Environmental Protection Agency.
Notice of Draft Document for Review.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or the Agency) today is providing notice of the issuance of a draft Recovered Materials Advisory Notice (RMAN IV). The RMAN provides guidance to procuring agencies for purchasing certain items containing recovered materials. Under section 6002 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, EPA designates items that are or can be made with recovered materials and provides recommendations for the procurement of these items. Elsewhere in today's
Today's draft RMAN IV also includes revisions to EPA's previous recommendations for polyester carpet issued in RMAN I (60 FR 21386, May 1, 1995). Previously, EPA designated polyester carpet for use in low- and medium-wear applications and referenced those applications in the RMAN. Since the issuance of EPA's designation and recommendations for polyester carpet, the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) has issued new carpet use classifications. Under CRI's new classifications, certain applications that EPA has considered to be low- and medium-wear are now classified as moderate- and heavy-wear applications. Therefore, today's draft RMAN revises the recommendations for polyester carpet to recommend its use in certain moderate- and heavy-wear applications, such as those found in single family housing units, private offices, and similar applications. Today's draft RMAN IV also recommends that when procuring agencies purchase new carpet, they also consider making arrangements to have their old carpet collected and recycled or otherwise reused to make new carpeting.
Today's draft RMAN IV proposes revisions to EPA's previous recommendations for railroad grade crossing surfaces by adding recommended recovered materials content levels for railroad grade crossing surfaces containing recovered wood and plastic. In addition, today's draft RMAN proposes to revise EPA's previous recommendations for consolidated and reprocessed latex paint issued in RMAN II (62 FR 60975, November 13, 1997). In RMAN II, EPA recommended that procuring agencies refer to federal specification TT–P–2846 when purchasing recycled paint. (See Section C–7–Latex Paint.) EPA has recently learned that the General Services Administration (GSA) has cancelled this specification and will replace it with commercial item description (CID) A–A–3185. A copy of this CID will be placed in the RCRA public docket for today's notice when it becomes available. In the final RMAN IV, EPA intends to revise Section C–7 of the RMAN to delete reference to federal specification TT–P–2846 and replace it with reference to CID A–A–3185.
EPA will accept public comments on the recommendations contained in the draft RMAN IV until October 29, 2001.
To comment on this notice, please send an original and two copies of comments to: RCRA Information Center (5305W), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Ariel Rios Building, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20460. Please place the docket number F–2001–CP4P–FFFFF on your comments.
If any information is confidential, it should be identified as such. An original and two copies of Confidential Business Information (CBI) must be submitted under separate cover to: Document Control Officer (5305), Office of Solid Waste, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Ariel Rios Building, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.,Washington, DC 20460.
Documents related to today's notice are available for viewing at the RCRA Information Center (RIC), located at: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1235 Jefferson Davis Highway, Ground Floor, Crystal Gateway One, Arlington, VA 22202. The RIC is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, except for federal holidays. The public must make an appointment to review docket materials. Call (703) 603–9230 for appointments. Copies cost $.15 per page.
For general information contact the RCRA Call Center at (800) 424–9346 or TDD (800) 553–7672 (hearing impaired). In the Washington, DC metropolitan area, call (703) 412–9810 or TDD (703) 412–3323. For technical information on individual item recommendations, contact Terry Grist at (703) 308–7257.
The draft Recovered Materials Advisory Notice (RMAN IV) is issued under the authority of sections 2002(a) and 6002 of the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA), as amended; and 42 U.S.C. 6912(a) and 2962. EPA is also issuing RMAN IV to comply with section 502 of Executive Order 13101, “Greening the Government Through Waste Prevention, Recycling, and Federal Acquisition (63 FR 49643, September 14, 1998).
Section 6002 of RCRA establishes a federal buy-recycled program. RCRA section 6002(e) requires EPA to (1) designate items that are or can be made with recovered materials and (2) prepare guidelines to assist procuring agencies in complying with affirmative procurement requirements set forth in paragraphs (c), (d), and (i) of section 6002. Once EPA has designated items, section 6002 requires that any procuring agency using appropriated federal funds to procure those items must purchase them composed of the highest percentage of recovered materials practicable. For the purposes of RCRA section 6002, procuring agencies include the following: (1) any federal agency; (2) any state or local agencies using appropriated federal funds for a procurement, or (3) any contractors with these agencies (with respect to work performed under the contract). The requirements of RCRA section 6002 apply to such procuring agencies only when procuring designated items where the price of the item exceeds $10,000 or the quantity of the item purchased in the previous year exceeded $10,000.
