Piloting the federal government's course to environmentally preferable purchasing

While the concept of environmentally preferable purchasing by federal agencies is not a new initiative by any means, it has been pursued with never-before-seen vigor under the Clinton Administration. The concept goes back in law to at least the 1976 amendments to the Solid Waste Disposal Act, more commonly known as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Section 6002 of that statute created a dual approach by which EPA designated items with recycled content and buying federal agencies had an obligation to buy the designated goods. These are sometimes called “guideline goods.” For almost 20 years, however, only a handful of products (cement containing fly ash, re-refined oil, retread tires, paper and building insulation materials) were designated, and even then, the federal agencies were essentially left to their own devices as to when purchase of guideline items would be in their interest.