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September 1996
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Program
A Study of State and Local
Government Procurement
Practices that Consider
Environmental Performance of
Goods and Services
' Printed on paper that contains at least 20 percent postconsumer fiber.
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A Study of State and Local Government Procurement Practices
that Consider Environmental Performance of Goods and Services
September 30, 1996
prepared for:
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Program
Pollution Prevention Division
Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
401 M Street, SW
Washington DC 20460
(202) 260-4164
prepared by:
Abt Associates Inc.
55 Wheeler Street
Cambridge MA 02138
EPA Contract No. 68-D2-0175
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Table of Contents
L Introduction 1
n. Summary of Important Program Elements 3
Program Histories and the Procurement Process 3
Implementation: Command & Control vs. Education & Partnerships 4
Personal Commitment and Leadership Roles 7
Information Systems and Electronic Procurement 8
Testing of Recycled Products and Other Products with Lesser
Environmental Impacts 10
Mainstream Products 10
Successes 10
Barriers H
Incentives for Improvement 13
New Directions: Future Outlook of Environmental Procurement 13
ffl. States 15
Maine 17
Minnesota 23
Washington 29
Wisconsin 35
IV. Counties • 43
King County, Washington 45
San Diego County 53
Interviewee Contact Information 61
Appendix A: Questionnaire for Selecting Interviewees A-l
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I. Introduction
A number of state and local governments actively consider environmental performance of
goods and services in their procurement practices. For the purposes of this study, the
terms "environmentally conscious procurement" and "environmentally conscious
purchasing" refer to these procurement practices. EPA undertook this study of selected
state and local governments to gain insights from such programs on options for effectively
including environmental performance considerations into federal acquisition efforts and
thereby meeting the goals of E.O. 12873. This study also serves to encourage the
exchange of information between EPA and state and local governments and ultimately to
identify opportunities for assisting each other in procuring environmentally preferable
products and services.
Because the goal of this project was to understand more completely the issues and
processes underlying environmentally conscious procurement, we focused our research on
a small number of purchasing agencies that were at least moderately active in the realm of
environmentally conscious procurement. In order to gather data at the level of detail
required for this report, we undertook a series of in-person interviews, conducted on-site
at the offices of the purchasing agents. Past experience from the Massachusetts EPP
project1 suggested that detailed and comprehensive program information is often difficult
to communicate over the telephone or in writing. In addition to collecting facts, the in-
person interviews allowed researchers to observe the procurement process at work,
including the less tangible aspects, such as interactions among employees, facilities and
equipment, and level of organization.
To choose the agencies to be interviewed, procurement officials in states and counties that
had active environmentally conscious procurement programs were faxed a brief
questionnaire (see Appendix) which requested a small amount of program information and
asked whether they would be interested in participating in the project. In addition, an
attempt was made to gather information from purchasing agencies with different attitudes
and philosophies on environmentally conscious purchasing. From the responses to the
questionnaire, and project resource limitations, six states and counties were chosen to
participate:
• State of Maine,
• State of Wisconsin,
• State of Minnesota,
• State of Washington,
• King County, Washington, and
• San Diego County, California.
1 Abt Associates Inc., 1995. "Procurement of Environmentally Preferable Products: A Review of Current
Practices," prepared for The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Procurement and General
Services, Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, and Department of Environmental Protection, June 1995.
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For each of the six state and county purchasing agencies covered in this study, Abt
Associates staff interviewed the person or persons most knowledgeable about the
organization's efforts to procure products and services with lesser environmental impacts.
Abt Associates determined when procurement practices came into existence, the rationale
behind these practices, what factors encouraged or would have further encouraged
practice development, difficulties encountered in practice development both within and
outside of the organization, program successes, and future plans.
It should be noted that exclusion of a purchasing agency from this report is not intended to
make any kind of statement or judgment on its activities vis a vis environmentally
conscious procurement. Similarly, inclusion in this report does not necessarily imply that
these state and county purchasing agencies are more active in this arena than any of the
hundreds of other purchasing agencies around the US. A number of factors, including time
and availability of resources, were involved in deciding which agencies were to be
interviewed. Nevertheless, the fact that each of these agencies agreed to meet with us
suggests that they are committed to furthering the cause of environmentally conscious
procurement.
Under EPA's direction, a more detailed list of questions was developed, which formed the
basis of the discussion guides used during the interviews. Aside from the Maine interview,
which was conducted approximately two weeks before the others, all of the interviews
were completed within the space of a week in mid-December 1995. Follow-up calls were
made in February and June of 1996 to gather further detail about particular components of
purchasing agency activities.
The report is organized into a summary and six sesparate case studies. The main body of
research is summarized, which identifies commonalities as well as differences among the
six purchasing agencies, according to the following broad topics: 1) the history of its
environmentally conscious procurement initiatives, 2) the procurement process and how it
relates to recycled products and other products with lesser environmental impacts, 3) the
agency's information systems, 4) successes, 5) barriers to environmentally conscious
procurement, and 6) the future plans of the agency with respect to recycled products and
other products with lesser environmental impacts. For each purchasing agency included in
the report, the case study provides greater program-specific detail.
The agencies with whom we conducted the interviews all demonstrated a significant level
of commitment to buying recycled content products. It should be noted, however, that
while the scope of the initial research included many types of products, all of the agencies
interviewed are currently interested mainly in recycled content products, almost to the
exclusion of other issues such as energy efficiency or source reduction. The content of the
report reflects these programs' emphasis on recycled content products.
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n. Summary of Important Program Elements
Interest in environmentally conscious procurement is growing among purchasing agencies
in state and local governments, particularly with respect to recycled content products. This
enthusiasm appears to stem from several sources, including public and legislative attention
toward environmental issues, personal commitment of staff to making an environmental
contribution, and the increasing availability of a wide range of high quality recycled
content products at competitive prices.
To gain insights from the experiences of these purchasing agencies, EPA undertook this
study of selected state and local governments and their environmentally conscious
procurement programs, including the States of Maine, Minnesota, Washington, and
Wisconsin, and the Counties of King County, Washington and SaiiTJiego, California. EPA
is examining these programs to assess options for effectively including environmental
performance considerations into federal acquisition efforts and thereby meeting the goals
of Executive Order 12873. This study should also serve to encourage the exchange of
information between EPA and state and local governments and ultimately identify
opportunities for assisting each other in procuring environmentally preferable products and
services.
The agencies interviewed all expressed commitment to buying recycled content products.
This commitment varied among agencies from an interest in complying with state
recycling legislation to a strong desire to drive policy by purchasing recycled products. It
should be noted here that while the scope of our initial research included many types of
products, we found that agencies are mainly interested in recycled content, almost to the
exclusion of other issues such as energy efficiency or source reduction. When asked about
other environmental criteria or multiple environmental criteria, most of the interviewees
stated that their programs had not yet reached the level of sophistication to assess multiple
criteria. The content of this report reflects this emphasis on recycled product products.
For each purchasing agency, its case study outlines the history of its recycled product
procurement initiatives, the procurement process and how it relates to recycled products
and other products with lesser environmental impacts, the agency's information systems,
successes, barriers to environmentally conscious procurement, and the future plans of the
agency with respect to recycled content products and other products with lesser
environmental impacts.
Program Histories and the Procurement Process
Although some states made efforts to procure products with lesser environmental impacts
as far back as the mid-1970s, interest in recycled products procurement picked up
significantly in the late 1980s and early 1990s. All of the interviewed programs cited
legislative action for the reduction of solid waste as the primary impetus for creation of
recycled product procurement initiatives. Generally, the reasoning provided was that
purchasing of recycled products helps to stimulate the market for the inputs required to
manufacture recycled products. When more of these inputs are diverted from the waste
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stream to recycled products manufacturing, demand for waste management (e.g., landfills)
is alleviated to a degree.
Most of the agencies interviewed noted that state and county purchases usually take three
forms: direct commodity purchasing, professional services (contractors such as
consultants and construction companies), and delegated authority, whereby customer
agencies procure smaller quantities of goods on their own. Not surprisingly, each of the
interviewed purchasing agencies has its own individual mix of these procurement methods,
with some maintaining centralized control of most state purchases and others delegating
much of the purchasing authority to its customer agencies.
Centralized vs. decentralized purchasing
The degree to which the purchasing process is centralized or decentralized is important to
consider because it can affect the amount of control a purchasing agency has over the
types of commodities purchased. In a centralized arrangement, most purchase requisitions
are first channeled through the purchasing agency, which then conducts the actual
transactions with suppliers. In some cases, the purchasing agency also maintains a Central
Store designed to warehouse large quantities of goods and then distribute them to
customer agencies. Maine is an example of a fairly centralized purchasing system, where
all state agency procurement except for spot purchases under $1,000 must be conducted
through the Division of Purchases.
When procurement is decentralized, purchases are delivered directly to the customer
agency by the supplier. Even when state contracts are available, customer agencies in a
decentralized arrangement have more autonomy to buy at their own discretion. One result
of this independence is the diminished ability of the purchasing agency to influence
customer agencies to buy products with lesser environmental impacts. Wisconsin's
purchasing system, for example, is decentralized to a significant degree, in that many
agencies do not buy through the purchasing agency. The University of Wisconsin handles
its own purchasing, which comprises approximately one half of the total state
procurement. Half of Wisconsin's procurement is, therefore, out .of the control of the
purchasing agency. However, one potential advantage to a decentralized system that was
not observed in this study is that customer agencies have more authority to consider
environmental performance of products and services.
Implementation: Command & Control vs. Education & Partnerships
The procurement agencies in this study lie along a continuum with respect to the amount
of control they retain for themselves and the flexibility they afford their customer agencies
when purchasing products with lesser environmental impacts. Examining the methods
through which policy is implemented is useful because some observations can be made
about the different conceptual approaches employed by purchasing agencies. Broadly
stated, the continuum can be described by the "command & control" approach on one end,
and the "education and partnerships" approach on the other.
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Command & control
Although purchasing agencies exist to facilitate the procurement of goods desired by
customers, they nevertheless can exert a significant influence on the purchases of their
customers through defining the universe of available goods. The more customers depend
on the purchasing agency to provide them with the goods they need, the more power the
purchasing agency has to introduce, encourage, and in some instances, ensure the
purchase of products with lesser environmental impacts. In this type of organizational
structure, one way the purchasing agency can increase procurement of products with
lesser environmental impacts is simply by offering such products as the only options for
given product categories. For example, because Washington state can obtain recycled
content file folders of quality comparable to virgin at a competitive price, it no longer
includes them in their catalog.
Of the agencies interviewed, San Diego County's purchasing philosophy perhaps lies
closest to the command & control end of the continuum. San Diego has developed a
computerized requisitioning system which guides customers to purchase a recycled
product if it has been deemed a suitable substitute for a virgin product. In taking this
approach, San Diego ensures that agencies will comply with County policy, which requires
the purchase of recycled products if they meet the price preference criterion.
Because San Diego's approach to recycled product procurement is a new one, it will be
some time before the effectiveness of "command and control" can be gauged. The
advantages of centralized programs would likely be strong enforcement of mandates and
relatively quick progress in enhancing environmentally conscious1 procurement. In this
case, the speed of progress in environmentally conscious procurement would be limited
only by the speed with which the purchasing agency can successfully identify products
which are suitable substitutes. Another potential benefit to this type of approach is that it
gets people to try products that they otherwise might not due to misperceptions about
products with lesser environmental impacts.
One potential drawback, however, is that agencies may feel excluded from the decision
making process and will not cooperate fully with Purchasing. It also places the credibility
of the purchasing agency at some risk if a recycled product chosen as a substitute for a
conventional product turns out to be unsatisfactory.
Education & partnerships
On the other end of the continuum lies King County, Washington, which takes special care
to allow agencies to choose specific products for purchase. The recycled product
coordinators, while hired by the Purchasing agency, act mainly as educators and
information sources for agencies interested in buying products with lesser environmental
impacts. Because the coordinators contribute their efforts near the end of the procurement
process (usually after purchase decisions have already been made), it is difficult for them
to affect current purchasing requisitions coming down the pipe. Instead, by expanding and
educating their network of contacts within customer agencies, King County Purchasing
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hopes to influence the procurement process in a more indirect way than San Diego. If they
find that a customer has chosen a virgin product over a suitable, cost-competitive recycled
content product, one of the coordinators may initiate a dialogue with the customer to try
to determine why the recycled product was passed over, and to educate them on the
benefits of the recycled product.
This approach is conducive to the development of partnerships between purchasing and
customer agencies, which in turn can lead to an overall increase in awareness and
enthusiasm for environmentally conscious procurement throughout customer agencies.
Because customers ultimately need to accept products with lesser environmental impacts
in order to maintain a successful program, good working relationships between purchasing
and its customers are exceedingly important. However, because change in institutional and
organizational cultures can be slow, valuable opportunities and easy wins may be missed in
the meantime.
Jurisdiction
Another issue to be considered in this discussion is the amount of jurisdiction a purchasing
agency has over certain types of procurement. As discussed above, there are three basic
forms of procurement, including direct procurement, contracted services, and delegated
authority. Li the latter two types of procurement, purchasing agencies do not execute
actual purchasing and thus have relatively less influence on decisions made by customers.
Encouraging environmentally conscious procurement in cases where the purchasing
agency cannot exert direct control on what gets purchased can be a complex and difficult
problem. For example, when a construction company is contracted to build a new
auditorium for a high school, it is hired not only to drive nails, apply mortar to bricks, and
paint walls, but also to use their best professional judgment in obtaining the best materials
for the job. A purchasing agency attempting to intervene by suggesting the use of
environmentally preferable building materials runs the double risk of encountering
resistance from the contractor, and accepting liability for the potential failure of the
selected products. In such a situation, educating the agency managers overseeing the
project and providing resources about products with lesser environmental impacts to them
may be the only feasible method of influencing decisions about which materials to buy.