Executive Order 13101 directs EPA to designate items in a Comprehensive Procurement Guideline (CPG) and publish guidance that contains EPA's recommended recovered content levels for the designated items in the RMANs. The Executive Order further directs EPA to update the CPG every 2 years and the RMANs periodically to reflect changes in market conditions. EPA codifies the CPG designations in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), but because the recommendations are guidance, the RMANs are not codified in the CFR. This process enables EPA to revise its recommendations in response to changes in a product's availability or recovered materials content so as to provide timely assistance to procuring agencies in fulfilling their RCRA section 6002 responsibilities.
The original CPG (CPG I) was published on May 1, 1995 (60 FR 21370). It established eight product categories, designated 19 new items, and consolidated five earlier item designations. At the same time, EPA published the first RMAN (RMAN I) (60 FR 21386). On November 13, 1997, EPA published CPG II (62 FR 60962), which designated an additional 12 items. At the same time, EPA published an RMAN II (62 FR 60975). Paper Products RMANs were issued on May 29, 1996 (61 FR 26985) and June 8, 1998 (63 FR 31214). On January 19, 2000, EPA published CPG III (65 FR 3070), which designated an additional 18 items. At the same time, EPA published an RMAN III (65 FR 3082).
Today, in CPG IV, EPA is proposing to designate the following 11 additional items: bike racks, blasting grit, cement and concrete containing cenospheres, cement and concrete containing silica fume, modular threshold ramps, nonpressure pipe, nylon carpet and nylon carpet backing, office furniture, rebuilt vehicular parts, roofing materials, and tires. Once finalized, today's RMAN will serve as companion guidance to the previous RMANs.
EPA, once again, wants to stress that the recommendations in RMAN IV are just that—recommendations and guidance to procuring agencies in fulfilling their obligations under RCRA section 6002. The designation of an item as one that is or can be produced with recovered materials and the inclusion of recommended content levels for an item in the RMAN does not compel the procurement of an item when the item is not suitable for its intended purpose. RCRA section 6002 is explicit in this regard when it authorizes a procuring agency not to procure a designated item which “fails to meet the performance standards set forth in the applicable specification or fails to meet the reasonable performance standards of the procuring agencies.” Section 6002(1)(B), 42 U.S.C. 6962(c)(B).
Thus, for example, in the proposal section of today's
In providing guidance in the RMANs, the Executive Order directs EPA to present “the range of recovered materials content levels within which the designated recycled items are currently available.” Based on the information available to the Agency, EPA recommends ranges that encourage manufacturers to incorporate the maximum amount of recovered materials into their products without compromising competition or product performance and availability. EPA recommends that procuring agencies use these ranges, in conjunction with their own research, to establish minimum content standards for use in purchasing the designated items. EPA recommends ranges rather than minimum standards for several reasons:
First, the Executive Order directs EPA to develop ranges, not minimum content standards or specific recovered materials levels.
Second, EPA has only limited information on recovered materials content levels for the new items proposed for designation. It would not be appropriate to establish minimum content standards without more detailed information because the standards may be treated as maximum targets by manufacturers and may stifle innovative approaches for increasing recovered material use. EPA's expectation is that the use of ranges will encourage manufacturers producing at the low end of the recovered materials range to seek ways of increasing their recovered materials usage. Minimum content standards are less likely to encourage such innovation.
Third, many items are purchased locally rather than centrally. As a result, the recovered materials content of the items are likely to vary from region to region depending on local cost and availability of recovered materials. Minimum content standards are unlikely to be effective given the regional variance in recovered materials content because minimum content levels that are appropriate for one region, may be excessively high or low for other regions. A recovered materials content range gives regional procuring agencies the flexibility to establish their own recovered materials content standards and to make them as high as possible, consistent with the statute, given local product availability and market conditions.
EPA reviewed publicly-available information, information obtained from product manufacturers, and information provided by other government agencies regarding the percentages of recovered materials available in the items proposed for designation in CPG IV. Based on this information, EPA established ranges of recovered materials content for the proposed designated items. In some instances, EPA recommends a specific content level (e.g., 100 percent recovered materials), rather than a range, because the item is universally available at that recommended level, the item contains 100 percent recovered materials, or that level is the maximum content currently used in that item.
In establishing the ranges, EPA's objective was to ensure the availability of the item, while challenging manufacturers to increase their use of recovered materials. By recommending ranges, EPA believes that sufficient information will be provided to enable procuring agencies to set appropriate procurement specifications when purchasing the newly designated items.
