At the White House Copier Paper Summit
By Todd Paglia
Washington Post, January 18, 1998

In October 1993, President Clinton issued an executive order requiring federal agencies to purchase products made from recycled materials. 'It's time for the government to set an example and provide real leadership that will help create jobs and protect the environment, encouraging new markets for recycled products and new technologies, ' be declared.

Four years later, the example set by the government is dismally clear. Few federal agencies are satisfying the legal requirements of Clinton's 'Buy Recycled' order - even when it saves them money.

Clinton's order did not aim to tackle anything terribly complex. It simply said that if a recycled product could compete on price, performance and availability with a product made from virgin material, federal agencies were required to buy the recycled product.

But getting government employees to carry out a president's request proved to be no simple matter. Consider the record on purchases of one staple of government life: copier paper.

Every six months, the Clinton administration holds something called the 'White House Summit on Copier Paper.' This conclave of bureaucrats, environmental advocates and the trade press does not usually yield good news, and last month's get-together was no exception. Only one agency, the Department of Education, could claim that all of its copier paper (188 million sheets) was recycled. The Executive Office of the President finished second with 99 percent compliance, which just goes to show that at least the people who work in Clinton's office follow his orders.

As for the rest of the government, forget it. Only 39 percent of the federal government's copier paper contained recycled material, according to figures released at the summit. This, despite the fact that General Services Administration (GSA) sells recycled copier paper to federal agencies at a lower price than virgin paper.

One reason for the lack of compliance is the attitude of public servants like Frank Pugliese, commissioner of GSA's Federal Supply Service. When confronted with tile government's poor record, Pugliese replied, 'Executive orders are executive orders. Big deal.'

Other agencies have simply ignored the presidentialal dircective. Only 7 percent of the copier paper purchased by the Smithsonian Institution was recycled. For the General Accounting Office, the compliance rate was 2 percent. And the worst offender was the Federal Communications Commission, which apparently bought a statistically insignificant amount of recycled copier paper in fiscal year 1997.

Even where agencies have taken some positive action to purchase recycled products, inertia or incompetence has undermined their efforts. For example, several agencies had difficulty getting their far-flung purchasing officials to buy recycled paper, and instead requested that GSA simply fill all orders with recycled paper. It took the GSA as long as eight months to adopt this sensible suggestion.

Another uncomplicated solution would be to have GSA sell agencies only products made from recycled material. David Barram, the GSA administrator, has thus far been reluctant to do so because he believes agencies that insist upon buying non-recycled products will take their business elsewhere and GSA will lose customers.

It's a shame, because effective implementation of the executive order could have given a great boost to the market for recycled products while conserving natural resources in the process.

The purchasing power of the government has helped before in other, quite different, fields. During the 1970s, for example, automobile manufacturers were stalling on providing cars equipped with air bags. The GSA issued a request for 5,000 vehicles with air bags. Ford subrnirted the winning bid and began offering optional air bags in several models sold to the public. Chrysler countered with air bags as standard equipment. The rest is history - but it all started with the government using its purchasing leverage.

Todd J. Paglia is coordinator of Ralph Nader's Government Purchasing Project.

Copyright 1998 The Washington Post