Resources for Buying Recycled and Environmentally Preferable Products
Prepared by the Southern California Council on Environment and Development (SCCED)
1247 Lincoln Blvd. #253, Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 390-4366 [email protected] www.scced.org
September 2001
BUY RECYCLED WEBSITES
Alameda County Waste Management Authority and Source Reduction and Recycling Board provides a 300-page Resourceful Purchasing Manual, a downloadable buyers manual designed to assist public agencies and others in purchasing high quality recycled and environmentally preferable products. http://www.stopwaste.org/purchasing.html
American Plastics Council “Shop Recycled Mall” makes it easy to shop for local recycled-content plastic products ranging from pencil cups to foam packaging. http://markets.plasticsresource.com
Buy Recycled Business Alliance site provides information and success stories for businesses, including a 30-page guide on implementing a buy recycled program and industry-specific guides and briefs. http://brba.nrc-recycle.org
California General Services Procurement Division has master contracts for state and local government purchasing of recycled materials. http://www.pd.dgs.ca.gov
California Integrated Waste Management Board Recycled Products Database includes listings in the Official Recycled Products Guide and search of over 10,000 products and businesses by type and recycled content level. http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/RCP/
Other info at http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/BuyRecycled
California Materials Exchange (CalMAX) has free or low cost products of all types. http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/CalMAX
City of Santa Monica Environmental Program including buy recycled & sustainable policies for transportation & other procurement http://www.ci.santa-monica.ca.us/environment/policy/
City of Santa Monica’s Environmental Purchasing Programs (US EPA Report): For copies of this and other valuable reports: http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/epp/doccase.htm
Conservatree’s Greenline provides practical and policy information on recycled paper, including an annual guide to hundreds of recycled papers. http://www.conservatree.com
US EPA Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics has a comprehensive website on Environmentally Preferable Purchasing at http://www.epa.gov/oppt/epp. The Database of Environmental Information for Products and Services includes product-specific information with environmental standards, guidelines and contract language used by federal, state, and local governments: http://yosemite1.epa.gov/oppt/eppstand2.nsf
EPA Office of Solid Waste Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines site provides EPA procurement guidelines, EPA documents, information on proposing products for designation, and additional recycled product site links. http://www.epa.gov/cpg
See recycled content requirements at http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/procure
EPA Waste Wi$e Buy Recycled site includes information, resources, and success stories on business buy-recycled efforts. http://www.epa.gov/wastewise/
GrassRoots Recycling Network has information on zero waste. http://www.grrn.org
Green Building News site provides a recycled building products directory as well as news updates for the design and construction industries. http://www.oikos.com see also www.BuildingGreen.com and www.greenspec.com
Green Cross: See Scientific Certification Systems, Inc. below.
Green Seal site lists recycled and environmentally preferable products uated through life cycle assessment and qualified for the Green Seal label. http://www.greenseal.org
Janitorial Products Pollution Prevention Project presents information on dangerous cleaning chemicals and safer alternatives. http://www.westp2net.org/Janitorial/jp4.htm
King County Procurement Information System includes contract clauses, policies, vendor lists, product performance histories and more. http://www.metrokc.gov/finance/procure
Massachusetts Environmentally Preferable Products Procurement site includes product listings, definitions, contract information, sample bid and contract language, fact sheets, and many other buy recycled resources. http://www.magnet.state.ma.us/osd/enviro/enviro.htm
National Association of Counties (NACO) Environmental Purchasing Campaign has a helpful starter kit. http://www.naco.org/programs/environ/
National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) provides a database of recycled products searchable by brand name, common name, distributor, manufacturer, post-consumer content, price, etc. http://www.fcn.state.fl.us/bpsr/drc_notice.html
Office of the Federal Environmental Executive site presents Executive Order 13101, “Greening the Government through Waste Prevention, Recycling, and Federal Acquisition,” and other buy recycled/recycling information. http://www.ofee.gov
Scientific Certification Systems, Inc.: third party verification of recycled content and other environmental attributes of products, qualifying items to carry Green Cross emblem, accompanied by specific text regarding environmental claims. http://www.scs1.com
Smart Office provides information on recycled and green office supplies, furnishings, interior building materials, recycling and source reduction economics for business. http://smartoffice.com
Tire Retread Information Bureau, questions & answers on tires. http://www.retread.org
BUY RECYCLED LISTSERVES
Cooperative Purchasing Hotline to share purchasing information among educational and public-sector communities. Sign up at http://www.merced.k12.ca.us/support/list1.htm
Environmentally Preferable Products Procurement Listserve (EPPNET) links federal, state, local and private procurement and environmental officials charged with purchasing environmentally preferable products. To join, go to http://www.nerc.org/eppnet.html and follow the instructions.