A similar argument for education applies for the issue of delegated authority procurement,
in which a customer agency is allowed to purchase a limited amount of goods independent
of the purchasing agency. Again, because the purchasing agency cannot directly affect the
outcome of the customer agencies' purchasing decisions, the method most likely to be
effective involves educating customers to understand the advantages of products with
lesser environmental impacts and to preferentially choose them when they are of suitable
quality and price.
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Personal Commitment and Leadership Roles
In the course of our research, we found that one of the most important factors for the
success of a recycled products procurement program is the enthusiasm and commitment of
the person or persons in charge of the program. Although the proper organizational
structure and legislative mandate are important for encouraging progress in recycled
products procurement, shortcomings in either of these areas can often be offset by the
leadership of a purchasing official personally committed to recycled products. These
persons, through their contacts, ideas, and own initiative, are often the real drivers of the
programs. If the chiefs of these agencies are committed to recycled products, they set a
tone and goals for the whole agency.
Personal commitment to environmentally conscious procurement is important for two
reasons. First, it is vital that someone play the role of visionary, a person who sets the
standard for thinking about environmentally conscious procurement within a particular
agency or organization. Second, because the concept of environmentally conscious
purchasing is still a relatively new one, progress is not made simply by following the letter
of the law. It also requires a certain initiative on the part of the leader to take all routes,
through both official and unofficial channels, in order to produce results.
Taking the initiative
Although legislation mandating the purchase of recycled materials and other products with
lesser environmental impacts often does exist, how to implement the mandate is not
always outlined clearly. In most of the states and counties contacted, the structure through
which decisions about environmentally conscious procurement are made is not well
defined; decisions are often made in an ad hoc manner. In a system requiring careful
coordination of the environmental and performance considerations as well as the wants
and needs of vendors and customers, the success of the mandate implementation can
depend greatly upon the initiative of those persons responsible for managing
environmentally conscious purchasing.
Instituting responsibility and leadership: Environmentally conscious procurement
coordinators
Another issue that came up in several discussions was the question of whether there
should be a person or persons designated to manage and encourage environmentally
conscious procurement. In most cases, the answer to this question was a clear "yes."
Designating a coordinator appears to be important because the task of implementing an
environmentally conscious procurement program can be overwhelming for a purchasing
agency with an already-full taskload. In addition, giving the responsibility of
environmentally conscious procurement to one or two people may help to concentrate
incoming and outgoing information into a "goto" source who will, over time, develop
expertise on the various issues related to products with lesser environmental impacts.
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There are different opinions as to which agency or department such a coordinator should
be located. For example, the King County Recycled Product Program Coordinators took
the view that working in the Purchasing Agency itself was the optimal placement. A
number of other states apparently agree, as coordinators are also placed in their state
purchasing agencies. These states include Wisconsin and Massachusetts (not covered in
this report). On the other hand, San Diego County mentioned that having a contact person
outside of the purchasing agency could be helpful in avoiding conflicts between purchasing
and other county agencies.
Information Systems and Electronic Procurement
Information systems are important components in a procurement program, and have the
potential to play important roles in encouraging environmentally conscious procurement.
Information systems can assist in the mechanics of procurement by automating labor
intensive tasks and by providing an efficient and accurate means of record keeping.
Examples of such information systems include computerized buying and requisitioning,
supplier databases, automated purchasing tracking, as well as educational resources (e.g.,
Internet web sites) and systems that notify users of existing product alternatives.
Information systems can provide tangible success measures by tracking total
environmentally conscious purchases in terms of dollars or volume of goods. In addition,
they allow for the two-way transmission of procurement information, with the customer
receiving product information and the purchasing agency receiving data on the purchasing
behavior of its customers.
It is interesting to note that many purchasing agencies cannot or do not track their
purchases because of limited computing resources. Often their information systems are
insufficient to handle what are typically large amounts of information, and sometimes their
methods of data management are not computerized at all. For example, because Maine's
procurement system is not automated, tracking of actual purchases is difficult. Because of
the relatively small size of the state, however, Maine can track recycled product purchases
manually with the aid of a spreadsheet program. This method clearly would be less feasible
or impossible for larger state governments.
Electronic procurement
The San Diego County Department of Purchasing and Contracts (DPC) is investing a
considerable amount of effort and resources to develop their electronic procurement
system. The system will utilize a "County Commodity Catalog" that may not only reduce
paper use and increase efficiency, but also promote environmentally conscious
purchasing. When fully implemented, the system will allow any authorized requisitioner in
any County agency to get on-line and requisition products and supplies from Purchasing.
In line with San Diego's philosophy of "pushing the curve" on environmentally conscious
procurement, the Catalog will direct users to "follow County policy" and purchase a
recycled product if it has been determined to be a suitable substitute for the desired
conventional product. By prompting the user in this way, the Catalog may help to increase
the number of recycled products purchased within the County government.
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The Internet
In the near future, the Internet will be of immense value for purchasing agencies because
of its ability to disseminate information instantly around the world and facilitate a global
bidding system. Providing information electronically also allows agencies to cut paper and
printing costs for items such as supply contracts and policy statements. Although the
number of people with access to the Internet is still relatively small, the on-line population
is growing at an explosive rate. Most federal agencies have established a presence on the
Internet, as have many state and county agencies.
King County has set up a World Wide Web site devoted to their Recycled Products
Procurement Program. The original impetus for developing the Web site was a mandate to
provide information to County agencies and citizens about recycled products. King
County found that one of the great advantages of the Web site is that it just as easily
makes information available for anyone around the world as it does for those within the
County. Included on the site are the program's annual reports, supply contracts, product
specifications, County policies, agency initiatives, and other information relevant to
recycled products. King County relates that their Web site has proven to be a useful public
relations vehicle, providing a cost-effective method for releasing large amounts of
information to the public.
As the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) globalizes commodity markets,
the Internet will likely play an increasingly large role in the transmission of bids and other
purchasing information. Some states, such as Wisconsin, are planning to advertise
internationally for bids over a certain dollar threshold. The Internet has the potential to
speed up the international bidding process by distributing bid information instantaneously
around the world. The increased speed of communication may also help in increasing the
variety of products available to customers.
Measures of success
One of the advantages to having an automated procurement system is that it allows for
automatic tracking of purchases, and recycled product purchases in particular. Many of
the states and counties we visited considered the following as reasonable measures for
success of an recycled product program: the volume of recycled products, dollars spent on
recycled products, or the ratio of recycled products purchased to total purchases. These
are all measures that can be more easily tracked using a system through which this
information already flows, compared to manual tracking or asking suppliers to keep
records of sales to the state or county.
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Testing of Recycled Products and Other Products with Lesser Environmental
Impacts
Testing of the validity of vendor environmental claims simply does not occur. However,
some purchasing agencies have engaged in limited performance testing of products with
lesser environmental impacts, to determine whether they matched the quality of
"conventional" products. For example, Wisconsin commissioned a study of several
recycled papers, which included running large quantities of recycled content paper through
different types of printers and copiers to determine the best performance among products.
Mainstreaming Products
Several of the parties interviewed mentioned that ideally, procurement of recycled
products would be the rule rather than the exception. Recycled products that have
achieved this status are said to be "mainstreamed." Copier paper with recycled content is
the only product purchased by all of the interviewed purchasing agencies, and is on the
verge of becoming the first commodity to be mainstreamed. Of course, many
"conventional" products that already contain a substantial amount of recycled material
such as steel or glass have been mainstreamed for some time. King County pointed out
that other commodities had high mainstreaming potential, including re-refined motor oil,
retreaded tires, recycled concrete aggregate, recycled groundwood waste, and recycled
glass aggregate.
Successes
We found that assessing the success of a program was a difficult task. There are many
possible criteria to base a program assessment, however, data are not always easily
obtainable. For the most part, interviewees described success of their program in terms of
amount of recycled products purchased, and occasionally, in terms of attitude changes of
their customers toward recycled products. However, variables such as the size of a state
or county, overall budgets, and the different ways purchases are tracked made it
impossible to draw any fair conclusions from inter-program comparisons. Nevertheless,
some examples of what the programs themselves considered successes are presented
below.
Wisconsin reports that it has been successful in encouraging agencies to increase their
recycled content paper purchases. The overall statewide percentage of recycled fibers
purchased in 1995 was 49% of the total, and of the reporting agencies, over half comply
with the 40% minimum required by Act 335. King County also has made substantial
progress in its recycled paper procurement. Currently, over 90% of paper products
purchased have recycled content. The majority of the photocopy paper purchased
contained 25% or 35% post-consumer waste, exceeding EPA's 10% standard and
President Clinton's Executive Order standard of 20%. San Diego County reports
successes with re-refined motor oil, and spent approximately $625,000 on re-refined oil in
1994, compared to only $52,000 in 1993.
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Minnesota reports that one of the greatest successes of its program is the part it has
played in altering customers' perceptions of recycled goods. Resistant even to the idea of
recycled products in the past, agencies are now more receptive of recycled products. For
example, agencies are now much more accepting of retreaded tires, and no longer pin
responsibility for a blown tire on the tire's recycled content.
Washington State is currently purchasing recycled products which greatly exceed the
recycled content specifications in EPA's Comprehensive Product Guidelines, although no
data are available as to the amount of various types of recycled products purchased by
agencies. Several contract products, such as file folders, are available as recycled only.
Maine reports that it introduced copier paper with recycled content to nearly 700 copiers
in the state offices. By furnishing this paper "without fanfare," the Division of Purchases
claims that it was able to avoid "potential 'perceived' operational difficulties." For the
years covered in the report (1993 and 1994), Maine has had "no substantiated
performance difficulties linked to the recycled content of the paper."
Barriers
The main barriers to environmentally conscious procurement, as related to us by the
interviewees, include product quality, availability, and price issues; communication
difficulties between the procurement agency and customers; the decentralization of
purchasing; and the lack of Environmental Protection Agency guidance. Each of these
barriers is discussed in further detail below.
Product quality, availability and price
Perhaps the most important barrier to recycled product procurement remains the higher
price of recycled content products. The cost of recycled paper remains a problem, even
though many purchasing agencies procure it in large volumes. For example, San Diego
County related that if their only tool for buying recycled paper was their 5% price
preference, they would be buying all virgin stock. Customer demand for recycled paper
allows them to purchase recycled paper even when its price is considerably higher than the
price preference allows.
According to the interviewees, product supply problems and the costs of collecting,
processing, and transporting the inputs for recycled paper manufacturing combine to keep
prices high. Another reason mentioned by several of the interviewees was that some of the
costs are artificially inflated, caused in part by the price preference, which allows suppliers
to sell their products at a higher price. As an example, Wisconsin observed instances
during a period when the cost of inputs (i.e., waste paper) decreased while the cost of
recycled content paper actually increased with the rising prices of virgin paper.
On the other hand, Maine reported that it was unable to meet its purchasing goal for
recycled paper in 1993/94 because the state legislature suspended the 10% price
preference. Maine's 1994 report on recycled product procurement suggested that the
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elimination of the price preference "had an obvious impact" on the Division's failure to
meet the mandated goal, and that "in tight budget times, the balance is delicate."
In some cases, recycled content products do not meet the needs of the user due to poor
performance or product unavailability. For example, King County and San Diego County
both experienced significant performance problems with the first recycled toner cartridges
they purchased, although those problems have since been resolved. Also, King County's
use of recycled glass aggregate for surfacing is sometimes restricted due to the fluctuating
supply of recycled glass.
Another barrier to environmental purchasing is concern about health and safety during
product use. For example, because the Federal Government does not recommend the use
of retreaded tires on steering axles of vehicles due to safety concerns, Minnesota is wary
of them and purchases retreads infrequently, and never uses them on emergency vehicles.
Wisconsin also expressed concerns about the safety and reliability of retreaded tires,
despite their cost competitiveness.
Communication and education
Sometimes the barriers to recycled product procurement come from the customer
agencies. Unconventional products may be looked on with suspicion, and personal and
organizational resistance to change can make the introduction of such products
problematic. For example, because of perceived low quality of product, the head of
Maine's DOT opposes the use of re-refined motor oil in the state fleet, even though it
meets all of the necessary quality certifications. According to Maine, this resistance causes
significant difficulties when trying to expand the procurement of re-refined motor oil.
As discussed by King County, barriers to success in environmentally conscious
procurement have to do largely with the flow of information between Purchasing,
customer agencies, suppliers, and contractors. For example, project managers in charge of
construction projects are often unaware of the recycled products and other products with
lesser environmental impacts that are available. Because many recycled products have only
recently appeared on the market, often contractors have not been educated in their proper
and preferred use.
Insufficient EPA guidance
Washington state related that weaknesses in U.S. EPA's recycled product guidelines can
act as barriers and hindrances to progress in recycled products procurement. The lack of
guidelines for certain product categories, and the conservative nature of the existing
guidelines were both cited as examples of weaknesses. Washington states that it is
important for EPA to release more guidelines for recycled products because they provide
buyers with support should their decisions to buy recycled products be called into
question. Another difficulty state and county purchasing agencies have with EPA
guidelines is that if they are not kept current with the state-of-the-industry, they do not
encourage manufacturers and suppliers to increase the recycled content in their products.
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It appears that in the absence of other information sources, state and county governments
often turn to the Federal government for guidance. In these cases, progress is made at the
local level only when the Federal government moves forward. For example, King County
looks forward to a better set of definitions of what "environmentally preferable products"
actually are, and will be following EPA's lead on this issue.
Decentralization
As discussed above, decentralization of the procurement process can result in a decrease
in a purchasing agency's ability to influence procurement. Some state agencies with large
procurements, such as Universities and prison systems, will often have their own
procurement system independent of the state procurement system.