It is EPA's intention to provide procuring agencies with the best and most current information available to assist them in fulfilling their statutory obligations under RCRA section 6002. To do this, EPA will monitor the progress made by procuring agencies in purchasing designated items with the highest practical recovered materials content levels and will adjust the recommended content ranges as appropriate. EPA anticipates that the recommended ranges will narrow over time as other items become more available, although for technical reasons, many may never be available with 100 percent recovered materials content levels.
Under RCRA section 6002(i), it is each procuring agency's responsibility to establish minimum content standards, while EPA provides recommendations regarding the levels of recovered materials in the designated items. To make it clear that EPA does not establish minimum content standards for other agencies, EPA refers to its recommendations as “recovered materials content levels,” consistent with RCRA section 6002(e) and the Executive Order.
More information on EPA's methodology for recommending recovered materials content levels for designated items is contained in “Background Document for Proposed CPG IV and Draft RMAN IV,” located in the RCRA public docket for this notice and on EPA's CPG Web site at
Today's draft RMAN IV contains recommendations on the recovered materials content levels and postconsumer materials content levels at which the designated items are generally available. For several items being proposed for designation, this RMAN recommends two-part content levels—a postconsumer recovered materials content component and a total recovered materials component. In these instances, EPA found that both types of materials were being used to manufacture a product. Recommending only postconsumer content levels would fail to acknowledge the contribution to solid waste management made when manufacturers use, as feedstock, the byproducts of other manufacturing processes that would otherwise be destined for disposal as solid waste. The terms “recovered materials” and “postconsumer materials” are defined in 40 CFR § 247.3. These definitions are repeated here as a reference for the convenience of the reader. The Agency is not proposing to change these definitions and will not consider any comments submitted on these terms.
Definitions for the 11 new items covered in this RMAN IV are included in proposed CPG IV published in the proposed rule section of today's
EPA requests comments, including additional supporting documentation and information, on the types of recovered materials identified in the item recommendations, the recommended recovered and postconsumer materials content levels, and other recommendations, including specifications, for purchasing the designated items containing recovered materials. EPA requests specific comments and information on the following issues:
(1) Recently, as explained in the preamble to proposed CPG IV, the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) issued new carpet-use classifications that provide a listing of the types of end-use applications recommended for carpet and reclassifies the applications into three new categories: moderate-, heavy-, and severe-wear applications. Most of the applications specified by EPA in the initial polyester carpet designation in CPG I referred to private homes that, under the new CRI classifications, would be included in the category of “single family housing.” CRI's classifications include both moderate- and heavy-use applications under the single family housing category. Therefore, EPA, as explained in the CPG IV, is proposing to revise the polyester carpet designation to reference the new CRI classifications and specify that the designation be limited to moderate- and heavy-wear applications such as those found in single-family housing units, private offices, and similar applications. EPA is requesting comments on this proposed revision to the designation for polyester carpet. Today's RMAN revises EPA's previous recommendations for polyester carpet and adds recommendations for nylon carpet and nylon carpet backing. The RMAN also recommends that procuring agencies make provisions to recycle old carpet that is being replaced.
(2) Whether any specifications exist or are appropriate for passenger tires containing recovered rubber, wood or plastic railroad grade crossing surfaces, office furniture, bike racks, or blasting grit.
(3) EPA is aware that modular threshold ramps can be made with recovered copper. However, it does not have any information relating to the amount of recovered copper used in these ramps and therefore, has not included ramps containing recovered copper in today's proposed designation. EPA requests information on the use of
(4) EPA is aware that nonpressure pipe can be made from aluminum that can contain recovered materials, but does not have any information regarding the recovered content percentages. EPA requests information on the amount of recovered aluminum that is being used in aluminum pipe.
(5) EPA's research indicates that wood shakes and shingles, as well as asphalt/plastic composite roofing materials can be made from recovered materials, but it was unable to identify recovered content percentages in these products. The Agency requests comments or information on the use of recovered materials in wood, fiberglass, and asphalt/plastic composite roofing materials.
The index of supporting materials for today's draft RMAN IV is available in the RCRA Information Center (RIC) and on EPA's CPG Web site at <www.epa.gov/cpg>. The address and telephone number of the RIC are provided in
Copies of the following supporting materials are available for viewing at the RIC only:
To access information electronically, go to EPA's CPG Web site at
The following represents EPA's recommendations to procuring agencies for purchasing the items designated by EPA in the Comprehensive Procurement Guideline IV (CPG IV), in compliance with section 6002 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and Executive Order 13101. These recommendations are intended to be used in conjunction with RMAN I (60 FR 21386, May 1, 1995), the Paper Products RMAN (61 FR 26985, May 29, 1996), the Paper Products RMAN II (63 FR 31214, June 8, 1998), RMAN II (62 FR 60975, November 13, 1997), and RMAN III (65 FR 3082, January 19, 2000). Refer to the previous RMANs or the Code of Federal Regulations at 40 CFR Part 247 for definitions, general recommendations for affirmative procurement programs, and recommendations for previously designated items.