Green Building News: Go to http://www.oikos.com, and sign up for email news feed.
Initiative on Recycling Listserve. To join the list to promote recycled products send an email to [email protected] with the word SUBSCRIBE in the subject line.
Other Buy Recycled Resources
(including phone numbers)
Batteries re-conditioned Advance Batteries in Santa Monica, CA (310) 450-1630.
Buy Recycled Business Alliance 30-page guide on implementing a buy recycled program, (703) 683-9025, Ext. 403
California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB): Jerry Hart (916) 341-6473
California Resource Recovery Association (CRRA) (916)441-2772, http://www.crra.com
CalMAX (California MAterials EXchange), toll-free (877) 520-9703
Chlorine Free Paper: Claude Nelson, Rolland, Inc., (800) 567-9872; Jakob Jonsson (888) 807-8672; Terry Smith, Scheufelen North America, (800) 551-2470; Ed Kalupa, Manistique Papers, (800) 743-2389; Seventh Generation, (800) 456-1191; Chlorine Free Products Association, Mika Valtasaari, (847) 658-6104
Cleaning Products: The City of Santa Monica has a list of companies that offer environmental products, which include: The Clean Environment (The Natural Product Line) (800) 266-2353; Biochem Systems (Bio-T product line) from Mamco International (800) 442-4686; AFM (619) 239-0321; Harvey Universal (800) 800-3330; Naturally Yours (417) 889-3995; Enviro Care (800) 688-7642; BCD International (800) 422-9290; Water-based parts cleaner, Colleen Hassell at Dura Chem 714-630-4100.
Certified Forest Products Council promotes responsible forest products buying practices. (503) 590-6600 http://www.certifiedwood.org
Environmental Defense chart comparing energy consumption of virgin vs. recycled packaging materials:
Federal Facilities Master Specification Manual is available free from Shelly Worsham, Department of Energy (510) 486-6123.
l.A. Shares, materials reuse program, Bert Ball (213) 485-1097 http://www.lashares.org
National Association of Counties (NACO) Environmental Purchasing Campaign and Cooperative Purchasing Alliance, Tony Hayes (202) 393-6226
National Office Paper Recycling Project, US Conference of Mayors, (202) 293-7330.
Natural Gas Master Contract, available to all California counties and cities, (916) 323-6295.
Office supplies, discounts for counties and cities at Office Depot, Kevin Juhring, (800) 890-4914 ext. 6224
Oil filters: Delta Four in Sun Valley (818) 767-2302 recycles vehicle oil filters.
Plastic board (from plastic milk bottles): Janusetcie, Los Angeles (310) 652-7090
Recycled Paper Master Contract available to all California counties and cities. Contact Janco’s at (916) 391-4684 or fax (916) 391-4684 .
Recycled Paper Coalition has fact sheets. (650) 985-5568 http://www.papercoalition.org
Rubberized Asphalt Concrete Technology Center: (888) 777-4775.
Rubberized sidewalks: US Rubber Recycling Inc. (909) 466-4365.
Technical Information Sources: State of Massachusetts: Eric Friedman (617) 727-3260; State of Minnesota: Kelly Luck (612) 215-0220; St. Paul Neighborhood Energy Coalition: Pat Schoenecker (612) 644-5436; Washington Toxics Coalition: Philip Dickey (206) 632-1545; Green Seal: Arthur Weissman (202) 588-8400 (ask for Choose Green report); SAFE Consulting: Sophia Wakefield (307) 733-5418; Tom Barron, consultan