The Florida Senate

287.045  Procurement of products and materials with recycled content.--

(1)(a)  The Department of Management Services, in cooperation with the Department of Environmental Protection, shall review and revise existing procurement procedures and specifications for the purchase of products and materials to eliminate any procedures and specifications that explicitly discriminate against products and materials with recycled content except where such procedures and specifications are necessary to protect the public health, safety, and welfare.

(b)  Each state agency shall review and revise its procurement procedures and specifications for the purchase of products and materials to eliminate any procedures and specifications that explicitly discriminate against products and materials with recycled content, except if such procedures and specifications are necessary to protect the public health, safety, and welfare.

(2)(a)  The department and each state agency shall review and revise its procurement procedures and specifications for the purchase of products and materials to ensure to the maximum extent feasible that each agency uses state contracts to purchase products or materials that may be recycled or reused when these products or materials are discarded.

(b)  The Auditor General shall assist in monitoring the product procurement requirements.

(3)  As part of the review and revision required in subsection (2), the department and each agency shall review its procurement provisions and specifications for the purchase of products and materials to determine which products or materials with recycled content could be procured by the department or other agencies and the amount of recycled content that can technologically be contained in such products or materials. The department and other agencies must use the amounts of recycled content and postconsumer recovered material determined by the department in issuing invitations to bid for contracts for the purchase of such products or materials.

(4)  Upon completion of the review required in subsection (3), the department or an agency shall require that a person who submits a bid for a contract for the purchase of products or materials identified in subsection (3) and who wishes to be considered for the price preference described in subsection (5) certify in writing the percentage of recycled content in the product or material that is subject to the bid. A person may certify that the product or material contains no recycled content.

(5)  Upon evaluation of bids for every public contract that involves the purchase of products or materials identified in subsection (3), the department or an agency shall identify the lowest responsive bidder and other responsive bidders who have certified that the products or materials contain at least the minimum percentage of recycled content and postconsumer recovered material that is set forth in the invitation for the bids. The department or agency may consider life-cycle costing when evaluating a bid on a product that consists of recycled materials. The department shall adopt rules that specify the criteria to be used when considering life-cycle costing in evaluating bids. The rules must take into consideration the specified warranty periods for products and the comparative expected service life relative to the cost of the products. In awarding a contract for the purchase of products or materials, the department or an agency may allow up to a 10-percent price preference to a responsive bidder who has certified that the products or materials contain at least the minimum percentage of recycled content and postconsumer recovered material and up to an additional 5-percent price preference to a responsible bidder who has certified that the products or material are made of materials recovered in this state. The amount of the price preference must be commensurate with the certified amounts of recycled material and postconsumer recovered material and materials recycled from products in this state, contained in the product or materials on a sliding scale as established by department rule, which rule shall not become effective prior to November 1, 1994. Reusable materials and products shall be used where economically and technically feasible. If no bidders offer products or materials with measurable life-cycle costing factors or the minimum prescribed recycled and postconsumer content, the contract must be awarded to the lowest qualified responsive bidder.

(6)  For the purposes of this section, "recycled content" means materials that have been recycled that are contained in the products or materials to be procured, including, but not limited to, paper, aluminum, steel, glass, plastics, and composted material. The term does not include the virgin component of internally generated scrap that is commonly used in industrial or manufacturing processes or such waste or scrap purchased from another manufacturer who manufactures the same or a closely related product. Recycled content printing and fine writing grades of paper shall contain at least 10 percent postconsumer recovered materials.

(7)  Any person may request the department to evaluate a product or material with recycled content if the product or material is eligible for inclusion under state contracts. The department shall review each reasonable proposal to determine its merit and, if it finds that the product or material may be used beneficially, it may incorporate that product or material into its procurement procedures.

(8)  The department and each state agency shall review and revise its procedures and specifications on a continuing basis to encourage the use of products and materials with recycled content and postconsumer recovered material and shall, in developing new procedures and specifications, encourage the use of products and materials with recycled content and postconsumer recovered material.

(9)  After November 1, 1994, the department may discontinue contracting for products or materials the recycled content of which does not meet the requirements of subsection (3) if it determines that products or materials meeting those requirements are available at a cost not to exceed an additional 10 percent of comparable virgin products.

(10)  A state agency, or a person contracting with such agency with respect to work performed under contract, must procure products or materials with recycled content if the department determines that those products or materials are available pursuant to subsection (5). Notwithstanding any other provision to the contrary, for the purpose of this section, the term "agency" means any of the various state officers, departments, boards, commissions, divisions, bureaus, and councils and any other unit of organization, however designated, of the executive branch including the Department of the Lottery, the legislative branch, the judicial branch, and the State University System. A decision not to procure such items must be based on the department's determination that such procurement is not reasonably available within an acceptable period of time or fails to meet the performance standards set forth in the applicable specifications or fails to meet the performance standards of the agency.

(11)  Each state agency shall report annually to the department its total expenditures on, and use of, products with recycled content and the percentage of its budget that represents purchases of similar products made from virgin materials. The department shall design a uniform reporting mechanism and prepare annual summaries of statewide purchases delineating those with recycled content to be submitted to the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

History.--s. 48, ch. 88-130; s. 15, ch. 90-268; s. 4, ch. 93-207; s. 113, ch. 94-356; s. 79, ch. 98-279.