The following article is reprinted by permission of Resource Recycling, P.O. Box 10540, Portland, OR 97296-0540, (503) 227-1319, (503) 227-6135 (fax) -- November, 1996 issue
The authors are Leo Griffin, Karen Hamilton and Eric Nelson, all of King County. Leo Griffin is a senior analyst in the Roads Division and serves as the division's liaison with the Recycled Product Procurement program. Karen Hamilton and Eric Nelson staff the Recycled Product Procurement Program in the Procurement Services Division, coordinating implementation of the policy in county agencies.
Government purchasing can be an effective tool for market development - If it's in the right hands.
It's a well-known refrain that the success of recycling as a meaningful component of solid waste management depends on consistent markets for recycled materials. To enhance those markets, many governments are adopting buy-recycled policies to encourage their agencies to provide leadership to recycled materials markets by developing new applications for recycled materials and supporting innovative products through their purchasing practices.
King County, Washington -- the state's most populous county -- adopted its buy-recycled policy in 1989 and has developed policies and programs that really work to bring about changes in institutional purchasing practices. This success is largely due to creative use of education, incentives, and guerrilla tactics rather than control-based programs. Here, we offer some guidance for the recycled product procurement officer who is, very often, the new kid on the block, facing a bewildering array of policies, materials, and performance questions.
Influencing users
Persuading government agencies to institutionalize the purchase of recycled-content
products can be a tall order. It seems no matter what product you recommend, no matter how
many testimonials you have, agencies always seem to have a reason not to use it.
There are basically two methods to increase adoption of recycled products -- using executive fiat to order compliance or figuring out how to influence users to specify recycled products. This article is about the latter method.
Approaches that address perceptions in an organization's procurement culture are most effective in the long run. Long-term change in the purchasing behavior of your organization can be most effectively achieved by engaging the expertise and imagination of the users in the field. Here are a few tactics -- some of them slightly insidious -- that have helped us to capture and hold the attention and enthusiasm of the users whose expertise is the key to increasing the use of recycled materials.
Make connections
Identify the key people in field units and enlist them in the effort to find sensible uses
for recycled materials.
Start easy
Find out what recycled products users think are the most promising and start with those.
Recycled products are widespread enough now that most public sector employees are probably
already using some. Give the users credit for those and take their next suggestions. This
meets the needs of both parties and develops confidence in the program.
Know your product
Do your homework. Respect the expertise of the staff and support their refusal to buy
products that don't perform. You are asking people to give new materials a fair shake, not
to compromise performance standards or economy. The work needs to be done right and the
taxpayer's dollar needs to be spent wisely.
Communicate
New products and materials hit the market all the time. Improvements happen. Keep
materials users up-to-date - keep your copy machine and E-mail busy keeping users
informed.. Send new information to key people and ask them to make sure it gets into the
right hands if they don't have time to deal with it themselves.
Use existing networks
Don't duplicate established channels. People already go to enough meetings; make your
presentations at regular staff meetings instead of adding yet another meeting to the
calendar. By attending staffers' regular meetings, you can work with them in their own
element and see how new items and ideas are adopted.
Institutionalize purchasing
Make it easier for employees to buy recycled products. Institute blanket purchase orders
and annual contracts. Do you have a central stores agency? Stock recycled products there.
Consider allowing waivers of some purchasing regulations if a product is recycled.
Consider adopting a 5% rule -- allow employees to purchase recycled content products if
prices are within 5% of the non-recycled product. Sometimes, the quality or performance of
the recycled content item justifies the 5%.
Institutionalize recycled product recordkeeping
Don't require the employees to keep elaborate records on recycled-content products.
Instead, use existing accounting or management information systems (MIS) wherever
possible. Assist in collecting data from vendors and users.
Get management support
Try to establish high-level policy to encourage agencies to help develop sensible uses for
recycled materials and spread the word about the results of their efforts. Make sure the
policy clearly states that these efforts will not ask users to buy bad products or to
spend unreasonable amounts of money and that the professionals who manage projects and
specify materials will make the decisions about what to purchase.
