x-/EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Solid Waste and
Emergency Response
(5305)
Office of Solid Waste
Environmental
Fact Sheet
EPA Issues Comprehensive
Procurement Guideline
EPA530-F-95-010
April 1995
As part of its continuing
program to promote the use of
recovered materials, the
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) issued the "Comprehensive
Guideline for Procurement of
Products Containing Recovered
Materials" (CPG) (60 FR 21370)
and its companion piece, the
"Recovered Materials Advisory
Notice" (RMAN) (60 FR 21386), on
May 1, 1995. The CPG designates
24 recycled-content products in
seven product categories for which
government procuring agencies
need to develop affirmative
procurement programs.
The RMAN provides
recommendations for purchasing
the products designated in the
CPG. Through use of these
guidelines, the federal government
hopes to expand its use of
products with recovered materials,
and to help develop markets for
them in other sectors of the
economy.
Categories and Designated Items
Paper and Paper Products*
Vehicular Products
Engine Coolants
Re-refined Lubricating Oils*
Retread Tires*
Construction Products
Structural Fiberboard
Laminated Paperboard
Carpet
Floor Tiles
Patio Blocks
Building Insulation Products*
Cement and Concrete Containing
Coal Fly Ash*
Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag
Consolidated from previously issued guidelines.
Transportation Products
Traffic Cones
Traffic Barricades
Park and Recreation Products
Playground Surfaces
Running Tracks
Landscaping Products
Hydraulic Mulch
Yard Trimmings Compost
Non-paper Office Products
Office Recycling Containers
Office Waste Receptacles
Plastic Desktop Accessories
Toner Cartridges
Binders
Plastic Trash Bags
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In Section 6002 of the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act
(RCRA), Congress directed
government agencies to promote
recycling by increasing their
purchases of products containing
recovered materials. RCRA
requires EPA to designate products
that can be made with recovered
materials and to recommend
practices for buying these
products. Once a product is
designated, procuring agencies are
required to purchase it with the
highest recovered material content
level practicable. By 1989, EPA
had designated five products or
product categories: cement and
concrete containing coal fly ash;
paper and paper products; re-
refined lubricating oils; retread
tires; and building insulation
products.
President Clinton further
addressed the need to develop
markets for recovered materials
when he signed Executive Order
12873 on October 20, 1993. The
Executive Order calls for an
expedited process to increase the
federal government's use of
recycled-content products,
including the publication of a
Comprehensive Procurement
Guideline and a Recovered
Materials Advisory Notice. The
CPG designates products that
government agencies must buy
containing recovered materials,
while the RMAN recommends
procurement practices, including
levels of recovered materials that
should be in those products,
where appropriate. EPA used this
process to issue the CPG, which
designates 19 new products and
combines them with the five
existing product designations. The
CPG will be codified in a new Part
247 in Title 40 of the Code of
Federal Regulations.
To Whom Does the CPG
Apply?
Under RCRA, the requirement
to purchase an EPA-designated
product containing recovered
materials applies to procuring
agencies that spend more than
$10,000 a year on that item. What
is a "procuring agency"? It is any
federal, state or local agency using
appropriated federal funds, or
government contractor. For
example, if a county agency
spends more than $10,000 a year
on carpet, and part of that money
is from appropriated federal funds,
then the agency must purchase
carpet made from recovered
materials. The buy-recycled
requirement does not include
purchases that are unrelated or
incidental to the purpose of federal
funding, however.
What Is an Affirmative
Procurement Program?
A key to the success of the
Comprehensive Procurement
Guideline and the effort to expand
the use of recovered materials is
the development of affirmative
procurement programs. As
described in RCRA section 6002
and Executive Order 12873, an
affirmative procurement program
is an agency's strategy for
maximizing its purchases of
products designated by EPA.
