# Presentation: 169934

## Affirmative ProcurementTraining for Federal                Credit Card Holders 

- EO 13101 and the Federal Government’s Mandatory Buy Recycled Program

## Affirmative Procurement

- The policy and practice of purchasing goods made with recycled materials

**Notes:**
(Read definition.)  Otherwise known as “Buying Recycled”.  Shown here is one of the few absolutely mandatory standards – that we as federal agencies purchase paper with a minimum recycled content of 30%.  This became effective 1 January 1999.

## Affirmative Procurement vs. Environmentally Preferable Purchasing

- Recycled-content materials
- Certain items designated by EPA in Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines (CPG)
- Guidance in Recovered Materials Advisory Notices (RMANs)

- May involve a multitude of attributes
- Reduced toxicity, less packaging, reparability, energy savings, create less HW, recycled content
- Items not specifically identified

- AP

- EPP

**Notes:**
AP certainly overlaps another term we hear a lot about – Environmentally preferable purchasing.  Here are a few of the differences between the two.  While AP deals with one attribute, recycled content; EPP involves many attributes, one of which is recycled content.  With EPP, what is important to the user, the corporation, or the installation will govern which attributes are emphasized over others.
AP is more specific in that EPA designates certain products to be purchased with recycled content – in their 
Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines.
The Recommended Material Advisory Notices, or RMANs, give guidance on specific percentages of recycled content in those materials.

## Why Affirmative Procurement?

*Why Affirmative Procurement?*

**The Federal government spends about $200 Billion every year – and has put this buying power behind the country’s recycling programs  **

- As stewards of federal dollars, we are obligated to purchase
- designated items containing recycled materials

## AP Benefits

*AP Benefits*

**purchasing**

**collection**

**manufacturing**

- Creates recycling markets
- Saves energy
- Conserves resources
- Saves money
- Saves landfill space
- Reduces pollution

**Purchasing recycled products is the key to completing the recycling loop!**

**Notes:**
two clicks. Start with the benefits – if people understand the reasons behind something, they are more likely to go along with it.  AP uses the power of the federal spending to help create markets for recycled products and produce other benefits such as saving energy and landfill space.  Several years ago I attended a town meeting where the county executive talked about the flashy blue recycling collection trucks the county had purchased.  On a trip to the county landfill, however, he saw a line of blue recycling trucks going in to deposit recyclables as wastes.   Recyclables were being dutifully collected but there was no market for them.  Click.  Buying recycled completes the recycling loop, and makes the whole process work and helps to make all our recycling efforts worthwhile

Don’t forget the benefit of saving money – as technology advances, costs usually go down for recycled materials.  Tires – case in point.

## Why Affirmative Procurement?

- IT'S THE LAW

## Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), 1976

- Section 6002 required EPA to publish guidelines for affirmative procurement and required *procuring agencies* to develop an AP program within 1 year of publication of the guidelines

## WHAT IS A  PROCURING AGENCY                    (WHO DOES THIS APPLY TO?)

- Procuring Agency – any Federal agency or contractor using appropriated Federal funds for a procurement
- Applies for procurements exceeding $10,000 in a year
- $10,000 threshold applies to entire agency (e.g., Dept. of Agriculture, Dept. of Interior, etc.)

## Exemptions

- According to RCRA, procuring agencies must follow the CPGs **unless the product**:
- Is available at an unreasonable price
- Will not meet reasonable performance standards
- Is unavailable within a reasonable timeframe at a sufficient level of competition

- Price

- Performance

- Availability

## EO 13101 – Greening the Government Through Waste Prevention, Recycling and Federal Acquisition (1998)

- Directed EPA to include AP in compliance inspections
- Required agencies to provide AP training
- Required procuring agencies to follow CPGs published in the Federal Register
- Introduced biobased products as part of AP programs
- Encouraged purchase of environmentally preferable products and services

## What are the Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines (CPGs) and Recovered Materials Advisory Notices (RMANs)?

