42 U.S.C. § 6962 — Federal procurement

(a) Application of section Except as provided in subsection (b), a procuring agency^* must follow this section and regulations issued under it for a purchase or acquisition of a procurement item^* if the item costs more than $10,000, or if the quantity of that item or functionally equivalent items bought or acquired during the preceding fiscal year was $10,000 or more.

(b) Procurement subject to other law A procurement by a procuring agency that is subject to the Administrator's regulations under section 6964 of this title, as issued before October 21, 1976, under comparable earlier law, is not subject to this section to the extent that this section's requirements conflict with those regulations.

(c) Requirements

(1) After the date stated in applicable guidelines prepared under subsection (e), each procuring agency that buys an item designated in those guidelines must buy the item with the highest practicable percentage of recovered materials. For paper, it must use the highest practicable percentage of the postconsumer recovered materials described in subsection (h)(1). This duty applies only if doing so is consistent with maintaining a satisfactory level of competition and with the guidelines. The agency may decide not to buy the item only if it determines that the procurement item—

(A) is not reasonably available within a reasonable time;

(B) does not meet the performance standards in the applicable specifications or the agency's reasonable performance standards; or

(C) is available only at an unreasonable price.

For a determination under subparagraph (B), the agency must use the guidelines of the National Institute of Standards and Technology whenever those guidelines cover the material.

(2) An agency that produces heat, mechanical energy, or electrical energy from fossil fuel in a system technically capable of using energy or fuel made from solid waste^* as a primary or supplementary fuel must use that capability to the maximum practicable extent.

(3)(A) After the date stated in applicable guidelines prepared under subsection (e), contracting officers must require vendors to—

(i) certify that the percentage of recovered materials to be used to perform the contract will be at least the amount required by applicable specifications or other contract requirements; and

(ii) estimate what percentage of all material used to perform the contract is recovered material^*.

(B) Clause (ii) of subparagraph (A) applies only to a contract worth more than $100,000.

(d) Specifications Each Federal agency^* responsible for drafting or reviewing specifications for procurement items bought by Federal agencies must—

(1) as quickly as possible, and no later than 18 months after November 8, 1984, remove from those specifications—

(A) any exclusion of recovered materials; and

(B) any requirement that items be made from virgin materials; and

(2) within one year after applicable guidelines under subsection (e) are published, or within another period stated in those guidelines, make sure that those specifications require the use of recovered materials to the maximum possible extent without endangering the item's intended end use.

(e) Guidelines The Administrator^*, after consulting the Administrator of General Services, the Secretary^* of Commerce acting through the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Director^* of the Government Publishing Office, must prepare guidelines for procuring agencies to use in complying with this section. The Administrator must review the guidelines at least once every 5 years and revise them when appropriate. The Administrator must consult recyclers and manufacturers of products containing recycled content. The Administrator must complete the review required after November 15, 2021, no later than 2 years after the initial review is completed, and must thereafter review and revise the guidelines as appropriate. The guidelines must—

(1) designate items that are or can be made with recovered materials and whose purchase by procuring agencies will carry out this section's objectives; for paper, they must provide for maximizing the use of the postconsumer recovered materials described in subsection (h)(1); and

(2) state^* recommended practices^* for buying recovered materials and items containing them and for vendors' certification of the percentage of recovered materials used. They must provide information about the availability, relative price, and performance of those materials and items and, when appropriate, recommend the amount of recovered material the purchased product should contain.

The Administrator must prepare final guidelines for paper within 180 days after November 8, 1984, and for three additional product categories, including tires, by October 1, 1985. When making the designation under paragraph (1), the Administrator must consider—

(A) whether the items are available;

(B) how buying the items would affect the amount of solid waste that must be treated, stored, or disposed of;

(C) whether producing and using the items is economically and technologically feasible; and

(D) other uses for the recovered materials.

(f) Procurement of services To the maximum practicable extent, a procuring agency must manage or arrange for buying solid-waste-management services in a way that maximizes recovery of energy and resources.

