How to ... buy
Recycled content products More recycled products Paper Office equipment Vegetation materials Construction materials Recycling waste materials needs to be linked with the buying habits of consumers. This process is sometimes referred to as 'closing the loop'.
Buying recycled content products creates viable, long-term markets for recovered waste materials. Without consumer support, markets for recycled waste materials - and products made from them - will not reach their full potential.
The many advantages to government agencies of buying recycled content products include:
- makes more efficient use of valuable resources
- reduced cost of waste disposal
- meeting community expectations
- protecting the environment.
Some consumers can be wary of recycled content products due to concerns about performance and quality. In some cases these concerns may be justified, although the same can also be true of cheaper brands of virgin materials. Careful testing and selection of recycled content products can minimise such problems.
In some cases, recycled content products may be slightly more expensive. If you implement waste avoidance and recovery practices as part of your WRAPP plan, the savings will offset the additional cost.
- Audit the materials you buy and identify which are virgin or contain recycled content. This information will assist you in developing a list of virgin materials to target for substitution
- Research what types of recycled content products are available and their specifications, performance and cost.
- Inform your supplier(s) that you want recycled content products and that they need to consider supplying these types of products if they want to retain your business.
- Remove clauses in supply contracts biased against recycled content products. Insert conditions requiring suppliers to use or provide acceptable recycled content products, if available.
- Avoid over-specification, such as requiring high brightness paper for publications: focus on the function of the material.
- Develop and implement a 'buy-recycled policy' across your organisation. Promote the policy to management and staff. Get senior management support for the policy
- Educate staff on the principles of buying recycled content products, emphasising the important contribution they can make to saving the organisation money and protecting the environment.
- Develop data collection and reporting systems to measure the progress of your buy-recycled policy. You may need to work with your procurement and IT people to do this.
- Review how well recycled content products are working from time to time to ensure they are performing up to required standards.
Get some runs on the board
Changing the way an organisation (even a small one) buys materials and manages its waste is no small task. However, doing some research and focusing initially on just a few materials will enable you to get some 'runs on the board' before moving on to bigger purchasing issues and waste streams.
Page last updated: 27 February 2011