- CPGs designate the products that must contain recovered material
- RMANs provide recycled-content recommendations and guidance on buying recycled-content products

- CPG

- RMAN

## And The Products Are:

- Construction
- Landscaping
- Non-paper Office
- Paper and Paper Products
- Parks and Recreation
- Transportation
- Vehicular
- Miscellaneous

*EPA-Designated Product Categories*

## CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTS

- _DESIGNATED ITEMS_:
- Building insulation
- Carpet
- Cement and concrete
- Consolidated and reprocessed latex paint
- Floor tiles
- Laminated paperboard
- Patio blocks
- Shower and restroom dividers

- Structural fiberboard
- Carpet cushion
- Flowable fill
- Railroad grade crossings/surfaces

## LANDSCAPING PRODUCTS

- _DESIGNATED ITEMS_:
- Garden and soaker hoses
- Hydraulic mulch
- Lawn and garden edging
- Yard trimmings compost

- Food waste compost
- Landscaping timbers and posts (plastic lumber)

## NON-PAPER OFFICE PRODUCTS

- _DESIGNATED ITEMS_:
- Binders (paper, plastic covered)
- Office recycling containers
- Office waste receptacles
- Plastic desktop accessories
- Plastic envelopes
- Plastic trash bags
- Printer ribbons
- Toner cartridges

- Solid plastic binders
- Plastic clipboards
- Plastic clip portfolios
- Plastic file folders
- Plastic presentation folders

## PAPER AND PAPER PRODUCTS

- _DESIGNATED ITEMS_:
- Commercial/industrial sanitary tissue products
- Miscellaneous papers
- Newsprint
- Paperboard and packaging products
- Printing and writing papers

## PARK AND RECREATION PRODUCTS

- _DESIGNATED ITEMS:_
- Plastic fencing
- Playground surfaces
- Running tracks

- Park and recreational furniture
- Playground equipment

## TRANSPORTATION PRODUCTS

- _DESIGNATED ITEMS_:
- Channelizers
- Delineators
- Flexible delineators
- Parking stops
- Traffic barricades
- Traffic cones

## VEHICULAR PRODUCTS

- _DESIGNATED ITEMS_:
- Engine coolants
- Re-refined lubricating oils
- Retread tires

## MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTS

*MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTS*

- _DESIGNATED ITEMS_:
- Pallets
- Sorbents
- Awards and plaques
- Industrial drums
- Mats
- Signage, including supports
- Strapping and stretch wrap

## What About the Mandated Sources of Supply?

*What About the Mandated Sources of Supply?*

**Small     **
**Businesses**

- First define your product needs; for example, **folders made with recycled content paper**
- Second, go to your mandatory sources
- If they don’t supply the item, let them know you require recycled content!
- Check with them often to see if they supply the item

## Where Can These Products Be Found?

- Government Supply Sources
- General Services Administration (GSA)*
- Defense Logistics Agency (DLA)*
- Government Printing Office (GPO)*
- Federal Logistics Information System (FLIS)
- Beltsville Service Center
- JWOD
- UNICOR

- *These agencies have automatic substitution
- (paper and re-refined oil) and also report all
- federal purchases up the chain!

## AP Made Easy...

- Use The Web
**For Information**
- EPA:  www.epa.gov/cpg
**To Search for Products**
- GSA www.gsa.gov
- DLA www.dscr.dla.mil
- EPA http://notes.erg.com/
- CA Waste Management Board’s Recycled Content Database: www.ciwmb.ca.gov/rcp/

## How Will Purchases of EPA-Designated Items be Monitored?

- EPA RCRA Inspections
- EPA Facility Questionnaires
- Reporting of Purchases
- Environmental Audits
- OIG Inspections

## What Should You Do?

- Keep the list of CPG items handy – refer to it when making purchases
- Maximize your purchases of recycled-content items by
- Searching for recycled-content products in catalogs and online sources
- Requesting recycled-content items from your vendors
- Document noncompliant purchases (those not meeting recycled-content requirements) over $2,500 (for reasons of price, performance, or availability)

## What Else Should You Do?

- Await guidance for tracking and reporting
- Currently no requirement for credit card purchases to be tracked
- Document Your Awareness Training!

## You’re Almost Done

- Make sure you fill out the registration form at the end of this presentation.