Incentives for Improvement
Until products become mainstreamed, so me of the purchasing officials we interviewed
suggested that extra attention needs to be directed toward these products and the
people/agencies who use or promote environmentally conscious procurement. This can
provide an incentive to encourage more use. King County Purchasing believes that
recognizing individuals is an effective incentive to encourage people to continue finding
new applications for recycled products. Persons and agencies doing exceptional work in
the area of recycled products are recognized in an internal county newsletter, in Recycled
Products Procurement Annual Reports, and there have been functions held for other
people active in environmental issues. Wisconsin is also planning to experiment with press
releases and a "bright lights" program as two ways to motivate staff and to generate
outside support for the program.
New Directions: Future Outlook of Environmental Procurement
Most of the purchasing agencies seemed optimistic about the future of recycled products
and environmentally conscious procurement, even though they also see many challenges
ahead. These challenges include introducing new and unconventional products to their
customers, developing more effective ways to track purchases, and keeping costs
competitive.
Although in theory environmentally conscious procurement encompasses a wide range of
products ranging from energy efficient light bulbs to less-toxic cleaners, in practice only
recycled content products are being procured in any significant quantity. Of these, the vast
majority of purchases consist of paper products. In the near future, however, many new
products may be introduced as serious players in the market, including energy efficient
computers and lighting, less toxic cleaners, and non-paper recycled products. As these
products become "mainstreamed," the decision process associated with defining and
selecting them will also become more important. Market globalization may also play a
vital role in speeding up the evolution of new products with lesser environmental impacts.
13
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in. States
Maine
Minnesota
Washington
Wisconsin
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Maine Division of Purchases2
History of Procurement Practices that Consider Environmental Performance of
Goods and Services
Maine's original impetus for starting procurement of recycled products was a state statute
passed in 1973-74 mandating the use of recycled products when they were less costly than
conventional products, the impetus for this state statute was the desire to reduce inputs to
Maine's landfills. Maine originally focused on recycled paper, but discovered that the
quality of the recycled content paper at that time was very poor. The idea, as Thompson
put it, "died shortly after it was bora."
In the mid 1980s, renewed interest in recycled products on the part of state legislators and
the public as well as improved product quality resulted in a strengthening of the statute.
Supported by the Maine Waste Management Agency, the new statute focused on recycled
content paper and included a 10% price preference for recycled products.
Title 5 of MRSA3 Section 1812-B mandates that as of October 1, 1993, not less than 50%
of the money spent on paper products be used for products containing recycled materials.
Maine now meets its mandated target for the purchase of recycled content paper, and has
expanded the number of recycled paper products it procures. Initially, The problem of
reduced brightness of recycled paper caused many state agencies to complain about its
quality. According to Thompson, paper quality is no longer an issue, and office paper and
tissue paper products are some of the few commodities to be distributed without a virgin
equivalent.
Presently, Maine purchases a number of recycled products, which are outlined in the
report entitled "Report on the Purchase of Recycled Products, December 31, 1994"
prepared by Thompson's office (see attachment). The report summarizes Fiscal year
1993/94 purchases of various categories of products with recycled content, including
paper products, tires, plastics, glass, re-refined motor oil, aluminum, toner cartridges, and
wiping cloths. The report also summarizes new initiatives as well as some of the
difficulties encountered by the state as it continues to purchase products with recycled
content.
2 On November 14,1995, Han Wang and Meredith Bellows of Abt Associates interviewed Dick Thompson,
Director of the Division of Purchases, on the subject of environmentally conscious procurement. On June 27,
1996, a follow-up call was made for clarification on some issues and an update on any recent activities. The
following is a summary of the information we gathered.
3 Maine Revised Statutes Annotated
17
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Organization
Maine's procurement is broken down into three categories:
• Commodity procurement, performed by buyer clusters (see below) within the Division
of Purchases (totaling $60 million/year)
• Professional services (such as painting, engineering design), which are procured
directly by agencies, but reviewed by Division of Purchases (totaling $49 million/year)
• Delegated authority to state agencies, which may purchase products up to a limit of
$1,000 at a time (totaling about $24 million/year)
Commodity procurement comprises the largest category by sales, and is probably the one
most important to recycled product procurement in Maine.
Commodity buyers are organized into buyer clusters, usually consisting of a senior buyer,
buyer, and assistant buyers. Each cluster is responsible for the procurement of a certain
type of product, such as motor vehicles, or paper. The cluster in charge of motor vehicles,
for example, may purchase cars, trucks, police pursuit vehicles, tires, motor oil and
replacement parts. The paper cluster buys products such as printing and writing paper,
tissue paper, and paper towels. This cluster system was developed as a result of the
downsizing of Maine's state government. In the past, the structure consisted of senior
buyers, each of whom had a large staff of clerks to manage the details of the operations. In
the current system, each buyer and assistant buyer has much more responsibility and is
required to be knowledgeable in many areas, but may have less expertise concerning all of
the products they purchase.
Possibly due to Maine's relatively small size, state purchasing remains very centralized,
with all purchasing except for spot purchases under $1000 being channeled through the
Division of Purchases. Contracts for products purchased in large volumes are negotiated
by the Division of Purchases, which then produces purchasing bulletins for state agencies
to use. For purchases that are over $1000 but are not represented in the state bulletins,
agencies submit purchase requests to the Division of Purchases. The Division then draws
up requests for bids, and distributes them to potential suppliers.
Decision making
While the final say rests with Thompson, it is usually the senior buyers who make the day-
to-day purchasing decisions. To encourage the procurement of recycled products, there is
no formal chain of command, decision making, or review rules. Instead, the importance
and relevance of recycled products is emphasized informally at all levels of the hierarchy.
Thompson is a strong advocate of recycled content products, and exercises leadership
from his position by encouraging his buyers to purchase recycled products. Because of the
relatively small size of the Division of Purchases, Thompson is able to keep track of the
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activities of his buyers and influence them accordingly. As a result, his senior buyers are
aware of the importance of recycled products, and attempt to incorporate them into their
procurement when possible. Also, the governor of Maine and the state environmental
protection agency advocate and encourage the use of recycled products. Thompson relates
that the general attitude toward recycled products is perceived to be a positive one.
Tracking procurement
Because Maine's procurement system is not automated, they have a difficult time tracking
purchases in general, and of recycled products in particular. Maine's relatively small size,
however, is an advantage as it allows Thompson to track purchases manually or with the
use of a small spreadsheet. Overall, Maine's tracking system can be characterized as
simple and informal. Products with recycled content and their dollar value are published
periodically by Thompson's office in its "Report on the Purchase of Recycled Products."
Products
Maine does not have a formal mechanism in place to assess the quality or performance of
the recycled products buyers are considering. Instead, the buyers rely heavily on their own
experience, agency feedback, and vendor claims to help them with their procurement
decisions.
Often, a customer agency is the original source of interest for a particular product. If a
vendor can convince an agency that their recycled product is more environmentally
desirable than the conventional product, the agency may then suggest the product to the
Division of Purchases. For instance, one agency asked the Division of Purchases to
provide them with less caustic cleaning solutions, after a worker injured by an improperly
diluted cleaning solution brought a lawsuit against the vendor of the cleaner. This is an
example of where the selection of products available on the state bulletin had to be
expanded to accommodate different customers.
The multiple environmental criteria issue has not been addressed in depth by the Division
of Purchases. In the case of paper, for example, while they are aware of the recycled
content vs. chlorine free controversy, they resolve the problem with respect to their
purchasing by deferring to the language of the statute. That is, since the statute calls for
the preferential purchasing of recycled products, a product's recycled content is
considered a more important factor than the amount of chlorine involved in its
manufacture. As part of the Clean State Initiative, a broad based effort to address many
different types of environmental issues, Maine is beginning to examine the possibility of
procuring chlorine-free paper. Thompson notes, however, that it is still too early to predict
the outcome of this project.
Since the Maine state government does not conduct any product testing, the Division of
Purchases evaluates products by relying on vendor claims and independent third party
research, such as the University of Southern Maine. However, most of the research
involves testing of structural construction of products such as furniture and lighting.
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Environmental claims and performance of environmentally preferable products are rarely
addressed. Thompson admits that there is no easy way to verify vendor claims, especially
with recycled content materials, where it is difficult to assess recycled content after
manufacture. Maine utilizes university research (U. Southern Maine) to help determine
performance of products. In the past, Maine employed its own materials tester, who
examined product performance but did not verify environmental claims. The tester
position was eliminated due to state budget cuts.
Barriers
According to the 1994 report, "the greatest difficulty facing government as it works to
increase the use of products with recycled content is the cost.... Agencies must receive the
greatest value for their dollar spent."
For Fiscal year 1993/94, the state legislature suspended the 10% price preference offered
on paper products with recycled content in order to fund another, unrelated program.
Because the money used for the price preference was taken away, Maine was unable to
meet its procurement target for recycled paper in that year. The 1994 report claimed that
the elimination of the price preference "had an obvious impact" on the Division's failure to
meet the mandated goal, and that "in tight budget times, the balance is delicate." While
the elimination of the price preference only occurred once, Thompson believes that it
indicates that recycled products may not always be considered a high priority issue in
Maine.
Sometimes the barriers to recycled product procurement come from the customer
agencies. For example, because of perceived low quality of product, the head of Maine's
Motor Transport Services is vehemently opposed to using re-refined motor oil in his fleet.
According to Thompson, this resistance causes significant difficulties when trying to
expand the procurement of re-refined motor oil.
After Maine expanded its purchase of recycled content paper, they encountered some
resistance from vendors, who told the Division of Purchases that they were forced to buy
out-of-state recycled paper to meet the demand. Because many of Maine's paper mills are
located in remote forest regions, they cannot access the recycled pulp required for
recycled paper as easily as mills in other states which are located closer to urban regions
and interstate highways This places Maine's paper industry at somewhat of a
disadvantage. According to Thompson, the relative distances virgin wood and recycled
paper (the respective inputs for virgin and recycled paper) must travel to the papermaking
plants is a significant factor in the price differential between virgin and recycled paper.
Successes
Thompson cites their expanding base of recycled products and the meeting of procurement
targets as evidence of Maine's success. The 1994 report states that state agency users
have become increasingly aware of the quality and advantages of recycled products, and
that this awareness has resulted in an increase in overall recycled product purchases.
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Thompson states that the Division of Purchases are continually working to increase the
amount and types of products in their recycled product procurement.
The state government has been working to increase the involvement of municipalities in its
recycled product procurement efforts. According to the 1994 report, "nearly all products
available to state government can be purchased by local and county governments through
the Central Warehouse or directly from the supplier" at prices comparable to state
contract prices.
As a specific example, the 1994 Report also mentions Maine's success in introducing
copier paper with recycled content to the nearly 700 copiers in the state offices. By
furnishing this paper "without fanfare," the Division of Purchases claims that it was able to
avoid "potential 'perceived' operational difficulties." For the years covered in the report
(1993 and 1994), Maine has had "no substantiated performance difficulties linked to the
recycled content of the paper."
Future Outlook
The main goal for the future, according to Thompson, is the implementation of lifecycle
costing for recycled products and other products. Although some efforts are underway to
measure certain attributes of certain products, Thompson hopes to install a program by
which multiple environmental and performance criteria can be tested. Maine will most
likely heavily depend on the University of Maine's research to inform their own decision
making. Maine is still very much in the planning stages of this undertaking. Thompson
relates that lifecycle costing is relevant because it is very important to understand the
ultimate costs of purchasing and owning an item versus its upfront costs. As an example,
he cites automobiles and potential tradeoffs between sticker price, gas mileage, and
reliability.
References
Dept. of Administrative and Financial Services, Bureau of General Services, Division of
Purchases, 1994. "Report on the Purchase of Recycled Products," December 31, 1994.
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Minnesota Materials Management Division4
History of Procurement Practices that Consider Environmental Performance of
Goods and Services
The State Resource Recovery Program in Minnesota's Department of Administration
(Admin) came into being as a result of solid waste management laws passed in 1981. The
Resource Recovery Program is responsible for promoting waste reduction, recovery of
recyclable and reusable commodities, and facilitates the procurement of recycled and
recyclable commodities by state agencies through the Materials Management Division. An
interesting fact about Minnesota's waste management program is that initially it was not
funded and had to be self supporting; funding was largely derived by selling materials
diverted from the waste stream.
The state statute's emphasis on environmental procurement has provided stability and
consistency for Minnesota's recycled products program, and according to John Haggerty,
the legislature has been a "champion of the environment." The importance placed on the
environment has been a constant since the 1980s, and over the years the Select Committee
on Recycling and the Environment (SCORE) has continued to advise the Governor on
environmental issues.
The first significant recycled content purchase success came in 1991 with the issuance of a
recycled content copier paper contract. Minnesota collaborated with The Great Lakes
Consortium (a nine state organization which includes Wisconsin), and in total the states
committed themselves to purchasing 30 tons annually of recycled content paper. Initially,
the paper industry claimed they could not produce that amount of post-consumer recycled
paper in a year, but with continued pressure from the Consortium, the industry finally
agreed to a contract. Over the past few years, the paper industry has produced a great
variety of recycled content paper, much of it containing a higher percentage of recycled
content than was initially offered.
Organization
Minnesota state agencies can purchase goods in three ways: 1) from Central Stores, 2)
directly through contracts from suppliers, and 3) independently, through delegated
authority by local purchase. The Materials Management Division (MMD) purchases goods
for almost all of the 130 state agencies, and even though they are not required to do so,
both the Legislative and Judicial branches buy through the MMD as well. Central Stores
stocks commonly used office supplies, and agencies can purchase items from them as
needed. Haggerty relates that Central Stores' recycled content paper is kept in parity by
the state, and that customers pay the same price for comparable virgin and recycled
4 On December 6,1995, Meredith Bellows of Abt Associates interviewed John Haggerty, Director of
Minnesota's Materials Management Division. Follow-up calls on June 12,1996 and June 26,1996 were made
for clarification of some issues. A summary of information gathered follows.
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content products. Presently, half of the paper in stock at Central Stores has at least 25%
recycled content. As of July 1, 1996, all copier paper used by state agencies must contain
at least 10% post-consumer material by fiber content.