General recommendations for definitions, specifications, and affirmative procurement programs can be found in the May 1, 1995 RMAN (60 FR 21386).
Recommendations for purchasing previously-designated items can be found in RMAN I (May 1, 1995); RMAN II (November 13, 1997); RMAN III (January 19, 2000); and the Paper Products RMANs (May 29, 1996, and June 8, 1998).
EPA previously designated retread tires in CPG I and recommended that procuring agencies procure retread tires or retreading services in RMAN I (60 FR 21386, May 1, 1995). EPA has amended the original designation to include tires containing recovered rubber.
• EPA recommends that procuring agencies purchase passenger tires containing 5–10% postconsumer recovered rubber.
EPA's recommendations incorporate the recommended recovered materials content ranges in Sec. 403(b) of Executive Order 13149, “Greening the Government Through Federal Fleet and Transportation Efficiency” (April 21, 2000). EPA recognizes that tires containing recovered rubber at levels toward the high end of this range may not be readily available, but encourages procuring agencies to purchase tires with the highest level of recovered rubber possible.
Based on EPA's research, rebuilt vehicular parts generally contain between 60 and 95% postconsumer material. However, this level of detail might not be readily available from distributors to procurement officials. Therefore, EPA is not recommending a range of recovered content.
EPA previously designated cement and concrete containing coal fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBF) in CPG I and recommended recovered material content ranges in RMAN I (60 FR 21386, May 1, 1995). EPA has amended the designation to add cenospheres and silica fume from silicon or ferrosilicon metal production as other recovered materials for use as cement and concrete additives.
• EPA recommends that procuring agencies revise their procurement programs for cement and concrete or for construction projects involving cement and concrete to allow use of cement and concrete containing 10–15% cenospheres (by weight), as appropriate. EPA recommends that procuring agencies specifically include provisions in all construction contracts to allow for the use, as optional or alternate materials, on cement or concrete that contains cenospheres, as appropriate.
• EPA recommends that procuring agencies revise their procurement programs for cement and concrete or for construction projects involving cement and concrete to allow use of cement and concrete containing 5–20% silica fume (by weight), as appropriate. EPA recommends that procuring agencies specifically include provisions in all construction contracts to allow for the use, as optional or alternate materials, on cement or concrete that contains silica fume, as appropriate.
EPA recommends that procuring agencies refer to the following national specifications and guidelines, which enable procuring agencies to buy high-performance concrete containing silica fume of a standard quality, when purchasing cement and concrete with silica fume: ASTM C1240, AASHTO M840, and ACI 234R–96. ACI 234R–96 describes the properties of silica fume; how silica fume interacts with cement; the effects of silica fume on the properties of fresh and cured concrete; typical applications of silica fume concrete; recommendations on proportions, specifications, and handling of silica fume in the field. A copy of these specifications have been placed in the RCRA public docket for this RMAN.
On May 1, 1995, EPA issued a final designation for polyester carpet containing recovered materials in CPG I (60 FR 21370). EPA has amended the designation to revise the polyester carpet designation to reference the new Carpet and Rug Institute classifications and specify that the designation be limited to moderate- and heavy-wear applications such as those found in single-family housing units, private offices, and similar applications.
Today's RMAN revises EPA's previous recommendations for polyester carpet and adds recommendations for nylon carpet and nylon carpet backing. The RMAN also recommends that procuring agencies make provisions to recycle old carpet that is being replaced.
For nylon carpet, the recommended recovered materials content levels would also include fiber facing that has been recycled or otherwise renewed through processes that remove, retexture, and recolor the carpeting. EPA also recommends that when procuring agencies purchase new carpeting, they make provisions to have their old carpeting collected, removed, and recycled or otherwise reused to make a new carpet product.
The nylon carpet recommendations would also include “renewed” nylon carpet, which is cleaned, retextured, recolored, or otherwise reused to produce a new nylon carpet product.
While numerous carpet specifications exist, the members of the carpet industry do not utilize any universal standards. Specifications vary and are
EPA previously designated railroad grade crossing surfaces containing recovered content concrete, rubber, and steel (65 FR 3070).