Provide direct assistance
Offer to help write justifications, serve on committees, do leg-work, coordinate media,
research ways to amend regulations and specifications, and connect users with successful
projects and products.
Ask a lot of questions (and listen to the answers)
Learn the qualities that users need in the materials they use. If users are not accepting
certain items, try to identify the real reasons for this failure. Sometimes it is hard to
determine why a certain product isn't being tried, so keep asking questions. Solicit input
from the top to the bottom of the organization.
Use incentives
Help agencies with recycled product procurement. No agency has the time or resources to
give full attention to recycled product procurement at all times. You can help keep this
objective in mind by offering frequent educational programs, tours, travel, free products,
cost sharing on the purchase of recycled items, t-shirts, tote bags, or whatever you've
got.
Recognize and reward, reward, reward
Make sure all employees involved in the adoption of an item are recognized. Reward teams,
not just individuals. If the program goes well, share the glory. If it doesn't, be
prepared to take more than your share of blame. Especially, reward initiative. The
recognition or reward need not be elaborate; a thank-you letter with a copy to an
employee's boss usually goes a long way (but don't send so many that the boss thinks the
employees are spending all their time working for you). If you need ideas, consult the
book 1001 Ways to Reward Employees by Bob Nelson (Workman Publishing, 1994).
Don't overdo it
Changing the procurement process means asking a lot of people to change a lot of things
about the ways they go about their work. Start out with products in which there is already
interest. You'll be more likely to have success, and you can use that success as leverage
to help users undertake larger projects. Adopt goals and timelines for evaluating
products. If you are using public money, don't try a large project without testing or
doing a pilot project first. You could generate a newsworthy event of the wrong kind,
which could set back the whole effort.
Allow for failures
Remember, not every project will be a success. Set up a fund or grant program to encourage
agencies to conduct pilot programs. Make sure the amount of the grant will cover the
increased costs of materials and documentation. Try to have a skunkworks where a certain
amount of "new" will be tried. Establish a grant amount that won't be so large,
you'll be unable to defend it in the media -- you may be asked to. You can learn a lot
from informal tests and small trials.
Promote
Publicize the results of trials and evaluations of recycled content products. Share both
good and bad experiences to help other internal and external organizations learn from you
-- and ask them to reciprocate. This is an area in which many people have a lot to learn;
we can all benefit from talking to each other and sharing our experiences.
Conclusion
Although executive fiat may seem quicker, using collaborative strategies will be more
effective in the long run. The more you can engage the expertise and the imagination of
the users in the field, the better able you will be to institutionalize the use of
recycled products to make the most effective use of scarce resources and scarce tax
dollars.
The King County Recycled Product Procurement Policy: Key components
Recycled products used by King County agencies
| 1995-96 purchases by King County agencies | ||
|---|---|---|
| Commodity | Spending (in $'s) | Savings (in $'s) |
| Paper | 952,768 | |
| Aggregate, concrete | 78,981 | 15,000 |
| Aggregate, glass | 2,500 | 2,500 |
| Asphalt | 4,590 | 15,000 |
| Antifreeze | 6,744 | |
| Can-liners, litter bags | 95,952 | |
| Compost, yard waste | 9,989 | |
| Compost, biosolids | 200,000 | |
| Oil | 35,384 | |
| Plastic lumber | 12,571 | |
| Wood | 139,560 | 80,000 |
| Toner cartridges | 87,427 | 200,000 |
| Tire retreading | 107,510 | |
| TOTAL | 1,733,976 | 312,500 |
Source: Recycled Product Procurement Program; King County (Washington) Procurement Services Division, 1996 Annual Report
For more information, contact Eric Nelson at (206) 263-4278 or Karen Hamilton at (206) 263-4279 or by e-mail
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