With delegated purchasing, personnel who receive the appropriate training are given the
authority to procure goods' and services independently of MMD As of this writing, there
are approximately 1,750 personnel approved for delegated purchasing in city, local, and
state agencies. Personnel must attend a two-day training course to obtain the authority to
purchase up to $1500. An additional half-day course is required to increase purchasing
limits to $5,000. In addition, some organizations have special purchasing authority. For
example, the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MN/SCU) has the authority to
spend as much as $25,000 without first having to consult MMD. In general, agencies are
not required to report delegated purchasing activities to MMD.
As a way to expand the purchase of products with recycled content, the state has
convened a Market Development Coordination Council which analyzes products, trends,
feasibility, and gives guidance on what to buy and what quantities to consider. They give
guidance on new opportunities on how to push the recycled products envelope and
expand applications for recycled products.
Although there used to be a state product testing laboratory, a lack of funding terminated
the department in 1982, and there has not been one since. The work conducted by the
laboratory was divided between environmental claim verification and product performance
evaluation. While they used to be quite common, Haggerty now views such departments
and state quality inspectors as unaffordable luxuries for cash-strapped state governments.
Nevertheless, the Office of Environmental Assistance currently hires a third party firm to
conduct limited claim verification studies on the environmental performance of products.
Training
Aside from purchasing workshops that briefly touch on environmental procurement, there
is currently very little formal environmental training for buyers. In the interview process,
however, prospective buyers are asked about their past experience with environmental
purchasing, especially with respect to issues such as packaging and end-of-life product
disposal. In general, buyers are expected to use the guidance provided in Purchase
Certification Training when dealing with recycled products. As the purchasing in the state
becomes more decentralized, Haggerty believes the role of education and training of
buyers in individual agencies will become increasingly important.
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Information resources
Automated purchasing
Items on contract can be purchased via the "voice-fax" system, which allows agencies to
access contracts electronically and order directly from suppliers. Products with recycled
content are flagged in the Central Stores' catalogue to alert agencies. The system is
available 24 hours a day
and is accessible by all local, county, and state agencies who are members of the State
Cooperative.
Haggerty believes that in the future, all agencies will have satellite access and will be able
to order products directly from producers.
Tracking procurement
The MMD does not have a formal tracking system, but they have ready access to agency
purchasing information tracked by two significant sources: 1) All sales by Printing and
Stores are tracked and reported to the MMD, and 2) the voice-fax system records each
contract item accessed by state agencies. These records of agency purchases can easily be
obtained in profile form with the voice-fax system. However, purchases made without
using the contract and one time spot purchases are not tracked, and agencies are not
required to report these purchases.
As procurement becomes more decentralized by the summer of 1996, it will be
increasingly common for agencies to purchase products without using the state contracts,
making racking of purchases even more difficult.
Products
As is the case with most of the other states and counties interviewed, Minnesota's
experience with environmental procurement is primarily limited to recycled products, such
as retread tires, re-refined oil, and paper products. One important exception is in the area
of computers, where Minnesota purchases computers with the Energy Star certification. In
the future, Minnesota hopes to procure products with other environmental attributes,
although these attributes have yet to be defined.
Copier paper
According to the State Resource Recovery Program Report for Fiscal year 1993-94,
Minnesota has increased steadily increased the amount of recycled content copier paper
purchased annually. As of the end of Fiscal year 1994, 35% of all copier paper sold to
state agencies was recycled content paper, up from 9.5% in 1989 and 28% in 1992.
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Barriers
A barrier to environmental purchasing is concern about health and safety during product
use. MMD is not willing to purchase a product if it poses any threat to the health or safety
of the user. For example, since the Federal Government does not recommend the use of
retreaded tires on steering axles of vehicles, Minnesota purchases retreads only
infrequently, and does not use them on emergency vehicles. Plastic lumber used as railroad
ties is an example of a recycled product which presented a potential safety problem.
Possibly as a result of the cold, several recycled content plastic lumber railroad ties used
on northern railroads splintered during winter weather. Apparently, the manufacturer of
this product was not familiar with Minnesota's extreme weather. The plastic lumber was
replaced with wood, which is now the only material used for railroad ties. It should be
noted that this is a case where the recycled plastic lumber was supposed to substitute for a
wood product, as opposed to a virgin plastic product. No information was available on
whether plastic lumber made of virgin material would have fared better under Minnesota's
difficult winter conditions.
Other barriers to environmental procurement:
• Manufacturers who won't commit to producing a recycled product unless they see a
sizable market for it.
Obtaining recycled content information from companies reluctant to report such
information, perhaps because of the negative connotation that goes along with "used"
products.
• Customers with the attitude of being suspicious of products that are "not new" (i.e.,
those having recycled content). With education, this perception is slowly fading.
Successes
One of the greatest successes of the Minnesota program is the part it has played in altering
customers' perceptions of recycled goods. In the past, agencies were neither interested in
buying recycled goods, nor were they willing to try them. Now, according to Haggerty,
many agencies are more open to the idea of recycled products. Agencies receiving federal
grants are especially likely to be receptive because a certain percentage of their overall
purchases must be recycled products. Moreover, when agencies do have bad experiences
with recycled content products, it is common for them to seek a way to improve the
product instead of immediately concluding that the recycled product is inferior. For
example, Haggerty reports that agencies are now much more accepting of retreaded tires,
and no longer pin responsibility for a blown tire on the tire's recycled content. Similarly,
the occasional copier jam is no longer blamed on the recycled paper in the copier.
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The general acceptance of recycled paper is another great success cited by Haggerty. The
"new versus used" issue seems to have dissipated, and recycled paper receives
approximately the same number of complaints as virgin paper. MMD is striving to make
recycled paper more commonplace by increasing product availability.
Other successes:
Haggerty believes that the market for ethanol fueled vehicles has been pushed by
Minnesota and other states by their commitment to current and future purchases of
such vehicles. Federal law requires a minimum of 10% of total fleet vehicles to be
alternative fuel-powered by 1997, increasing to 50% by the year 2000.
• Both recycled anti-freeze and re-refined motor oil are currently being used, and the
reaction so far seems to be fairly positive.
The state provides funding for approximately ten start-up grants for companies and
agencies to test new products, although environmental preferability is only one of
many considerations. Open to both private companies as well as government and other
organizations, these grants can fund projects up to a level of 35%. Examples of
funded projects with environmental angles include a company that separates lamp
components such as glass and mercury for recycling, reprocessing of printing
chemicals, and a process for recycling antifreeze.
Future Outlook
Haggerty believes that the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs, or GATT, will
profoundly affect procurement, which will become far more global in nature, both at the
state and Federal level. Beginning in 1996, the state will be required to advertise
internationally for bids over a certain dollar amount.5 Because Haggerty sees Europe as
being far ahead of the US environmentally, international bidding should be interesting from
an environmental standpoint. Haggerty believes that purchasers will have to be risk-takers,
flexible, technologically savvy, able to collaborate with different types of people, and have
good language abilities. The job and industry will become more dynamic.
The timeline for international bidding may be problematic, however. While currently there
is a seven day minimum for the turnaround of bids, the US Trade Ambassador is calling
for a 40 day minimum. Haggerty believes this amount of time is far too long and
unnecessary, especially with the use of the Internet and other means to rapidly distribute
information.
5 26 States and the Federal government were signatories to GATT. One component of the GATT requires that
every participating entity post internationally all procurement bids equal or greater than $600,000 for
commodities, and $7.5 million for construction projects.
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On a more local level, Haggerty believes that environmental procurement can be facilitated
with a few changes in the development of specifications, such as removing the standard
boilerplate requirement that procured goods be "new." In some cases, recycled products
might be construed as not being "new." Although specific examples were not available of
instances where this language actually caused difficulties, Haggerty is of the opinion that
changing the specifications in certain cases might be beneficial in encouraging the purchase
of recycled products. In addition, Haggerty called for energy efficiency purchases to be
given equal status as recycled products in the state mandate.
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Washington Department of General Administration6
History of Procurement Practices that Consider Environmental Performance of
Goods and Services
In 1988, Washington State adopted State Statute RCW 43.19: Recycled Product
Procurement, which was designed to increase the procurement of recycled content
products by all local and State agencies and schools, as well as to "provide a model to
encourage a comparable commitment by Washington State citizens and businesses."
As with most of the other state and county agencies interviewed, Washington State's
experience with environmentally preferable purchasing consists primarily of products
containing recycled content. Though Washington State's first purchases under the new
policy consisted almost entirely of recycled copier paper, the list has now expanded to
include a number of different types of recycled products (see attachment). Washington
State has adopted EPA's definitions of recycled products, as outlined in EPA's
Comprehensive Product Guidelines (CPG).7 To encourage the purchase of recycled
products, the statute provides for a 10% price preference for recycled products. In
addition, RCW 43:19 outlines a mandatory plan for state agency procurement that sets the
following minimum purchase percentages for recycled paper and compost products:
(1) Paper products as a percentage of the total dollar amount purchased on an annual
basis:8
(a) at least forty percent by 1993;
(b) at least fifty percent by 1994;
(c) at least sixty percent by 1995;
(2) Compost products as a percentage of the total dollar amount purchased on an
annual basis:9
(a) at least twenty-five percent by 1993;
(b) at least forty percent by 1995;
(c) at least sixty percent by 1997;
6 On December 8,1995, Han Wang and Meredith Bellows interviewed Connie Ann Stacy, Contract
Administrator for Washington State, on the subject of environmentally conscious procurement. Follow-up calls
were made on June 7,1996 and June 17,1996 for clarification of some issues. The following is a summary of
the information we gathered.
7 The CPG are published in the 40CFR§247.
8 As defined in the State Statute Chapter 43.19A RCW, paper products are defined as "all items manufactured
from paper or paperboard."
9 As defined in the State Statute Chapter 43.19A RCW, compost products are "mulch, soil amendments,
ground cover, or other landscaping material derived from the biological or mechanical conversion of biosolids
or cellulose-containing waste materials."
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When Washington State first started buying recycled content copier paper, it was more
difficult to locate, and as much as 22% more expensive than virgin paper. Although 22%
is considerably higher than the mandated price preference of 10%, Stacy and her
department felt that they had to "get the ball rolling" on recycled product procurement,
despite the initial lack of customer interest and relatively high cost involved. As of this
writing, Washington State is paying a 7% price preference on recycled paper. Stacy
estimated from memory that for paper purchases made by the Procurement Office in 1995,
about 80% of the total dollar amount is spent on recycled paper. It is important to note
that because of the various methods available to agencies for procuring products,
Washington's tracking system does not give the Procurement Office the capability to tally
total state purchases.
Organization
The Office of State Procurement is staffed by approximately 16 buyers, each responsible
for a specific commodity area such as paper products, automobiles, and furniture. The
majority of state agency purchases are made through contracts set up by the Procurement
Office, with the main exceptions being spot purchases under $2500, which can be made
without using a state contract. Spot purchases are allowed only for items not available on
the state contracts, and are not designed to allow for long-term purchasing of non-
contract items. Stacy related that if a long-term need arises for a non-contract item, the
customer agency is required to contact the Procurement Office so that a contract for that
item can be set up.
According to Stacy, there is a varying amount of commitment to recycled products among
the buyers, and she is considered the main resource for information on recycled products
and EPA guidelines. In practice, buyers are themselves responsible for researching new
products and for following State policy of buying recycled products. There is no authority
which polices the buyers on recycled products policies, and as Stacy is only the paper
buyer, she considers it outside of her job description to make sure that other buyers are
implementing the mandate.
At the outset of the recycled products program, the Department of General Administration
hired a recycled products lead who was assigned the responsibility of promoting the
purchase of recycled products among agencies and municipalities while maintaining the
integrity of waste. The recycled products lead spent most of his time traveling to agencies,
cities, and towns to educate them about recycled products, and consequently spent little
time interacting with Procurement staff. In June 1995, after approximately five years, this
position was eliminated because of state budget cuts.
According to Stacy, conflicts in goals and priorities occasionally caused friction between
this individual and the buyers at the agency. For example, when the Procurement Office
started to use a 100% recycled content office paper (Hammermill Unity DP) containing
recycled groundwood waste, the recycled products lead did not fully support the decision
because the paper was not easily recyclable. According to him, its groundwood content
caused problems because it could not be mixed in recycling bins with conventional virgin
30
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and recycled office paper. Because part of his mission was to promote recyclability of
products, and there was no feasible means of recycling this type of paper. The
Procurement Office went ahead with the decision anyway, and currently are still using the
paper. She said that one important consideration in purchasing Unity DP was that it makes
a strong environmental statement for the office. In addition, the paper costs only a few
cents more per ream than virgin paper, and is considerably less expensive than more
conventional recycled content office paper.10
In addition to contract purchasing, Central Stores distributes products to various agencies,
which often has the effect of increasing customer purchases for those products. For
example, use of the groundwood content paper mentioned above is increasing, and this
may be because Central Stores stocks it. Central Stores also offers virgin goods as well as
recycled goods because for the most part, virgin products are still less expensive than their
recycled counterparts. About 50% of the copier paper purchased by state agencies has
recycled content, with this percentage varying according to the current price of paper.
According to Stacy, price is an important factor in determining the amount of recycled
products purchased. On the other hand, even though the cost of recycled products is
higher, some agencies such as the Department of Ecology and municipalities such as
Seattle prefer it strongly. For example, the city of Seattle only buys recycled paper, and
they purchase it using a state contract to get the best price.
In the recent past, before the U.S. EPA issues its Comprehensive Product Guidelines, the
Departments of Ecology, General Administration, and the Procurement Office
collaborated to define and adopt recycled product standards. Because funding was cut
before the end of the process, however, the standards were never formally finalized or
adopted. Nevertheless, according to Stacy, the Procurement Office used the unofficial
standards until EPA released its guidelines, which Washington State has also adopted.11
Stacy believes that the legislature will pass state standards into law sometime in the future.
