United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Solid Waste and
Emergency Response
(5305W)
EPA530-N-96-006
April/
May 1996
SEPA
REUSABLE
NEWS Bulletin
Agencies Awarded for Closing the Loop
T!
I he White House hon-
ored 22 government
agencies for their
achievements in recycling,
waste reduction, and buying
recycled at the second annu-
al Closing the Circle Awards
ceremony, held on April 22,
1996. The awards recognize
agency accomplishments
under Executive Order 12873, Federal Acquisition,
Recycling, and Waste Prevention, which encourages
agencies to buy recycled and promote recycling and
source reduction activities. Approximately 150 peo-
ple attended the event, held in Washington, DC.
This year's award-winners include the U.S. Postal
Service headquarters for its purchase of recycled-con-
tent paper products, which now represent 48 percent
of its total paper purchases. EPA and the General
Services Administration (GSA) in Region 4 helped
educate more than 700 officials about the importance
of buying recycled. The Defense Logistics Agency's
Defense Distribution Depot in New Cumberland,
Pennsylvania, received an award for reducing its
wood and cardboard materials by repairing wooden
pallets, grinding wood waste into mulch, and process-
ing scrap cardboard into recycled-content fiberboard
cartons. These efforts enabled the depot to save an
estimated $1 million in avoided disposal costs.
For more information about the Closing the Circle
Awards, contact Marialane Schultz in the Office of
the Federal Environmental Executive at 202 260-1297.
Source Reduction Roundtable II
M
I ore than 70 solid waste man-
agers, policy makers, and
industry experts attended the
Source Reduction Measurement
Roundtable II on April 18-19, 1996,
in Washington, DC. Organized by the
Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA)
and sponsored by EPA, the round-
table provided an opportunity to dis-
cuss current attempts to measure
source reduction and learn about
tools local government officials can
use to quantify source reduction in
their communities. Additional sup-
port for the event was pro-
vided by the American
Plastics Council, Dow
Chemical, and the
Document Company, Xerox.
Presentations included
efforts to measure waste
prevention in a Rhode
Island community and
paper reduction in
the New York State
General Assembly. Industry leaders
also discussed their plans to work
with the Coalition of Northeastern
Governors to develop a national
source reduction index for packaging.
Three state legislators from New
York, Minnesota, and Georgia led a
panel discussion setting goals for
source reduction and measuring
progress. In addition, participants
learned about an EPA manual cur-
rently being developed that will help
local governments plan for imple-
menting source reduction programs.
Ongoing efforts to gauge the
success of composting,
grasscycling, and con-
sumer education programs
were also discussed.
For more information
about the roundtable, con-
tact Elizabeth Kelly at
at 202 956-5126 or
Eugene Lee of EPA
at 703 308-7270.
This issue of the Reusable News Bulletin is also avail-
able on the Internet. To access EPA publications through the
World Wide Web, type:
h ttp ://earth l.epa. gov/OS WRCRA/n onh w/recycle/re use
Through Gopher, the address is: gopher.epa.gov:70/11/
Offices/Waste/OSWRCRA/nonhw/recycle/reuse
ReDO Helps to
Boost Reuse
To promote reuse as an environ-
mentally preferable alternative
to disposal, representatives
from several organizations that spe-
cialize in reusing materials have
established the Reuse Development
Organization (ReDO). ReDO will fos-
ter information sharing among reuse
businesses (e.g., Goodwill, Habitat
for Humanity) in an attempt to
expand the reuse industry and raise
awareness of its activities.
ReDO was created to fill a void
identified at the February 1995
Conference on Reuse, sponsored in
part by the New York State Office of
Recycling Market Development.
Conference participants recognized
a lack of networking opportunities
for reuse organizations to discuss
common concerns and potential
advocacy efforts. Through work-
shops, publications, and video case
studies planned for the future,
ReDO hopes to satisfy this need for
resource sharing and provide a
forum for creative collaboration on
issues surrounding reuse.
For more information about
ReDO, contact Hope Cucina at 301
678-5503 or Mary Lou Van Devender
at 510 232-7724.
Printed on paper that contains at least 20 percent postconsumer fiber.
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RESOURCES
Buying Recycled Made Easy
To make it easier for government agencies to buy recycled, EPA is developing a
series of fact sheets on products designated under the Comprehensive
Procurement Guideline (CPG). The CPG identifies seven categories of recy-
cled-content items that federal, state, or local agencies or government contractors
using appropriated federal funds should purchase. Agencies began purchasing
these products on May 1, 1996.
The first three fact sheets in this series focus on transportation products such as
traffic cones and barricades, park and recreation products including playground sur-
faces and running tracks, and non-paper office products like desktop trays and
other accessories. The fact sheets explain the CPG and its accompanying Recovered
Materials Advisory Notice (RMAN), which recommends recycled-content levels to
look for when purchasing products in these categories. They stress the importance
of buying recycled and help purchasers understand how to comply with CPG
requirements. A comprehensive list of resources includes relevant publications and
contacts for more information.
All three fact sheets are available from the RCRA Hotline by calling 800 424-
9346 or TDD 800 553-7672. In the Washington, DC, metropolitan area, call 703
412-9810 or TDD 703 412-3323. Ask for document number EPA530-F-96-011 for
the fact sheet on transportation products, EPA530-F-96-012 for park and recreation
products, and EPA530-F-96-013 for non-paper office products.
Recycling Resources on the
Information Superhighway
M
ore and more solid waste planners, recycling coordinators, and waste
management professionals are turning to the Internet for new information
and ideas. To help these users find what they need, Resource Recycling
magazine has developed A Directory of On-Line Resources in Recycling and
Composting, The directory contains listings of more than 500 World Wide Web sites
and bulletin board systems that offer information about recycling, composting, and
other waste management techniques. The listings are arranged both alphabetically
and by organization type. To complement the directory, Resource Recycling will
publish a Guide to On-Line Resources in Recycling and Composting, which will
describe major Internet sites and evaluate their usefulness.
The directory is available for $12.95. For more information, contact Resource
Recycling at P.O. Box 10540, Portland, OR 97210-0540, by phone at 503 227-1319,
or via e-mail at resrecycle@aol.com.
NRC Forum Focuses
on Reducing and
Reusing
Through a grant with the
National Recycling Coalition
(NRC), EPA is promoting source
reduction and reuse practices and
programs through a Source
Reduction Forum. The forum assists
public and private sectors in imple-
menting source reduction and reuse
practices and in integrating source
reduction and reuse with recycling.
The forum's current projects are:
1) encouraging the use of source
reduced and reusable transport pack-
aging by small and medium-sized
businesses; 2) promoting successful
source reduction programs by local
governments; and 3) analyzing incen-
tives and disincentives to source
reduction practices in the public sec-
tor and industry.
For more information, call Chris
Benjamin at NRC at 703 683-9025.
Finding Source
Reduction Answers
Will pay-as-you-throw work in
my community? What mate-
rials can I use to educate
local residents about source reduc-
tion? These are just a few of the ques-
tions addressed at a source reduction
workshop held in April by the
International City/County
Management Association (ICMA) and
funded by EPA.
The workshop brought together 40
local government officials, experts,
and members of private companies
and nonprofit organizations from the
Mid-Atlantic states for a one-day
meeting in Catonsville, Maryland.
Workshop attendees learned about
model grasscycling, composting,
ecoshopping, and waste exchange
programs run by local governments,
as well as successful source reduction
initiatives in four Northeastern states.
For more information about this
workshop or another source reduc-
tion workshop in San Francisco on
June 4, 1996, contact Barbara Yuhas
at ICMA at 202 962-3539.
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