Pennsylvania Statutes Title 53 P.S. Municipal and Quasi-Municipal Corporations § 4000.1511. Recycled paper products

(a) General rule.--The Department of General Services shall, to the fullest extent possible when contracting for paper or paper products, purchase or approve for purchase only such paper or paper products that are manufactured or produced from recycled paper as specified in subsection (b).

(b) Implementation.--The provisions of subsection (a) shall be implemented by the Department of General Services so that, of the total volume of paper purchased, recycled paper composes at least 10% of the volume in 1989, at least 25% of the volume in 1991 and at least 40% of the volume in 1993.

(c) Newsprint.--In the case of the purchase of newsprint and newsprint products, at least 40% of the secondary waste paper material used in recycled newsprint shall be postconsumer newspaper waste.

(d) Application of section.--This section shall not apply to the purchase of paper containers for food or beverages.

(e) Definitions.--As used in this section, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings given to them in this subsection:

“Postconsumer waste.”  Any product generated by a business or consumer which has served its intended end use, and which has been separated from solid waste for the purposes of collection, recycling and disposition and which does not include secondary waste material or demolition waste.

“Recycled paper.”  Any paper having a total weight consisting of not less than 20% secondary waste paper material in 1989, not less than 30% of said material in 1991, not less than 40% of said material in 1993, and not less than 50% of said material in 1996 and thereafter, and not less than 10% postconsumer waste beginning in 1996.

“Secondary waste paper material.”  Paper waste generated after the completion of a papermaking process, such as postconsumer waste material, envelope cuttings, bindery trimmings, printing waste, cutting and other converting waste, butt rolls and mill wrappers.  The term shall not include fibrous waste generated during the manufacturing process, such as fibers recovered from wastewater or trimmings of paper machine rolls, fibrous by-products of harvesting, extractive or woodcutting process, or forest residue such as bark.