars in the recycling infrastructure – collection vehicles, processing equipment, and manufacturing technology. In order for recycling to increase, there must be consistent, long-term demand for recycled products to spur additional investment.

Recycled products are usually identical to new ones. In most cases recycled goods are equal in quality, availability, performance, appearance and price to their virgin counterparts. Also, we provide substantial tax credits to extracting virgin resources and buying recycled goods can help level the playing field. Recycling is more efficient than disposal since we want to save resources for future generations.

Buying recycled products provides many benefits:

· increased demand for recyclables

· less materials requiring disposal

· energy and resource conservation

· economic development and job creation

· long-term cost savings (as we buy more recycled products, economy of scale improves and prices decline)

There are many programs across the country that are helping to spread the buy recycled message. Some of these programs are detailed below.

Federal Government

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has developed guidelines for 54 categories of recycled products. These guidelines include minimum content standards for recycled products.

The Office of the Federal Environmental Executive works with federal agencies to ensure that the agencies are buying recycled products, recycling and reducing waste. Under a recent Executive Order, federal agencies are required to buy recycled paper containing a minimum of 30 percent post-consumer material. The order also provides programs for environmentally preferable and bio-based products.

State and Local Governments

All 50 states, the District of Columbia and at least 500 local governments have policies or programs to buy recycled products. Massachusetts and King County, Washington are recognized leaders for buying a variety of products, large volume purchases and excellent record keeping and reporting. Both governments have representatives in their purchasing office who focus on recycled and environmentally preferable products.

Private Sector Programs

The Buy Recycled Business Alliance, a partnership of the National Recycling Coalition, encourages business to increase purchases of recycled products through education and leadership by example. The Alliance reports that businesses purchase more than $10 billion in recycled products each year.

Organizations such as the Recycled Paper Coalition and the Recycled Products Purchasing Cooperative have developed cooperative purchasing programs for businesses. These programs increase the volume of recycled paper used by reducing unit costs.

Consumer Programs

Several organizations in the U.S., including Pennsylvania, South Carolina and King County, Washington have developed programs to encourage consumers to buy recycled products. They use a variety of techniques, including radio and TV spots, programs at garden shows and other events, and distributing a variety of demonstration products made with recycled content.

Key Elements in Buying Recycled Products

Listed below are some of the important elements in establishing quality buy recycled programs:

Commitment - Agencies must make a commitment to buying recycled products. The commitment must begin with the organization's CEO, and must also include buyers, recycling coordinators and using agencies.

Variety of Recycled Products - There are a wide variety of recycled products available for offices, vehicles, buildings and other uses made from paper, plastic, metals, oil, rubber and other materials.

Price, Quality and Availability - Recycled products will be bought and used if they are cost competitive, meet the users’ needs and are readily available. Organizations should buy the largest quantity of recycled materials possible (to reduce unit costs) and have the maximum number of vendors (to increase competition).

Ask - The customer must request recycled products from manufacturers and vendors.

Specifications - Organizations need to change specifications for recycled products to eliminate barriers to using the products and providing incentives. This includes the highest minimum content standard and performance criteria that do not discriminate against recycled products.

Testing - Recycled products must be tested so that buyers and users will be comfortable that the products are high quality items that will meet their intended end use.

Contractors and Grantees - Organizations need to include clauses to use recycled products in contracts such as printing, janitorial services, building construction and road construction.

Cooperative Purchasing - By buying products cooperatively (both within the organization and in cooperation with other organizations), unit prices for recycled products will be reduced.

Closed Loop Recycling - Buy recycled programs must be coordinated with existing collection efforts so that, where possible, the organization is buying products manufactured from the recycled raw materials.

Waste Prevention - Organizations must not limit themselves to buying products with recycled content. They should also buy environmentally preferable products - products that are recyclable, more durable, reusable, use less energy, have less toxic materials, and have less packaging and waste. This is the next frontier in economical purchasing.

Record Keeping and Evaluation - Agencies need to keep good records on their purchases of recycled products to provide reports to their supervisors and customers, to share information on successes and to provide baseline data to evaluate the program and determine ways to improve it.

Conclusion

Just a modest procurement effort by the public sector to buy recycled could have a significant effect on the market. Governments in the U.S. -- federal, state, and local – together spend more than a trillion dollars of taxpayers' money per year or 1/6 of total U.S. Gross National Product.[1] If the private sector and consumers also increased their use of recycled products, the market development and other benefits could be substantial.

We all have a responsibility to use materials wisely and limit the volume of material going to disposal. Collecting recyclables is not enough. We must use our vast purchasing power to expand markets for recyclables. It is time to buy and use recycled products.


[1] Rachel’s Environment and Health Weekly #694---April 27, 2000

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