EPP Fact Sheet: Janitorial Cleaning Products
This fact sheet can help businesses and institutions find environmentally preferable cleaning products that can handle the same commercial, industrial, and residential cleaning needs as traditional cleansers.
Bay Area News Group reports on consumer confusion about curbside recycling
An article in the March 11, 2016 Oakland Tribune reports on how packaging, labeling, and programmatic differences have led to confusion amongst Bay Area consumers who want to do the "right thing" with their recyclables.
Food Scrap Recycling - Endless Cycle
A one page flyer that shows the process of how our food scraps are turned into compost.
Model Garden Design: Color for All Seasons
This model garden design includes: concept plan, planting and irrigation plan and annotated plant list.
Sustainable Purchasing Guides
Guides and resources that can help reduce the environmental impact of your organization’s purchasing choices.
The following Sustainable Purchasing Guides (SPGs) were designed to provide specific policy-driven product and service direction for more sustainable purchasing in a 2-page format that agency leads can use as a communication tool to agency staff who make purchasing decisions. Each Sustainable Purchasing Guide contains:
Recycling and Solid Waste Collection Rates and Services
This PDF contains current rate information for the following services:
- Solid Waste and Recycling Services Offered in Basic Rate Package
- Monthly Rates for Residential Solid Waste/Recycling/Plant Debris/Bulky Clean Up
- Rates for Commercial Solid Waste/Recycling/Plant Debris/Bulky Clean Up
(updated 9-24-24)
What other types of environmentally preferable office supplies are available?
Look for rechargeable batteries, water-based and non-toxic highlighters and markers, and 10-100% postconsumer recycled content plastic trash bag liners. Plastic desktop accessories like notepad and pencil holders, trays and organizers can be made with 25-80% postconsumer content. Plastic binders can contain up to 100% postconsumer recycled content, depending on the type of plastic.
Where can individuals or small businesses find sources of environmentally-friendly products?
There are many listings of “environmentally-friendly” consumer and business products. Here are just a few:
Will these types of products be inferior quality?
Many recycled or environmentally preferable products compare well in quality to their virgin counterparts. As with any product on the market, quality depends on several factors. For example, a commercial toilet tissue manufacturer may offer two levels of quality: an economy (lower quality) and a premium quality product. Quality may also depend on the product’s maturity in the market. The quality of recycled paper, for instance, has come a long way in the last 20 years. For the most part, its quality is just as high as that of virgin paper.
Do recycled content or environmentally preferable products cost more?
Overall, cost differences will depend on the product, its quality and the existing market conditions. There are environmentally preferable products that cost less than their conventional counterparts. For example, several recycled printing papers cost less than virgin papers. Recycled plastic trash can liners (for commercial use) cost less than virgin because the postconsumer plastic resin currently has a lower market price than virgin plastic resin. The price of re-refined motor oil is now comparable to virgin motor oil.
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