Information Resources
Tracking
The Procurement Office does not have the capability to track contract purchases made by
customer agencies directly through vendors. In the past, agencies submitted records of
their purchases to the Procurement Office, but because Procurement staff were inundated
by large amounts of paperwork, and agencies were greatly burdened by sending in the
paperwork, the policy was eventually discontinued. Stacy has found it difficult to get
reports on the amount of goods purchased from vendors, who 'claim that it is too costly to
produce such reports for the state.
10 Examples of paper prices from Washington State's contract award information as of June 5,1996:
James River #055107: 20 Ib. 8!/2 x 11 in. virgin stock office paper $ 1.807/ream
James River Eureka 20: 20 Ib. 8'/2 x 11 in. 20% p/c content office paper $1.932/ream
Hammermill Unity DP: 20 Ib. 8'/2 x 11 in. 50% p/c, 50% waste content office paper $1.846/ream
11 Copies of the unofficial standards were unavailable.
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Central Stores has the ability to track agency purchases made through its own system, and
it provides agencies with the option of ordering products electronically as well as using
conventional paper forms.
Automated purchasing
Washington State has built some amount of automation into their purchasing system. A
fax-on-demand system allows for automatic ordering, and according to Stacy, in the near
future contract bids will also be included in the fax-on-demand system. She notes that the
statute concerning contract bids will have to be changed before the Procurement Office
can legally accept returned bids by fax (currently they must include original signatures).
Successes
Washington State is currently purchasing recycled products which greatly exceed the
recycled content specifications in EPA's CPG guidelines, although no data are available as
to the amount of various types of recycled products purchased by agencies.
Several contract products, such as file folders, are purchased as recycled only. If a
recycled product of comparable quality is known to be readily available within the price
preference, then it is automatically purchased to the exclusion of the products made with
all virgin materials.
Barriers
Stacy said that weaknesses in EPA recycled product guidelines could act as barriers and
hindrances to progress in recycled products procurement. She mentioned the lack of
guidelines for certain product categories, and the conservatism of the existing guidelines
as examples. At present, Washington State tends not to adopt guidelines that are stricter
than EPA's to avoid the problem of agencies questioning the validity of going beyond
what EPA sets.
Stacy states that EPA guidelines for recycled products are important because they can
provide buyers with more back up support should their decisions'to buy recycled products
be called into question. This security allows the buyers at the state and local levels to buy
recycled products with more confidence that they will not be seen as making unwise
purchasing decisions. The lack of EPA guidelines for products can cause buyers to shy
away from proactively choosing recycled products over time-tested conventional
products.
In Stacy's opinion, another difficulty with EPA guidelines is that-if they are not kept
current with the state-of-the-art, they can actually discourage manufacturers and suppliers
from increasing the recycled content in procured goods. For example, if a vendor only
needs to meet EPA guidelines in order to qualify for a bid, then there is no incentive to
exceed the guidelines, especially if the manufacture would incur additional costs to do so.
It does not make economic sense on the part of the supplier to make product changes or
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improvements in which the customer (e.g., the state) is not interested. According to Stacy,
at least one paper manufacturer actually lowered the recycled content of its products
(thereby lowering its prices) in order to compete with other suppliers in the market.
Future Outlook
Washington State will continue to follow Federal purchasing guidelines in accordance to
law. Recycled procurement is likely to continue with the same moderate level of
enthusiasm as in the past, with some agencies buying recycled products as they are
required to, and others making recycled content purchasing a priority.
Commodity buyers will continue to look out for new recycled content products, as well as
for recycled content products of superior quality. They will also continue to strive toward
eliminating the purchase of virgin products with recycled content equivalents.
Buying recycled certainly is not the "hot" issue it was a few years ago, but as statutes are
firmly in place and will not disappear, the state will continue purchasing recycled content
products.
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Wisconsin State Bureau of Procurement12
History of Procurement Practices that Consider Environmental Performance of
Goods and Services
Wisconsin's state legislature expanded and strengthened existing requirements for
environmental product procurement with the passage of 1989 Wisconsin Act 335, known
as "The New Recycling Law." To encourage waste reduction and recycling, the law bans
all currently recyclable materials from Wisconsin landfills by January 1, 1995. In addition
to other activities designed to encourage waste reduction in Wisconsin, Act 335 requires
the purchase of recycled products from several product categories, "when technically and
economically feasible."13 Act 335 singles out recycled paper for particular attention by
setting annual goals for the procurement of recycled content paper, and requiring that all
state agencies to report their purchases to the Department of Administration (DOA).
Organization
The Bureau of Procurement within DOA sets the policies and guidelines for state
procurement, and is responsible for implementing the procurement aspects of Act 335.
Most state agencies are required by law to comply with DOA's procurement policies, with
the exception of the legislature, the court, and authorities. It is significant to note,
however, that even these agencies must report their annual paper purchases to DOA.
Similar to other states, road construction and building construction fall outside of the
Bureau of Procurement's sphere of influence.
In Wisconsin, there are two basic methods by which state agencies can conduct their
procurements: 1) "standard commodity" purchasing through state purchasing bulletins,
and 2) delegated purchasing, where agencies issue bids and do the actual buying.
Wisconsin differs from many other states in that a large amount of the procurement is
conducted through delegated purchasing. Each of these two procurement methods are
explained briefly below.
By combining the collective buying power of state agencies, DOA is able to develop state-
wide contracts for commonly purchased items and services, such as tissue paper and road
salt. These items and services are then listed as "standard commodities" on state
purchasing bulletins, which contain details on ordering. Whether a commodity is
considered a "standard commodity" is decided, as Wehrman puts it, through a "blend of
history and common sense." In other words, products that are commonly purchased in
12 On December 5, 1995, Meredith Bellows of Abt Associates interviewed Dan Wehrman, the Procurement
Recycling Coordinator for the State of Wisconsin. Follow-up calls for clarification on a number of issues were
made on June 5 and June 19, 1996. The following summarizes information gathered in our discussion.
13 These product categories include: 1) paper and paper products, 2) plastic and plastic products, 3) glass and
glass products, 4) motor oil and lubricants, 5) construction materials, including insulating materials, 6)
furnishings, including rugs, carpets, and furniture, and 7) highway equipment, including signs, signposts,
reflectors, guardrails, land dividers, and barricades. See the section entitled "Products" for more detailed
information.
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large quantities and/or products traditionally considered contract items fall under the
"standard" category. When buying these types of items, agencies under the jurisdiction of
DOA must choose their purchases from these standard commodities, and may order them
directly through vendors or utilize the services of state warehouses. Such outlets include
the State Consolidated Stores, DOA Central Printing, and Waupun Warehouse.
Purchasing managers within the Bureau of Procurement are assigned as leads on specific
commodity groups, such as office paper, hardware, lumber and related supplies, and
canned food. The purchasing managers are responsible for understanding agency needs
and resolving problems for their particular products. To accomplish this, purchasing
managers conduct surveys among their client agencies to determine purchase volume,
performance requirements, and other information. DOA also convenes committees and
councils at the commodity group as well as state-wide cross-commodity levels to provide
forums for agencies to voice their concerns and suggestions.
The ordinary "standard commodity" purchasing system covers nearly all of the recycled
products that are likely to be purchased by state or federal procurement offices. The
Bureau of Procurement aggressively directs the statewide purchasing of recycled products
by centrally issuing bids and ensuring the use of statewide purchasing bulletins. Bulletin
purchases are recorded by the DOA purchasing data processing system, which provides
the basis for ongoing monitoring and enforcement of mandatory bulletins. Standardized
procedures cover practical purchasing issues such as definitions of recycled content terms.
The Recycling Coordinator works with each individual purchasing manager to determine
product availability and suitability and to develop bid specifications. The state
procurement system can be flexible; the Bureau has written bids for experimental
commodities, such as chlorine-free paper.
In delegated purchasing, rather than directly contracting and warehousing commodities,
DOA transfers some of the purchasing authority to state agencies themselves. DOA sets
policies and procedures for state purchasing while agencies issue most of the bids and do
most of the actual buying. In general, agencies with delegated purchasing authority must
issue a formal, written request for bid for a commodity purchase over $25,000, and
agencies send a copy of the bid to DOA for review at the same time it is issued to vendors.
For smaller dollar amounts, agencies may use a less formal competitive process, maintain
internal documentation, and then report their low dollar purchases to DOA. While the
under $25,000 purchases constitute the greatest number of purchase orders, they represent
only 5 to 10% of the dollars spent. In either case, all agencies must follow standardized
purchasing procedures, including environmentally preferable purchasing, and are subject to
periodic audits by DOA.
Wehrman reviews all agency bids sent to DOA, and looks for opportunities to promote
recycled products and other products with lesser environmental impacts. Based on the
past five years, Wehrman reports that most agencies are cooperating fully with the
environmental program, particularly with regard to paper, if they know that recycled is an
option. Of the remaining bids reviewed, the vast majority are for items for which
environmentally preferable options do not exist, such as heart surgery machinery. If a
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recycled product option does exist, the Recycling Coordinator contacts individual agencies
with information and recommendations for future purchases. Although DOA has the
authority to force an agency to rewrite a bid, this extreme response is usually reserved for
potential legal liability. In Wisconsin's experience, a bid hastily rewritten to include
recycled options often fails to result in the recycled product procurement. So with regard
to delegated purchasing of uncommon items, DOA's role is often limited to the provision
of information and after-the-fact reviews of bids and purchases. On the other hand, most
purchasing agents appreciate the chance to incorporate change the next time around.
According to Wehrman, the independence of many agencies from DOA complicates
management of the recycling program. Despite the aggressive, successful program for
standard, common commodities, the relationship between DOA and very large agencies is
not always a cooperative one. For example, the University of Wisconsin (UW), which
typically purchases up to half the state's total procurement, does most of its buying
through delegated purchasing. It is Wehrman's opinion that the University, while adhering
to the recycling mandate, has not been particularly cooperative with respect to meeting
DOA's reporting requirements or with regard to trying out new alternatives.
Training
DOA includes recycled product information as part of its standard procurement training
courses, and also conducts specific training sessions at statewide conferences and at
individual agency retreats. Approximately 200 agency employees throughout the state are
responsible for buying recycled and for reporting their purchases'annually to DOA. These
two hundred individuals receive direct mailings throughout the year that cover guidance,
instructions, and evaluations of agency performance. All agencies are encouraged to
maintain one-on-one communication, and many call regularly for assistance. As mentioned
earlier, the recycling coordinator participates in the development of all centralized
statewide bids for recycled products. In addition, recycling information reaches a wider
audience through the monthly procurement newsletter. DOA recently sponsored a set of
workshops around the state for both state and local purchasing officials.
Products
Act 335 requires that agencies procure recycled products from the following categories
when "technically and economically feasible:" paper, plastic, glass, motor oil and
lubricants, construction materials, furnishings such as carpets and furniture, and highway
equipment.
The primary environmental attribute that Wisconsin considers in the procurement process
is recycled content, but Act 335 does mention procuring products that result in waste
reduction. Recently DOA has been waging an energy efficiency campaign, and has brought
into the procurement process the purchase of "green" light bulbs (compact fluorescents)
and energy efficient computers.
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Like most states, Wisconsin relies as much as possible on specifying product quality
through physical requirements and performance standards. When feasible, bid
specifications may require documentation from independent testing laboratories. As with
conventional purchasing, procurement offices generally rely on manufacturer's claims of
recycled content and other attributes. Wisconsin requires a mill certification (a letter from
a paper mill confirming recycled content) from printers and other paper vendors. Wehrman
reports that manufacturer's claims have been found to be trustworthy, and that the process
often clears up confusion that may develop at the print shop.
In order to deal with major performance problems, DOA began testing large volumes of
copy paper in state copy centers in 1991. An EPA grant in 1993 enabled the state to
expand their testing to every mill brands available, and to test paper in a variety of office
machinery in six different state agencies. After running about 8 million sheets of paper, the
results were used to write the specifications for Wisconsin's nine-state cooperative bid for
copy paper, and to develop a generic "ten-case test" to judge paper performance.14
The state also informally researches product performance by pilot testing products on
agency volunteers and then soliciting their comments. Water-based typing correction fluid
and rechargeable alkaline batteries are examples of products that were tested in this
manner. In the case of correction fluid, the component that was tested was not the fluid
itself, but a new, refillable container for the fluid. Wehrman reports that the pilot tests
were aborted after discovering that the brushes that came with the refillable bottle were
defective, making it difficult to compare the products. The results of their research were
therefore inconclusive in this case. According to Wehrman, the rechargeable battery tests
are still underway.
Tracking Procurement
Wisconsin does not have one automated tracking system for all procurement, and all
agency information is hand gathered and compiled by Wehrman. As every agency uses a
different tracking system, none of which have a good system for converting dollar
purchases into fiber weights, compiling agency reports for paper is extremely time
consuming. DOA trains agency buyers to record and report recycled paper purchases, but
there remains substantial amounts of overlapping data and omissions. Due to a legislative
mistake, Act 335 makes reporting and tracking even more complicated by requiring
reports to be submitted at the end of the calendar year, rather than the fiscal year.
14 Results of this research were published in the following report: Kratzer, Danelle, 1993. "Recycled Paper
Performance Testing in State Agency Office Equipment," Cooperative study between the University of
Wisconsin -Madison and the WI Department of Administration, September 1993.
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Reporting requirements
Because reporting requirements in Act 335 are most specific for recycled content paper,
Wisconsin has implemented extensive requirements for reporting recycled paper purchases
by state agencies. The state requires that every state agency report its recycled paper
purchases to DO A, regardless of whether or not it falls under the jurisdiction of DO A.