(g) Executive Office The Office of Procurement Policy in the Executive Office of the President, working with the Administrator, must carry out this section's requirements. The Office must coordinate this policy with other Federal procurement policies to maximize the use of recovered resources^*. Beginning in 1984, every 2 years it must report to Congress on actions taken by Federal agencies and progress in carrying out this section, including agencies' compliance with subsection (d).

(h) “Recovered materials” defined In this section, for paper products, “recovered materials” includes—

(1) postconsumer materials such as—

(A) paper, paperboard, and fibrous waste from retail stores, office buildings, homes, and similar places, after the material has been used by a consumer as an item, including used corrugated boxes, old newspapers, old magazines, mixed waste paper, tabulating cards, and used cordage; and

(B) all paper, paperboard, and fibrous waste that enters and is collected from municipal solid waste; and

(2) manufacturing residues, forest residues, and other waste such as—

(A) dry paper and paperboard waste generated after the papermaking process is complete. This includes manufacturing operations through and including cutting and trimming the paper-machine reel into smaller rolls or rough sheets. It includes envelope cuttings, bindery trimmings, and other paper and paperboard waste from printing, cutting, forming, and other converting operations; bag, box, and carton manufacturing waste; and butt rolls, mill wrappers, and rejected unused stock;

(B) finished paper and paperboard from obsolete inventories of paper and paperboard manufacturers, merchants, wholesalers, dealers, printers, converters, or others;

(C) fibrous byproducts of harvesting, manufacturing, extractive, or wood-cutting processes, including flax, straw, linters, bagasse, slash, and other forest residues;

(D) waste produced by converting goods made from fibrous material, including waste rope from cordage manufacturing, textile-mill waste, and cuttings; and

(E) fibers recovered from wastewater that otherwise would enter the waste stream.

(i) Procurement program

(1) Within one year after applicable guidelines under subsection (e) are published, each procuring agency must develop an affirmative procurement program. The program must ensure, to the maximum practicable extent and consistently with applicable Federal procurement law, that the agency buys items made with recovered materials.

(2) At a minimum, each required affirmative procurement program must contain—

(A) a recovered-materials preference program;

(B) an agency promotion program to promote the preference program adopted under subparagraph (A);

(C) a program requiring estimates of the total percentage of recovered material used to perform a contract, certification of the minimum recovered-material content actually used when appropriate, and reasonable procedures for checking those estimates and certifications; and

(D) an annual review and monitoring of how effective the agency's affirmative procurement program is.

For paper, the preference program required under subparagraph (A) must provide for the maximum use of the postconsumer recovered materials described in subsection (h)(1).

(3) When developing the preference program, the agency must consider adopting the following options:

(A) Case-by-Case Policy Development: Subject to the limits in subsection (c)(1)(A) through (C), a policy of awarding contracts to the vendor offering an item with the highest practicable percentage of recovered materials. For paper, this means the highest practicable percentage of the postconsumer recovered materials described in subsection (h)(1). Subject to those limits, an agency may award a contract to a vendor offering items with less than the maximum recovered-material content.

(B) Minimum Content Standards: Specifications setting minimum recovered-material content so that the required content is the maximum available without endangering the item's intended end use or violating the limits in subsection (c)(1)(A) through (C). For paper, this includes the content of the postconsumer materials described in subsection (h)(1).

Each procuring agency must adopt one of the options in subparagraphs (A) and (B), or a substantially equivalent alternative, for its affirmative procurement program.

(j) Consultation and provision of information by Administrator The Administrator must—

(1) consult with each procuring agency, including the agency's contractors, to clarify the agency's responsibilities under this section; and

(2) give each procuring agency information about this section's requirements and the agency's responsibilities under it.

(k) Reports After consulting the Administrator of General Services, the Administrator must submit an annual report to Congress describing—

(1) the quantity of federally purchased recycled products listed in the guidelines under subsection (e); and

(2) for the products described in paragraph (1), the percentage of recycled material in each product.