University of Illinois Chicago
OP-12: Office Paper Purchasing

UIC follows the statutes for procurement of recycled materials under the Illinois Procurement Code as follows: a. Recycled Materials (30 ILCS 500/45-20) When a public contract is to be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder, an otherwise qualified bidder who will fulfill the contract through the use of products made of recycled materials may, on a pilot basis or in accordance with a pilot study, be given preference over other bidders unable to do so, provided that the cost included in the bid of the products made of recycled materials is not more than 10% greater than the cost of products not made of recycled materials (Source: P.A. 90-572, eff. date See Sec 99-5.) b. Recyclable paper (30 ILCS 500/45-25) All paper purchased for use by State agencies must be recyclable paper unless recyclable paper cannot be used to meet the requirements of the State agencies. State agencies shall determine their paper requirements to allow the use of recyclable paper whenever possible, including without limitation using plain paper rather than colored paper that is not recyclable. (Source: P.A. 90-572, eff. date – See Sec. 99-5)

At UIC, there is no centralized database of purchases of products with recycled content. In fact there is no central database of purchases in general. Instead, P-cards (credit cards) are used for most orders under $5,000, and the information of these transactions resides with the individual departments, not with the university’s Purchasing Office. However, there are several departments that purchase items in large quantities, often to supply the university on a campus-wide basis. For example, Publications Services buys paper stock to create printed jobs for hundreds of departments and Facilities Management purchases paper towels that are placed in washrooms in dozens of buildings. Therefore, we went to several of these key departments to request purchasing data, including the recycled content (if any) of what they buy. The departments surveyed: Athletics Computer Center Facilities Management [Physical Plant Material Distribution] Office for the Vice Chancellor of Research Publications Services Purchasing, Office of Business Affairs Student Housing Also, the data reported in the 10-29% range was actually for paper in the 10-100% range. Waste Reduction Plan p.19