Act 335 mandated that by January 1, 1995, 40% (by weight) of the paper fibers purchased
by a state agency had to. be recycled.15 This requirement is unusual in that the goal put
forth is in terms of the percentage weight of fibers purchased, as opposed to a percentage
of total dollars spent on paper, or the number of recycled sheets as a percentage of total
number of sheets purchased. For example, an agency could meet the 40% recycled content
mandate by having 80% of its total paper purchases consist of a 50% recycled content
sheet.
Price Preference
Wisconsin does not have a price preference for recycled products, as many states do.
However, agencies have to buy recycled paper in order to meet reporting requirements,
and because recycled paper is generally more expensive, state agencies are definitely
paying more to buy recycled. Recycled copy paper has ranged from 10 to 20% more
costly than virgin paper over the past five years, resulting in a significant price premium.
Information Resources
The Recycled Products Clearinghouse is a database of companies that make and distribute
recycled products, intended to help state and local government buyers locate such
products. Since it began in 1990, the information has been sent out in response to phone
requests and has been made available on an electronic bulletin board system (BBS).
Periodically, DO A will print out hard copies of the Clearinghouse for distribution to state
agencies and other interested parties. The directory is similar to the national Recycled
Product Guide, except that it is more tailored to needs of Wisconsin state agencies
(although it is not restricted to regional products). The information for the Clearinghouse
is collected by Wehrman, and the most time consuming aspect of compiling the
Clearinghouse keeping up with changing information. About one quarter of the companies
listed in the clearinghouse have product literature accessible through a "print-on-demand"
system which can be accessed electronically by agencies.
15 Act 335, signed into law on April 27,1989, phased in these purchase requirements over four years. The
requirements were laid out as follows:
a. 10% of all purchased paper fiber by weight must be recycled by January 1,1991;
b. 25% of all purchased paper fiber by weight must be recycled by January 1,1993;
c. 40% of all purchased paper fiber by weight must be recycled by January 1,1995.
(Source: The University of Madison's Campus Ecology Research Project WWW site at
http://env.ipm. wisc.edu/cerp/paper/faody.html)
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According to Wehrman, the BBS is underutilized by his customers, because most of them
still do not have modem access and because on-line ordering services are not available.
Therefore, the BBS is still relatively primitive and somewhat quaint by Internet standards.
Wehrman states that much of their efforts are directed at assisting customers over the
telephone, rather than upgrading the Clearinghouse.
Barriers
One of the primary barriers to environmental procurement faced by Wisconsin is the lack
of competitively priced recycled products of proven quality. According to Wehrman,
recycled products fall into one of two categories: If the recycled product simply meets
existing standards and specifications -- if it is a perfect substitute — then the product will
not be cost-competitive. If it were cost competitive, Wehrman suggests, the product
would simply succeed in the conventional marketplace without artificial incentives.
Recycled products made from steel, copper, and aluminum are examples of common sense
resource management ideals that are so successful that people often forget the products
are recycled.
If the recycled product is cost competitive, it is often difficult to prove that it will perform
satisfactorily. According to Wehrman, either appropriate product standards do not exist,
or the recycled product does not meet conventional standards. Wehrman brought up
rebuilt laser toner cartridges as an example of this issue. Although rebuilt toner cartridges
are cheaper than new cartridges, quality varies widely from vendor to vendor, and there is
currently no accepted standard of performance. Until the industry develops reliable
standards, it is difficult to compare products and to state that a product is of a certain
quality. As another example, the history of retreaded tires suggests that perceived
performance of recycled products may have a significant effect on customer acceptance.
Wisconsin relies on the Federal GSA retread specifications for its statewide contracts, and
is completely confident in the quality of the retreads purchased by the state. Due to past
negative perceptions of retreaded tires, however, Wisconsin is promoting the use of
retreads on light and medium trucks, and is slowly undergoing a gradual transition to
increased retread use.
DOA has learned that providing recycled products which are readily available and
convenient to use is one of the best means to convince agencies to purchase them.
Wehrman relates that demonstrating that buying recycled products will not inconvenience
users in any way works more effectively than purchase mandates. Wehrman noted that
even agencies who generally prefer recycled content paper buy virgin paper if it is more
available. Because of this observed tendency among agencies, DOA makes a priority of
stocking state paper warehouses with recycled content paper.
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Successes
Wisconsin has been successful in encouraging agencies to increase their recycled content
paper purchases. The overall statewide percentage of recycled fibers purchased in 1995
was 49% of the total, and of the reporting agencies, over half comply with the 40%
minimum required by Act 335.
Wisconsin has also found success purchasing paper under a cooperative purchasing
agreement with the Great Lake states. From 1991 to 1994, Wisconsin led this cooperative
effort and contracted the annual purchase of 30 million pounds of recycled high-speed
copier paper. The contract is a clear example of a government impact on the paper market,
because initially the paper industry claimed that it was impossible to produce such a large
amount of recycled paper in that short period of time. Most of the states, however,
abandoned the contracts in 1995 when the prices of recycled content paper dramatically
increased.
Wehrman relates that the purchase of recycled paper is becoming a commonplace activity.
Even in the initial stages of purchasing recycled paper, DOA did not encounter significant
resistance from customer agencies because the mandate of Act 335 had already passed
into law, but Wehrman reports that every agency complains about the price premium
placed on recycled paper.
Future Outlook
Wehrman believes that the Department of Administration will begin to more actively
advertise their environmental achievements. For several years, Wehrman hoped to quietly
push the concept of recycled product procurement into everyday use. He now admits that
this way of doing things might not produce the best results, and that promoting the
programs and achievements of procurement staff is an important component of success.
As environmental procurement is not yet a mainstream concern, procurement staff should
be recognized for the successes they have had and encouraged to continue their good
work. Wehrman is planning to experiment with press releases and a "bright lights"
program as two ways to motivate staff and to generate outside support for the program.
Wehrman points to programs such as King County's Recycled Product Procurement
Program as evidence of the success of promotional activities in raising interest in recycled
products.
Other areas of possible future growth mentioned by Wehrman include:
i
• Solar energy usage in remote parks.
• Significantly expand the use of energy efficient products.16
. Create a data base of environmentally preferable products beyond recycled products.
16 Although Wisconsin is interested in purchasing Energy Star certified computers, Wehrman relates that they
have been experiencing difficulties keeping computers that go into "sleep" mode connected to LANs.
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IV. Counties
King County, Washington
San Diego County, California
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King County. Washington Procurement Services Division17
History of Procurement Practices that Consider Environmental Performance of
Goods and Services
King County adopted its Recycled Products Procurement Policy in 1989, and was one of
the first communities in the nation to develop such a policy. The Policy (K.C.C. Chapter
10.16 Executive Policy CON 7-1-2 (AEP)) provides that "all departments shall, whenever
practicable, use recycled products and recyclable products to meet their needs." In
addition, the Policy authorizes a 15% price preference for recycled paper products, and a
10% price preference for re-refined lubricating oil. In 1991, King County earned the
National Recycling Coalition's Procurement Award for its efforts in encouraging the use
of recycled products.
In 1995, King County revised and simplified its recycled products policy to reflect
experience gained by the County as well as to harmonize its policy with U.S. EPA's
enhanced recycled products guidelines.18 According to King County's 1995 Recycled
Product Procurement Annual Report, their revisions "streamlined the policy and clarified
accountabilities so that further revisions to EPA guidance can be smoothly accommodated
and implementation efforts easily enhanced." (King County, 1995)
The original impetus for developing a recycled products policy was the Division of Solid
Waste's desire to provide leadership for the development of stable recycled material
markets by ensuring that county agencies purchase and use recycled products whenever
possible. King County's interest in recycled and recyclable goods also manifests itself
through efforts by other agencies and the creation of agencies such as the Commission for
Marketing Recyclable Materials, which is "dedicated to developing markets for recycled
products."
Organization
To encourage the use of recycled products, King County situated its recycled product
procurement program within its Procurement Services Division. From there, Nelson and
Hamilton serve as recycled product procurement coordinators, providing information and
technical assistance. They monitor requisitions to identify opportunities for agencies to use
environmentally preferable products, but they are not readily able to modify requisitions.
Since responsibility for satisfactory performance of the work of the County lies with the
functional departments in the field, responsibility for the creation and submission of
17On December 7, 1995, Han Wang and Meredith Bellows of Abt Associates interviewed Eric Nelson and
Karen Hamilton on the subject of environmentally conscious procurement. Follow-up calls to Karen Hamilton
on June 17,1996 and Eric Nelson on June 27,1996 were made for clarifications on some issues. The
following is a summary of the information gathered. Because a large amount of factual information about then-
program has already been outlined in detail in the Recycled Product Procurement Annual Report, much of it is
not repeated here. Most of the information contained below was drawn from our conversation with Nelson and
Hamilton. When the information source is the Annual Report, it is cited as such.
18 EPA's Comprehensive Product Guidelines, or the CPG, are published in 40CFR§247,
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requisitions for procurement lies there also. Usually, information and persuasion must be
brought to bear on requisitioners (user agencies) before their requisitions are written, long
before the existence of a requisition is known to the Procurement Division.
Although Hamilton acknowledged that their position within the Procurement Division did
not fulfill all the hopes of some for rapid change in all areas, she expressed the opinion that
Purchasing is a good place for them to be positioned. By working in the Purchasing office,
they are in close contact with the buyers and the buying process, and have gained a good
understanding of how the process works and how it can be effectively influenced. Had
they been placed elsewhere, Hamilton said, they would not have their fingers on the
procurement pulse in the way that they do now, and have less opportunity to effectively
put theory into practice.
According to King County, one of the program's key features is its collaborative approach
toward recycled product procurement. Nelson and Hamilton feel that their role in recycled
product procurement is to act as information resources, educators, and motivators for
their clients, the agencies. In turn, Nelson and Hamilton look to client agencies for their
expertise in evaluating products in the field as well as discovering new procurement
opportunities. Although in theory the authority to approve or reject requisitions based on
whether or not they consider recycled products could be useful in increasing
environmentally conscious purchases, Nelson and Hamilton believe that it is not
advantageous for them to usurp the decision-making role that is properly the purview of
users. In addition, they do not wish to add another bottleneck in the purchasing process,
which would only serve to strengthen client resistance.
Agency liaison network
To optimize collaboration, the Recycled Product Procurement Program has set up an
agency liaison network to provide outreach and information to customer agencies.
Although it is each agency's responsibility to designate an employee as its liaison, in
practice Hamilton and Nelson work to create good relationships with the people most
qualified and most eager to participate at those agencies. Activity within the liaison
network tends to focus on construction-oriented and landscaping recycled products, as
opposed to products such as toner cartridges and copier paper, which are close to being
"mainstreamed" (see the "Successes" section below for a discussion of mainstreaming).
Purchasing provides its agency liaisons with information such as direct mailings from
manufacturers concerning new products, and hosts informational meetings, "field trips,"
and other events to educate agencies. In 1995, Purchasing organized workshops on
recycled asphalt, composting, plastic lumber, glass and recycled concrete aggregates, and
re-refined oil. (King County, 1995)
In particular, Hamilton said that Solid Waste and Purchasing have a very good
relationship, and often collaborate on projects. Solid Waste is very committed to buying
recycled products, and tries to embody the philosophy of the Recycled Products
Procurement Program. Although in general Solid Waste does not often perform outreach
services with respect to recycled product procurement, there are exceptions. For example
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Solid Waste has developed a grant program for suburban cities to improve their education
on solid waste and recycling issues. To be considered for the grant, a suburban city must
set up or already have set up a municipal recycled products procurement program.
Contractors
An interesting point raised by Hamilton and Nelson is that much more money is spent
through construction contracts than supply contracts, although no specific statistics were
available. There are valuable opportunities to influence procurement of contractor-
purchased materials, but there are some serious pitfalls that must be avoided as well.
Project managers, who are usually employees of the agency which has contracted the
work, have to compromise between demanding that specific materials (e.g., recycled) be
used, thereby running the risk of being held liable for material or equipment failures, and
being overly conservative with respect to recycled products, thus allowing good
opportunities to purchase recycled products slip away. In addition, often the project
managers themselves are not particularly well versed or educated about recycled products,
so that they may not even know that these opportunities exist. Nelson and Hamilton have
invested considerable effort to educate project managers about recycled products on a
case-by-case basis, but there are no current plans to formalize the training program beyond
the liaison program.
A good example of contractor procurement occurs in the construction of buildings and
other public structures for King County. At any one time, King County is engaged in many
projects with thousands of detailed purchasing decisions which could be influenced in
favor of recycled products. According to Hamilton and Nelson, purchasing decisions on
which construction materials to use may be made at many different project stages by many
different people. Various people working for project managers, designers, and contractors
may get involved in specifying materials for purchase.
The two recycled product coordinators actively keep their eyes open for possible
opportunities to introduce recycled products to both direct and contractor procurement.
With direct procurement, they are able to approach customers arid suggest recycled
alternatives. This can be a very effective way of changing customer awareness and
behavior with respect to recycled products. With contractor procurement, however, each
construction project presents a unique and time-dependent opportunity to introduce
recycled products, as changes in material selection cannot be made after detailed building
plans have been specified. In these cases, it is important to affect the process in its early
stages, when designers and architects are still making decisions about material selection.
Nelson notes that they usually deal directly with project managers, some of whom are
receptive to their ideas and some who are not. Nelson believes it is not productive to try
to convince someone to use recycled products when they are resistant to the idea, and that
it is a better use of time and resources to work cooperatively with project managers who
are enthusiastic about recycled products. Nelson describes the two main ways of
influencing materials selection in construction projects. First, it is important to investigate
and stay abreast of what products are available and what they can do, and then attempt to
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match these materials to people who could use them. The agency liaisons are very
important in this regard, because they are more directly in touch with the various projects
under way around the County.
