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In order to increase the development and
awareness of environmentally sound products, staff ensures that
wherever possible and economical, specifications are amended to
provide for expanded use of products and services that contain the
maximum level of post-consumer recyclable waste and/or recyclable
content, without significantly affecting the intended use of the
product or service. It is recognized that cost analysis is
required in order to ensure that the products are made available at
competitive prices.
Criteria for Environmentally Preferable
Purchasing (EPP) Standards:
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Performance, specifically including
efficiency
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Durability
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Repairability
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Natural resource use and waste reduction,
including recycled content, transportation costs, and packaging
reduction
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Recyclability or biodegradability,
including the cost of traditional disposal
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Toxicity
These criteria also reflect the basic
ideas of life cycle assessment (LCA). When considering a
product the buyer will conduct a LCA with the customer to consider
the manufacture of the product, from extraction of its raw materials
and the methods used in manufacture, through its distribution and
shipping, to its use, possible re-use or recycling, and its eventual
disposal. This reflects the complete cost, in both financial
and environmental terms of a product and its impacts.
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