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Source Reduction: Using Your Buying Power Many government departments in Alameda
County, California no longer buy letterhead.
San Franciscos municipal Paint Shop hasnt
bought paint thinner for months. The enve-
lope supplier for Federal Express (headquar-
tered in Memphis, Tennessee) convinced it
to cut its envelope orders in half. And every-
bodys happy with the arrangements.
Why? Each has found a creative way to
reduce waste, save money, please their publics
and benefit the environment.
Source reduction, the highest goal in the
solid waste management hierarchy - reduce,
reuse, recycle - should be the centerpiece
of every business or government procurement
program. But the concept of buying for source
reduction is far less developed than the con-
cept of buying recycled products.
Although policies for both are similar, im-
plementation is quite different. Practices that
encourage recycled products, such as price
preferences and content standards, generally
do not work for source reduction products.
Defining ones terms
A source reduction product can be defined
as a product that results in a net reduction
in the generation of waste compared to the
previous or alternate version and includes
durable, reusable and remanufactured prod-
ucts; products with no, or reduced, toxic con-
stituents; and products marketed with no, or
reduced, packaging.
Sometimes source reduction comes from
the product itself, e.g., lighter product pack-
aging. Other times, it has more to do with how
the product is used. Sometimes buying for
source reduction means that several different
parts of an organization must agree on poli-
cies that result in fewer or different products
being purchased.
Some people use the terms waste reduc-
tion and source reduction interchangeably,
but they are not the same thing. Waste re-
duction includes recycling, cornposting and
other strategies that decrease disposal quan-
tities and reduce waste at the source. Source
reduction, on the other hand, is a subset of
waste reduction and refers to reducing waste
by not producing it at all. Starting at the
source - before products are used and often
before they are produced - prevents waste
from ever even occurring. Thats why waste
prevention is now a synonym for source re-
duction.
Pollution prevention is sometimes de-
fined as a type of source reduction because it
deals with minimizing the use and produc-
tion of hazardous substances. This article deals
with source reducing toxins in a purchasing
context but not with other processes covered
under hazardous waste reduction programs.
What difference does it make?
Source reduction is first in the solid waste hi-
erarchy for good reason. Although recycling
rightly questions and changes how products
are manufactured, it is not designed to ques-
tion why they are produced. Source reduc-
tion asks those questions: Do we need this?
If we do, can it be produced with fewer re-
sources, take up less space, make a lighter en-
vironmental impact?
By itself, recycling does not address issues
of overproduction or wasteful product use.
Source reduction, however, goes to the heart
of both issues. Applying source reduction and
recycling together is environmentally and
globally responsible, particularly when they
result in significantly reduced demand for re-
sources and eliminate the environmental dam-
age that often accompanies resource extrac-
tion. Thoughtful application can create this
heightened level of responsibility without re-
ducing our standard of living. Purchasers,
Susan Kinsella is a consultant in Novato, California who specializes in buy recycled and source reduc-
tion (waste prevention) procurement programs. She is also editor of Conservatrees Greenline, a newslet-
ter about environmentally sound paper issues.
Resource Recycling August 1996 through their financial clout, can encourage
manufacturers to implement source reduction
strategies in all their production processes.
What are source reduction
products?
Unlike recycled-content products, there is no
"standard to follow in choosing source re-
duction products, although the definition of
a source reduction product does provide some
parameters. Buying with source reduction in
mind requires creativity and the willingness
to rethink the needs your purchases serve and
whether there are better ways to meet those
needs. Its often an exciting process and usu-
ally results in long-term cost savings.
Begin the process by applying the solid
waste hierarchy. Can you reduce or even elim-
inate certain purchases? What can be reused?
Evaluate current policies and processes. You
may need to collaborate with other depart-
ments to come up with organizational poli-
cies that reduce purchasing requirements. Ask
staff and vendors for their suggestions. The
sidebars list many examples. Following are
some highlights.
Reduce - purchase less to save more
Eliminate.
Sometimes you can simply elim-
inate a product yet not lose its function. When
it moved to new offices in the San Francisco
Eliminate
n Use computers to reduce paper use.
s
Use bulletin boards and routing slips,
share infrequently used products, main-
tain central filing systems and libraries
to discourage duplicate files and publi-
cations.
n Do without when it makes sense: Elim-
inate fax cover sheets or use fax labels.
n Update mailing and distribution lists and
eliminate outdated information.
Reduce
s
Think minimum impact when order-
ing equipment or designing processes:
- Rechargeable batteries.
- Fluorescent or sodium lights.
- Copiers that can easily duplex.
- Plain paper faxes.
- Reusable bank deposit bags.
- Interoffice envelopes for vendors.
- Bulk containers.
- Permanent plantings for landscaping.
- Mulching-type lawn mowers.
Reuse
n Use labels to extend product life, e.g., on
binders, file boxes, interoffice envelopes.
n Return excess or reusable supplies to a
central supply cabinet for use by others.
n Focus on equipment maintenance and
repair.
n Use salvage operations. Shop ware-
houses first before ordering new items
and send your own usable discards to
reuse centers.
s
Sell what you can (e.g., steel drums) to
reconditioners.
n Use waste exchanges, particularly if you
have excess or unusual products.
n Donate what you cannot sell.
s
Consolidate and use products complete-
ly.
- Use paper wisely (see paper sidebar).
- Use trash can liners until dirty rather
than disposing every time trash cans
are emptied.
- Combine leftover small amounts of oil
and lubricants rather than disposing;
use a dispenser with a spigot if an
opened product needs to be protected.
- Save blank labels from pm-printed sets
for other uses. Print directly onto en-
velopes instead of using labels.
Resource Recycling August 1996 Bay Area, Alameda Countys General Serv-
ices Agency eliminated the cost of printing
new letterhead by switching to the use of tem-
plates in its word processing program. Now
GSA staff simply type their letters and mem-
os on the appropriate computer template.
Printouts always include an up-to-date let-
terhead design, which can be customized for
every office, and even incorporate the recy-
cled paper logo.
Look for durability.
Durable products
can return investments for years. Workers at
Berkeley, Californias Building Maintenance
department are enthusiastic about the high-
quality, single-polymer plastic lumber bench-
es they bought for city streets and parks two
years ago. They particularly appreciate that
the benches composition makes it easy to re-
move graffiti and to repair holes and damage,
and that it holds up well, even under the on-
slaughts of determined skateboarders. Ini-
tially, the benches cost more than compara-
ble wood products, but their significantly re-
duced maintenance requirements made them
very competitive over the long run.
Rethink needs.
Durability sometimes re-
sults from manufacturers rethinking how to
meet client needs. Modular carpets, for ex-
ample, come in 18-inch tiles instead of 12-
foot widths. That makes it easy to refurbish
and keep up-to-date the 20 percent of com-
mercial carpet trafficways that show wear and
tear, while allowing longer life for the other
80 percent of the carpet still in good condi-
tion.
Rethink use.
Changing the way that you
use some types of equipment can cut down
on purchasing requirements. Many depart-
ments of Pacific Gas & Electric Company in
Northern California reprogrammed their pho-
tocopiers to default to two-sided copying.
Now, people have to manually choose single-
sided printing if they want that alternative. As
a result, far less pap