Affirmative Procurement

Y-12 practices affirmative procurement, purchasing environmentally friendly products, including those with reduced packaging and those manufactured totally or in part from recovered/recycled materials.

Federal agencies and their contractors are required to establish affirmative procurement programs as directed by Section 6002 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA); Executive Order 12873; Federal Acquisition Recycling and Waste Prevention; and Executive Order 13101, Greening the Government Through Waste Prevention, Recycling, and Federal Acquisition.

The Department of Energy (DOE) expects 100 percent procurement of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designated, recycled products except where they are not commercially available competitively at a reasonable price or do not meet performance standards.

Affirmative procurement, and specifically the purchase of recycled products, leads to a reduction in the environmental impacts of mining, harvesting, and other extraction processes and helps divert large amounts of materials from valuable landfill space.