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Within one year after EPA
designates a product, RCRA
Section 6002 specifies that
procuring agencies must establish
an affirmative procurement
program for that item. In addition,
federal agencies must revise their
specifications to require the use of
recovered materials to the
maximum extent possible without
jeopardizing the intended end-use
of the product. EPA recommends
that each procuring agency
develop one overall affirmative
procurement program that
identifies which designated
products that agency purchases
and provides for the incorporation
of new products that are
designated by EPA in the future.
RCRA requires that an
affirmative procurement program
consist of four components:
• a recovered materials
preference program;
• an agency promotion
program;
• a program for requiring
vendors to estimate and
certify the recovered
materials content of their
product and for
reasonably verifying the
estimates and
certifications; and
• a program to monitor and
annually review the
effectiveness of the
affirmative procurement
program.
Preference Program
A preference program is the
system by which a procuring
agency implements its stated
"preference" for purchasing
products containing recovered
materials. The statute provides
the following three options for a
preference program:
Minimum Content Standards.
For each designated product, a
procuring agency must establish
its own standards for the
minimum recovered materials
content of that product. EPA's
recommendations for these
content levels are found in the
Recovered Materials Advisory
Notice.
Case-by-case Policy
Development When a procuring
agency determines that its
minimum content standard is
inappropriate for a specific
procurement action, it should
pursue a case-by-case approach to
purchasing the designated product
with the highest amount of
recovered materials practicable.
This option allows the procuring
agency to establish a separate
recovered materials content
requirement for the specific
procurement action, while still
enabling the agency to procure the
designated product with the
highest amount of recovered
materials practicable.
Substantially Equivalent
Alternative. When minimum
content standards are
inappropriate, a procuring agency
should pursue alternative
approaches, such as establishing a
service contract for
remanufacturing or reconditioning
the designated product.
Promotion Program
Active promotion of "buying
recycled" is another important part
of a successful affirmative
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procurement program. Procuring
agencies are required to actively
promote their desire to buy
recycled products. EPA
recommends that agencies
promote their affirmative
procurement programs both within
the agency and externally to
product vendors. Internal
promotion may consist of
initiatives such as wide
distribution of copies of an
agency's affirmative procurement
policy, articles in agency
newsletters, and workshops to
educate employees. Examples of
external promotion are publishing
articles in trade journals,
participating in vendor shows and
trade fairs, placing statements in
solicitations, and discussing an
agency's affirmative procurement
program at bidders' conferences.
Estimation, Certification and
Verification Program
Procuring agencies must also
establish procedures for obtaining
estimates and certifications, and,
where appropriate, reasonably
verifying the amount of recovered
materials content utilized in the
performance of a contract.
Procedures to Monitor and
Review the Procurement
Program
Agencies also must monitor their
affirmative procurement programs
to ensure that they are fulfilling
their requirements to purchase
items composed of recovered
materials. In addition, Executive
Order 12873 requires the
Environmental Executive of each
federal agency to track and report
on agency purchases of designated
items.
When May an Agency
Purchase Items That Do Not
Contain Recovered Materials?
Procuring agencies may choose
riot to purchase a guideline item
containing recovered materials if:
the item's price is unreasonable;
there is inadequate competition;
unusual and unreasonable delays
result from obtaining the
designated item; or the item does
riot meet the agency's reasonable
performance specifications.
For More Information
The Federal Register notices
and this Fact Sheet are available
in electronic format through EPA's
Public Access Server at
gopher.epa.gov. For the text of
the FR notices, choose: Rales,
Regulations, and Legislation, then,
Waste Programs/EPA Waste
Information-GPO; finally, Year/
Month/Date. This Fact Sheet and
the Supporting Analyses
documents for these actions are
available under: EPA Offices and
Regions/Office of Solid Waste and
Emergency Response (OSWER)/
Office of Solid Waste/
Nonhazardous Waste/
Procurement/ General
For additional information on
these notices, please call the RCRA
hotline at 1-800-424-9346 or TDD
1-800-553-7672 (hearing
impaired).
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