The second important thing is to keep lines of communication open. Often, positive results
occur just from getting people to talk to each other. For example, Nelson brought up the
example of a member of the liaison network who was also the project manager for a large
landscaping project. While on a site visit, this project manager noticed ground wood waste
being used as groundcover as a substitute for "beauty bark." Realizing that she could also
use ground wood waste for the same purpose, she ended up purchasing 10,000 cubic
yards of wood waste at Si/cubic yard, as opposed to beauty bark, which typically sells for
approximately $14/cubic yard.19
Nelson emphasizes that in this kind of work, maintaining a high level of credibility is
extremely important. Although he is sometimes criticized by environmentalists for not
going far enough in pushing recycled products, he counters this complaint by bringing up
the point that he cannot haphazardly recommend products to his customers just because
they contain recycled content. Only by providing sound advice can he continue to be
effective in encouraging the use of recycled products.
As an example of the importance of credibility, Nelson related an anecdote about the
Metropolitan Regional Justice Center, which is currently under construction. In the initial
stages of construction, the contractor was required first to tear down old buildings already
on the site. Instead of landfilling all of the resulting debris, Nelson recommended that the
project manager work with the Solid Waste Division's Construction, Demolition and
Landclearing Debris (CDL) Program to recycle the materials. In the end, they were able to
recycle 95% of the debris from the demolition, at a savings of $265,000 over the cost of
disposal. Encouraged by this success, the project manager was then much more receptive
to Nelson's subsequent suggestions. Nelson was able to introduce the use of composted
top soil, plastic lumber, recycled glass, recycled asphalt, and recycled concrete aggregate.
Citizens' Groups
Hamilton and Nelson provided one example of a citizens' group participation, albeit
tangentially, in the recycled product procurement process. The Washington Citizens for
Recycling led radio and print ad campaigns to encourage the use of re-refined motor oil
and non-chlorine bleached paper, helping to raise awareness of the issue.
19 Wood waste generally sells for $4-6/cubic yard, but because they originally bid for bark, they received money
back from the contractor and ended up only paying Si/cubic yard.
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Information Technology Resources
Tracking system
King County tracks purchases of recycled products in two ways. When purchases are
made under supply contracts, vendors are required to report purchases of recycled and
non-recycled purchases quarterly. When purchases occur under construction contracts,
they rely on the project managers for information on purchase volumes. According to
Nelson and Hamilton, the organizational disconnect between Accounting and Purchasing
also makes it particularly challenging to track purchases.
Automated purchasing system
While Nelson and Hamilton believe that automation of the purchasing system would be a
major improvement to the current system, they do not have the resources to integrate
operations, accounting, and procurement. In addition, the recent merging of King County
Administration with that of Metro will cause many elements of both organizations to
change in the near future. King County's Central Stores closed in December of 1995 due
to the reorganization.
World Wide Web site
Although Nelson and Hamilton state that the King County Recycled Products
Procurement web page (http://www.metrokc.gov) is not one of their top priorities, it is
nevertheless a very good information source for suppliers, customers, as well as the
general public.
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The current contents of the site include:
King County recycled product procurement policy
King County recycled product procurement program annual report
Model policy and implementation guide
King County recycled product contracts list
Contract language for buy-recycled contracts
Information resources for buyers
Specifications for recycled construction and landscaping materials:
Aggregate, Recycled Glass
Aggregate, Recycled Concrete
Asphalt, Recycled
Compost as Organic Soil Amendment
Hog Fuel (Ground Wood-Waste)
Paint, Recycled
Plastic "Lumber" and other recycled plastic products
Recycling and Waste Management During Construction
Tire-rubber Materials and Products
Specifications for recycled automotive and office products:
Antifreeze, Re-Refined
Laser Printer Toner Cartridges, Remanufactured
Motor Oil, Re-Refined
Paper, Recycled
Plastic can-liners, Recycled
Tire Retreading and Retreads
Product Performance Summaries
County agencies' experiences with recycled materials
Environmental/Recycling Links
The Web site provides a good avenue for contacts and the ability to reach new people
with new ideas, and an excellent and cost effective means of distributing information not
only to the County (a County mandate) but also to the rest of the world. The site also
serves as a very useful public relations tool.
Incentives
Awards/recognition
King County Purchasing believes that recognizing individuals in the County who are
"doing good things" is an effective incentive to encourage people to continue finding new
applications for recycled products. They emphasize that risk-takers and forward thinking
individuals at County agencies are instrumental in pushing forward the recycled product
agenda. Persons and agencies doing exceptional work in the area of recycled products are
recognized in an internal county newsletter, in Recycled Products Procurement Annual
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Reports, and there have been functions held for other people active in environmental
issues.
Successes
King County's Recycled Product Procurement reports its activities in detail in its Annual
Report (see attached document). The reader is therefore referred to the Annual Report for
specifics on which types of products and dollar values of purchases. Nevertheless, there
are a few examples of their successes that are worth mentioning.
King County has made substantial progress in its recycled paper procurement. Recycled
paper products purchased by the County have grown from an original 8% at the outset of
policy implementation to 90% in Fiscal year 1994-95. The majority of the photocopy
paper purchased contained 25% or 35% post-consumer waste, exceeding EPA's 10%
standard and President Clinton's 20% Executive Order. Other products mentioned in the
Annual Report include: recycled concrete aggregate, re-refined antifreeze, recycled
asphalt, compost, ground wood waste, re-refined motor oil, remanufactured toner
cartridges, retreaded tires, reprocessed paint, plastic lumber, tire rubber chips (play area
cover), recycled glass aggregate and recycled plastic can-liners.
"Mainstreaming"
Hamilton and Nelson emphasized the "mainstreaming" of recycled products as a key issue
in their recycled products conceptual framework. A recycled product, once it has been
mainstreamed, will no longer require artificial incentives or extra effort to keep the level of
purchases nigh. According to Hamilton and Nelson, success with a recycled product has
been achieved once it is completely mainstreamed. Recycled office paper is on the verge of
becoming mainstreamed.
Other products on their way to becoming mainstreamed in King County include:
• recycled groundwood waste
• recycled concrete aggregate
• recycled glass aggregate
• re-refined motor oil
Barriers
As discussed by Nelson and Hamilton, barriers to success in environmentally conscious
procurement have to do largely with the flow of information between Purchasing,
customer agencies, suppliers, and contractors. Project managers in charge of construction
projects are often unaware of the recycled products and other products with lesser
environmental impacts available to them. Because many recycled products have only
recently appeared on the market, often contractors have not been educated in their proper
use. As discussed above, there is also the issue of liability in case a recycled product fails
to perform satisfactorily. Products for which performance histories are unavailable may
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present unquantifiable risks, and therefore may be avoided in favor of conventional
products.
In other cases, the recycled products currently available do not meet the needs of the user,
or are too expensive or difficult to find. For example, King County experienced significant
performance problems with the first recycled toner cartridges they purchased, although
those problems have since been resolved. As another example, the use of recycled glass
aggregate for surfacing is sometimes restricted due to the fluctuating supply of recycled
glass. Recycled rubber as a road material also caused difficulties due to its flammability.
The cost of recycled paper also remains a problem, even though King County purchases it
in large volumes. According to Hamilton, product supply problems and the costs of
collecting, processing, and transporting the inputs for recycled paper manufacturing keep
the prices high. However, she also was of the opinion that some of the costs could be
artificially inflated, caused in part by the price preference, which could act as a subsidy for
recycled paper vendors.
Future Outlook
Hamilton and Nelson expect to continue educating project managers, buyers, the
community, and researching new procurement opportunities and ways to improve the
recycled product procurement process. They emphasize that mandates are not as effective
in encouraging the purchase of recycled products as providing people with good, credible
information about good, economical products that perform well.
One of the things Hamilton and Nelson are looking forward to is a better set of definitions
of what "EPPs" actually are. As the universe of products with lesser environmental
impacts expands and diversifies, it becomes increasingly difficult to assess which
environmental claims are legitimate, and which environmental issues are most important.
King County states that they will be following EPA's lead on this issue. Eventually, they
would also like to start incorporating multiple environmental attributes into the program,
but there are no current plans to do so. For the time being, King County will focus on
increasing and encouraging the purchase of recycled products.
References
King County, 1995. "King County Recycled Product Procurement 1995 Annual Report."
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San Diego County Department of Purchasing and Contracting20
History of Procurement Practices that Consider Environmental Performance of
Goods and Services
The impetus for San Diego's recycled products procurement program was San Diego
County Board of Supervisors Policy B-67, adopted in March 1992. The policy was
designed to stimulate markets for recycled items, and included a 5% price preference on
recycled products that conform to Federal or State guidelines. The price preference
requires agencies to choose a recycled product over a virgin product if it is no more than
5% more expensive than the conventional product. The original driver of this policy was a
program initiated by the State of California to reduce the amount of solid waste entering
its landfills (Assembly Bill 989). A study was done between the years of 1989-1992 to
determine the best way to target program efforts.
The first products to be considered under the new policy were recycled xerographic paper
and recycled toner cartridges. Tollefson mentioned that toner cartridges were targeted as a
priority recycled product because they were beginning to pile up at County landfills.
For recycled product procurement, the Department of Purchasing and Contracting (DPC)
works with the Department of Solid Waste, which is the Office of Primary Responsibility
for the program. The Department of Solid Waste is interested in recycled materials
because an increase in their use will eventually result in a decrease in the amount of inputs
to County landfills.
Organization
DPC is staffed by approximately 22 buyers and a handful of officials such as Mr.
Tollefson, who is the Manager of Procurement Planning. Each buyer is responsible for a
particular set of products. About four or five of the buyers are in charge of contracts
larger than $100,000.
Procurement is divided into three levels, according to the amount of money involved.
Simplified procurements are procurements with dollar values between $2,500 and
$100,000, and involve the Request for Quotation (RFQ) and Purchase Order process.
Simplified procurements are completed using the County's automated purchasing system.
"Micro procurements" have a threshold of $2500, and are implemented through other,
more cost effective means such as purchase cards. Because of state law, procurements
with values greater than $100,000 still require the County to utilize the request for
proposal/bid process. In addition to these procurements, construction contracts also have
20 On December 6, 1995, Han Wang of Abt Associates interviewed Ken Tollefson on the subject of
environmentally conscious procurement. Follow-up calls to Mr. Tollefson to discuss additional questions were
made on February 22, 1996 and June 21,1996. In addition, Han spoke briefly with Pam Cortelyou from the
Dept. of Solid Waste (also on February 22) regarding their role in the recycled products procurement
campaign. The following is a write-up of the information gathered.
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a RFQ limit of $50,000, above which they must also be released using the request for
proposal/bid process.
Successes and Barriers
When discussing successes and barriers to recycled product procurement, Mr. Tollefson
and his staff provided examples pertaining to recycled paper, recycled toner cartridges,
recycled tires, and re-refined motor oil. According to Mr. Tollefson, one of the most
important barriers to success is perceived or real quality differences between recycled and
conventional products, which can cause customers to be suspicious and unwelcoming of
new products. A good example of a battle fought over perceived quality differences was
over recycled paper used in photocopiers. An example of a problem with actual product
quality involves recycled toner cartridges.
Recyckdpaper
Though EPA's standard for recycled paper is 20% post consumer, San Diego County is
purchasing copier paper with 25% recycled content. However, because of price
differentials between virgin and recycled paper, only 20% of the copier paper purchased
contains recycled content. Demand for recycled content paper in.San Diego County
appears to be largely driven by customer requirements for recycled products rather than
the 5% price preference, which, according to one of Tollefson's buyers, cannot always
compensate for the higher price of recycled paper.
Some of the municipalities within the county, such as the cities of San Diego and
Carlsbad, require that 100% of the paper used in the municipal offices contain some
recycled content. Some agencies, such as the Department of Social Services, will buy
recycled paper regardless of the price difference. Because they receive Federal funding,
they are less affected by the price differentials between virgin and recycled paper than
other agencies. According to County policy, Federal funding is expended using Federal
rules, which currently include a requirement to purchase recycled content paper.
When San Diego first began buying recycled paper for its copy machines, copier
technicians complained that the recycled paper jammed the County's copiers. DPC's
response was to conduct some informal tests using the recycled paper, which included
subjective assessments of sheet brightness as well as performance in the County's copiers.
The performance tests involved running a quantity of recycled copier paper through
various copy machines, and then assessing whether or not the jam rate was comparable to
jam rates using virgin paper. After running tests, and having satisfied themselves that the
paper was acceptable both in terms of brightness and performance, DPC also managed to
convince its customers that recycled copier paper was a satisfactory product. It should be
noted that DPC does not engage in scientific testing or ranking -r products are put
through their paces and an informal assessment of their performance is made.
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Mr. Tollefson relates that despite his office's efforts to encourage the use of recycled
paper, some agencies nevertheless manage to circumvent the County mandate. If an
agency can make the case that only virgin product is acceptable for their applications, they
can get an exemption from the rule. In 1993, the Department of Information Systems
(DIS) was granted exemptions for re-inked printer ribbons and recycled paper for its high
speed and high volume laser printers. In both cases, DIS sought exemptions because of .
performance considerations.
In addition, according to Ms. Cortelyou, elected officials are not required to abide by
County policy. For example, some judges will only allow the use of virgin stenographic
recording paper, stating that information recording is critical in the judicial process and
that the likelihood of recycled paper jamming the machines is too high to be acceptable.
Mr. Tollefson states that agencies with sufficient political clout also have the freedom to
disregard the recycled product mandate. He also points out that this disregard for recycled
product statutes among elected officials and others is a problem in other counties and
states, and is not peculiar to San Diego.
Recycled toner cartridges
Initially, recycled toner cartridges caused even larger problems than recycled copier paper
not only in terms of product quality but also because they triggered an inter-agency
conflict. When the County started to purchase recycled toner cartridges in 1994, there
were initial toner smearing problems associated with their use. Because of this smudging
problem, the Department of Information Systems (DIS), which manages the County's
computer equipment, began to recommend that its County customers not use the recycled
toner cartridges. Because the DIS and DPC had not coordinated with each other, the two
agencies now had toner cartridge policies which were in direct conflict with each other.
