King County Environmental Purchasing Program

King County Environmental Purchasing Policy (Executive Policy)

Section 1.0: Title

Section 2.0: Purpose

Section 3.0: Organizations Affected

Section 4.0: References

Section 5.0: Definitions

Section 6.0: Policies

Section 7.0: Procedures

Section 8.0: Responsibilities

1.0 TITLE: King County Environmental Purchasing Policy

Document Code No.: CON 7-1-2 (AEP)

Department/Issuing Agency: Executive Administration/Purchasing Agency

Effective Date: February 24, 1995

Approved: Gary Locke

Type of Action: SUPERSEDING CON 7-1-1 (AEP)

2.0 PURPOSE:

To establish policies and procedures for implementing K.C.C. 10.16 and Ordinance No. 9240, the King County Recycled Product Procurement Policy.

3.0 ORGANIZATIONS AFFECTED:

Applicable to all King County departments, offices and agencies.

4.0 REFERENCES:

K.C.C. Chapter 10.16 and Ordinance No. 9240.

5.0 DEFINITIONS:

5.1 "Contractor" means any person, group of persons, consultant, designing architect, association, partnership, corporation, or other business entity that has a contract with King County (including suppliers) or serves in a subcontracting capacity with an entity having a contract with King County for the provision of goods or services.

 

5.2 "Designated products" means recycled and environmentally preferable products and materials designated by the Purchasing Agency and the Solid Waste Division pursuant to this policy.

 

5.3 "Environmentally preferable products" means products that have a lesser or reduced effect on human health and the environment when compared with competing products that serve the same purpose. This comparison may consider raw materials acquisition, production, manufacturing, packaging, distribution, reuse, operation, maintenance, or disposal of the product.

 

5.4 "Minimum content standards" means standards maintained by the Purchasing Agency and the Solid Waste Division specifying the minimum level of recovered material and/or post-consumer material necessary for designated products to qualify as recycled products.

 

5.5 "Post-consumer material" means a material or finished product that has served its intended use and has been discarded for disposal or recovery, having completed its life as a consumer item. "Post-consumer material" is a part of the broader category of "recovered material".

 

5.6 "Practicable" means satisfactory in performance and available at a fair and reasonable price.

 

5.7 "Price-preference" means a percentage of increase in price that King County will pay to obtain a designated product.

 

5.8 "Recovered material" means waste material and by-products which have been recovered or diverted from solid waste, but does not include those materials and by-products generated from, and commonly reused within, an original manufacturing process.

 

5.9 "Recycled paper" means paper meeting the King County minimum recycled content standards.

 

5.10 "Recycled product" means a product manufactured using recovered material and meeting King County Minimum Recycled Content Standards.

6.0 POLICIES:

6.1 The King County Executive strongly supports and will aggressively implement the King County Recycled Product Procurement Policy, K.C.C. Chapter 10.16.

 

6.2 All Departments, Offices, and Agencies shall use, and require their contractors and consultants to use, products manufactured with the maximum practicable amount of recovered material, especially post-consumer material.

 

6.3 All Departments, Offices, and Agencies shall use, and require their contractors and consultants to use, environmentally preferable products whenever cost effective and to the extent practicable.

 

6.4 The Purchasing Agency and the Solid Waste Division shall maintain minimum content standards for the purchase of designated products.

 

6.5 The Purchasing Agency and the Solid Waste Division shall establish a price-preference of up to fifteen percent (15%) for recycled paper products and up to ten percent (10%) for re-refined lubricating oil.

 

6.6 All Departments, Offices, and Agencies shall ensure that they and their contractors use recycled paper in printed material, and that it bears an imprint identifying the recycled content of the paper, whenever practicable.

 

6.7 All Departments, Offices, and Agencies shall ensure that they and their contractors use both sides of paper sheets whenever practicable.

 

6.8 Departments, Offices, and Agencies may specify recycled content at levels higher than the minimum content standards.

7.0 PROCEDURES:

Action By:	Action
Purchasing Agency and Solid Waste Division	7.1 Designate products, processes, and procedures to be evaluated by Departments, Offices, and Agencies and used or adopted whenever practicable, maintain a designated product list, and periodically transmit this information to departments for implementation. 7.2 Provide Departments, Offices, and Agencies with technical assistance in policy implementation.
County Departments, Offices, and Agencies	7.3 Assign appropriate personnel to evaluate each designated product to determine the extent to which it may practicably be used by the department and its contractors. 7.4 Revise contracting procedures as necessary to procure designated products whenever practicable and to facilitate data collection. 7.5 Transmit evaluation results and purchase data for designated products used by the agency and its contractors to the Purchasing Agency by July 30th each year.
Purchasing Agency and Solid Waste Division	7.6 Transmit an annual report to the County Council on the status of policy implementation.

8.0 RESPONSIBILITIES:

8.1 The Purchasing Agency and the Solid Waste Division shall:

 

8.1.1 provide departments with information to facilitate their evaluation and purchase of designated products and inform them of their responsibilities under this policy;

 

8.1.2 revise minimum content standards as necessary to ensure that designated products contain the maximum practicable amount of recovered material and are consistent with Guidelines and regulations promulgated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the State of Washington, and other Federal and State agencies;

 

8.1.3 ensure that environmentally preferable products are designated whenever practicable;

 

8.1.4 transmit minimum content standards to departments; and

 

8.1.5 assemble an annual report to the County Council on the status of policy implementation. This report shall include data on purchases of recycled/non-recycled and environmentally preferable products by each Department, Office, or Agency and results of designated product evaluations.

 

8.2 County Departments, Offices, and Agencies shall assign staff to:

 

8.2.1 ensure that contracting procedures do not discriminate against recycled products without justification;

 

8.2.2 assign appropriate personnel to evaluate each designated product to determine the extent to which it may practicably be used by the agency and its contractors.

 

8.2.3 revise contracting procedures to maximize the specification of designated products whenever practicable and facilitate compilation of data on the purchase of designated products by the agency and its contractors; and

 

8.2.4 transmit evaluation results and procurement data to the Purchasing Agency by July 30 each year for inclusion in the annual report to the County Council on the status of policy implementation.