EPA Awards Grant to Improve Use of Recycled Paper

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently awarded a $25,000 grant to a San Diego-based recycling cooperative to encourage organizations, businesses and municipalities in Nevada and Arizona to increase their use of recycled paper.

The Recycled Products Purchasing Cooperative will use the funding to expand a program it has targeted California entities for the past four years, with assistance from EPA funding.

"The Recycled Products Purchasing Cooperative has devised a great program that allows business to help green the economy without going in the red," said Jeff Scott, division director from the Waste Division in the EPA's Pacific Southwest Office in San Francisco.

The cooperative works to provide recycled paper at prices that meet or beat an organization's existing price for virgin fiber paper. The overall volume that the co-op represents has resulted in reduced prices for 30 percent post-consumer recycled paper.  Even though co-op members are in different locations and aren't necessarily buying in bulk, the distributor has still agreed to adhere to a pricing schedule that makes it possible to buy recycled without paying more.