Once DPC found recycled toner cartridges which did not cause smearing, it responded via
an open letter in the county employee newsletter to the effect that the toner cartridges
were fine and should be used.
A number of factors contributed to solving the toner cartridge problem, including
improvements in the product itself, user education, and a shift in the type of paper used
with the toner. According to Tollefson, even the manufacturers of recycled toner
cartridges will say that their initial products had serious performance problems. The
manufacturers were able to significantly improve recycled toner cartridges by making
changes in the way they replaced parts. Tollefson also noted that user misinformation was
a contributor to the number of complaints received by DPC about recycled toner
cartridges. Some users reported that printer and copier vendors would tell them that only
their own proprietary toner cartridges were suitable for use in their machines, which
caused users to distrust alternatives. Finally, pulp dust from some recycled papers caused
the toner cartridges to fail. Finding paper with lower dust content also helped in solving
the toner cartridge performance problem.
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Retreaded tires
San Diego County uses retreaded tires on all county vehicles except for sheriff patrol cars
and the steering axles on big trucks. These vehicles were exempted from using retreaded
tires because the Department of General Services felt that there is still some uncertainty
over how well retreaded tires hold up under high stress conditions, such as high speed
pursuit and steering of eighteen-wheelers.
Re-refined motor oil
San Diego County purchases a considerable amount of re-refined motor oil. All motor oil
used in San Diego County vehicles (including re-refined oil) must meet SAE (Society of
Automotive Engineers) standards. The main difficulty the County has encountered when it
purchases re-refined oil is its high price compared to virgin motor oil. Warranty issues also
present problems to the County. Since Ford has not yet approved the use of 5W/30 grade
re-refined oil for its new police cars, the County will not purchase re-refined 5W/30 until it
gets approval from Ford.
Another significant problem that the County has with re-refined oil is that they currently
lack a closed loop recycling system for the oil. Since their vendor, Evergreen Oil, is based
in the Midwest, transporting spent oil back to the re-refiner is too expensive to be
economically feasible.
Problems notwithstanding, San Diego is purchasing increasingly larger amounts of re-
refined oil.
1993: $52,321 of re-refined oil purchased
1994: $625,495 of re-refined oil purchased
Although prices may have risen between 1993 and 1994, along with total demand for oil,
dollars spent nevertheless increased by an order of magnitude, which suggests a substantial
increase in the actual amount of re-refined oil procured.
San Diego County currently tracks only a small number of recycled purchases. Although
many products containing recycled content are purchased, there is currently no complete
list of such products. The following is a listing of the tracked products purchased through
DPC in fiscal years 1993/94 and 1994/95:
ITEM
Recycled tires
Recycled xerographic paper
Recycled toilet tissue and paper towels
Re-refined motor oil
TOTAL
PY 1993/94
$ 329,915.67
$ 379,872.41
$ 242,078.42
$ 52,320.91
$1,004,187.41
FY 1994/95
$ 366,181
$ 334,675
$ 313,782
$ 625,495
$1,640,133
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Other issues
It is Mr. Tollefson's opinion that at the outset of their recycled product procurement
campaign, San Diego County should have had a recycled products coordinator selected by
the County Board of Supervisors to drive some of the issues. Tollefson's view is that such
an individual would have helped the program to start up a little more smoothly than it did.
The recycled products coordinator would have been responsible for communicating with
customer agencies about recycled products, encouraging their use, and acting as the
contact person in the case of difficulties or complaints with the products. For example, the
Board of Supervisors has a specially selected person who is responsible for local business
development. Environmental concerns ought to be as important to the County as local
business development, says Mr. Tollefson.
When asked whether socio-economic/political issues such as "buy local" or "buy
American" ever conflicted with the goals of the recycled product procurement program,
Mr. Tollefson related that this was essentially a non-issue. Mr. Tollefson relates that
within the recycled product procurement program, DPC's primary concerns were the need
to reduce solid waste. For example, while there exists a 1% price preference for products
produced within the County, in practice it is almost never a factor. According to Mr.
Tollefson, there have been no instances where there was a procurement decision conflict
between a locally produced virgin product (with its 1% price preference) and a non-locally
produced recycled product.
Drivers of Policy
The driving forces for encouraging the purchase of recycled products come from three
separate sources:
1. Department of Purchasing and Contracting
2. Department of Solid Waste
3. Automated purchasing system
Dept. of Purchasing and Contracting
DPC employs several means to discover new recycled products, including sending its staff
to trade shows and working with vendors that carry recycled content products. Decisions
to pursue new products are made based on meetings between senior buyers and other
purchasing staff. Buyers are responsible for keeping abreast of new products in their
product lines. '
DPC also participates in cooperative contracts containing recycled products with other
counties as well as the State of California. These efforts are often coordinated through the
California Association of Public Purchasing Officers. According to Tollefson, one major
benefit of these cooperative contracts relevant to recycled products is that the large
volumes of goods purchased often result in lower prices.
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Central Stores is a centralized warehouse managed by DPC which stocks some of the
goods used in high volume by the County. The sheer number of units Central Stores
moves allows it to have a significant influence on the types of products purchased. By
purchasing recycled paper products in large volume, Central Stores gets better prices than
smaller individual customers and helps to reduce the price differential between virgin and
recycled products. This provides another way of driving the purchase of recycled
products. Products stocked by Central Stores include paper products and canned food for
the Department of Corrections.
Department of Solid Waste
In addition to DPC, environmental procurement initiatives are coming from other areas of
the County government as well. Examples include the County initiative to replace lights in
county buildings with more energy efficient lighting fixtures.
The Department of Solid Waste (DSW) plays an important role in recycled products
procurement by augmenting DPC's efforts in this area. DSW performs three functions
which are relevant to procurement: 1) provision of information about recycled products to
the public as well as contractors; 2) identification of new products with recycled content,
such as trash cans and oil recycling containers, and 3) specifying that recycled products be
used in construction and other contracts.
By specifying that recycled materials be used in construction contracts, DSW can have a
significant impact on the amount of recycled materials used. Ms. Cortelyou mentioned
recycled PVC vent pipes and rubberized asphalt as examples of materials specified in
construction contracts. DSW confers with its own engineers as well as engineers from
other agencies (e.g., California Department of Transportation, or Caltrans) to obtain
expert opinions on the performance of recycled products. In situations where the recycled
product has not been tested to the satisfaction of the parties involved, DSW will
occasionally create pilot projects to determine for themselves the suitability of the product.
Automated purchasing system
San Diego County has invested a considerable amount of effort and resources into the
development of their automated purchasing system. The computer system began
approximately seven years ago as an electronic requisitioning system, but has grown to
incorporate purchasing as well as other communication abilities. It has evolved to the
point where 100% of requisitions between $2,500 and $100,000 are now made on the
system, and interactions between DPC and suppliers also occur on-line. This electronic
purchasing system also allows DPC to automatically track purchases. In addition, San
Diego is currently implementing a pilot project involving the so-called County Commodity
Catalog, which will prompt users to requisition a recycled product if such an alternative is
available.
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According to Mr. Tollefson, San Diego County's philosophy on recycled products and
products with lesser environmental impacts in general is to push the envelope using
whatever means they have at their disposal. To San Diego, the computerized purchasing
system is an important tool in their recycled product procurement efforts. Mr. Tollefson
relates that over time, the recycled product procurement program will become fully
automated, and the purchase of recycled products and other products with lesser
environmental impacts will be a common and natural occurrence for his County
customers. Mr. Tollefson states that effectively mainstreaming recycled product
procurement in the County would be an important success for their program.
The automated purchasing system is divided into three modules: automated requisitioning,
automated requisition management (purchasing), and the electronic commerce system.
Aside from small purchases (less than $2500) and purchases over $100,000, county
agency customers send requisitions to DPC via the electronic requisitioning. Of the 17,500
county employees, only 750 have the authority to make requisitions, and only 250 have
the authority to make requisition approvals. Once DPC receives a requisition, buyers use
the Automated Requisition Management module to amend the requisition and to create a
Request for Quotation. These solicitations are then uploaded to the interactive electronic
commerce system bulletin board, which can be accessed by suppliers. Suppliers can
respond electronically with quotations, which are collected in a spreadsheet for buyers.
The electronic commerce system bulletin board can be accessed by anyone with a modem .
at 619-685-2366, and will soon be accessible via the World Wide Web
(http://www.co.san-diego.ca.us).
To encourage the purchase of recycled products, San Diego has added a new feature to
the electronic requisitioning system. Products for which there exist equivalent recycled
products are tagged as such. Whenever a user selects a product to be purchased, the
system checks to see if the product requisitioned by a user has a recycled alternative. If it
does, the system provides the commodity code for the recycled equivalent, and reminds
the user of the County's recycled product procurement policy. San Diego County has
launched a pilot program with the Department of Social Services and the Department of
Health to test this new system.
Future Outlook
DPC's focus is clearly on implementing and improving the automated purchasing system,
and in particular the module which specifies recycled alternatives for conventional
products. Mr. Tollefson's describes his vision as "getting everyone aboard" so that all
County agencies may take advantage of the computer system.! Their goal is to get this
system up and running for all products and all County agencies by the end of 1996. By
1997, they hope to have the first year of complete purchasing data for the county. Another
priority for San Diego is to include other local governments in their electronic purchasing
system. They are currently in the final stages of discussions with the City of San Diego and
other southern California cities to get them on board with the computer system.
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Mr. Tollefson emphasizes that making procurement of recycled products a commonplace
activity among all of his customers is essential for the success of their recycled product
procurement campaign.
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Interviewee Contact Information
States
Maine
Richard B. Thompson, Director
Division of Purchases
Bureau of General Services
Department of Administrative and
Financial Services
State of Maine
State House Station # 9
Augusta ME 04333-0009
(207) 287-3521
richard.b.thompson@state.me.us
Minnesota
John Haggerty, Director, Materials
Management
Minnesota Department of Administration
State of Minnesota
50 Sherburne Ave., Room 112
St. Paul MN 55155
(612) 296-1442
john.haggerty@state.mn.us
Washington
Connie Ann Stacy, Contract Administrator
Department of General Administration
Office of State Procurement
State of Washington
201 General Administration Building
PO Box 41017
Olympia, WA 98504-1017
(360) 902-7433
cstacy@ga.wa.gov
Wisconsin
Dan Wehrman, Procurement Recycling
Coordinator
State Bureau of Procurement
Department of Administration
State of Wisconsin
101 East Wilson Street, 6th floor
PO Box 7967
Madison WI 53707-7867
(608)-267-6922
wehrmd@mail.state.wi.us
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Counties
King County WA
Eric Nelson
Program Coordinator
Recycled Product Procurement
King County Purchasing Agency
King County, Washington
500 4th Avenue, Room 620
Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 296-4324
eric.nelson@metrokc.gov
Karen Hamilton
Program Analyst
Recycled Product Procurement
King County Purchasing Agency
King County, Washington
500 4th Avenue, Room 620
Seattle WA 98104
(206)296-4317
karen.hamilton@metrokc.gov
San Diego County CA
Kenneth Tollefson, Manager of
Procurement Planning
Department of Purchasing and
Contracting
County of San Diego California
5555 Overland Avenue
San Diego CA 92123
(619) 694-2918
ktollepc@co.san-diego.ca.us
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Appendix A: Questionnaire for Selecting Interviewees
ENVIRONMENT ALLY PREFERABLE PRODUCTS STUDY
Dear respondent: Abt Associates is working with the U.S. EPA to produce a report on procurement
practices that encourage the purchase and use of environmentally preferable products and services
(EPPs). If you would, please take a moment to answer the following questions so that we can gain
some understanding about the way your purchasing organization conducts its activities with respect
to procuring EPPs. After analyzing the screeners, we will select a small number of organizations on
which we would like to conduct case studies. Please let us know if you would be willing to
participate in a case study. Please note that because of limited resources, we will only be able to
select a handful of organizations. Thanks in advance for your help.
Please forward responses and address questions to:
Meredith Bellows, Abt Associates Inc., 55 Wheeler St., Cambridge, MA 02138
Fax: 617 349-2660; Phone: 617 349-2786; e-mail: meredith_bellows@abtassoc.com
Name of respondent:
Title of respondent: _____
Organization/Agency:
Respondent Phone:
Address:
Fax:
Type of Program (circle):
STATE PURCHASING ORGANIZATION
COUNTY PURCHASING ORGANIZATION
OTHER ORGANIZATION:
Would you be interested in participating as a case study for our report?
1.) Organizational structure of Procurement Program
Describe your customers:
Do you have a system that computerizes procurement requests?
Does the computer system have features which educate or otherwise prompt the user to select
environmentally preferable products over conventional products?
Do you have a computerized system for tracking purchases?
Do you track dollars or volume of EPPs (or both)?
A-l
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2.) EPP Procurement Process
From where does the impetus for procuring EPPs come? (e.g., within your organization, from
another organization, executive order, legislation, customer preference, etc.)
Describe your experience with the procurement of EPPs (circle):
HAVE DONE A GOOD DEAL OF WORK
HAVE DONE A LITTLE WORK
I AM NOT THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR THESE PURCHASES
COMMENTS:
Do you have person responsible for managing environmental procurement?
Who?
Is his/her position located within the procurement organization/department?
In another organization? (e.g., Department of Environmental Protection)
Does your organization work with other organizations in the procurement of EPPs?
Which ones?
3.) Environmentally Preferable Products
Which of the following environmental attributes are currently being emphasized in your
procurement process?
Q RECYCLED CONTENT
Q RECYCLABLE
Q REMANUFACTURED
QREUSABLE
Q WASTE REDUCING
What other attributes are being emphasized?.
QLESS/NON TOXIC
Ql REDUCES AIR POLLUTION
Q LOW NOISE
Q ENERGY EFFICIENT
Q LOW WATER CONSUMPTION
Which attributes/types of products would you like to consider in the future?.
A-2
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