University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
OP-14: Office Paper Purchasing

UWM purchases goods and services through State Procurement and adheres to policies, directives and guidelines established by the UW System. Per UW System, all agencies will continue to purchase recycled paper meeting the federal minimum content guidelines, provided the guidelines are consistent with the marketplace. In general, this means buying paper with a recycled content of 10 to 30 percent post-consumer content. UWM adheres to these guidelines and nearly all paper purchases range from 30-100% post-consumer recycled content. Federal RMAN Guidelines for Paper Products serve as recommendations for state agencies. As per the guidelines, exceptions to the “buy recycled only” policy must be documented by each agency and are to be retained in agency files for 3 years. Contract vendors will report exceptions to Bureau contract administrators for all statewide contract purchasing; and agencies will record exceptions encountered in non-contract purchasing. Due to the much greater availability of high quality recycled paper meeting the federal standards, exceptions are expected to be rare for most agencies. (current law does not recognize higher cost as an acceptable rationale for not buying recycled paper.) Exceptions should be documented and filed as they happen, unless other arrangements need to be made for vendors and high-volume purchasers.

UWM purchased roughly $189,479 on office paper products in Fiscal Year 2015, primarily through UWM Print & Copy Services. Roughly 50% of all paper purchases is office paper distributed to copy machines on campus. Copy machine paper is either 30% post-consumer recycled content or FSC 100% Label paper in those departments that have participated in the Green Office Certification (39 departments). For Printing paper (not counted-$115,348 in FY15), almost all is FSC Mix (this is used for all offset printing -- flyers, brochures, booklets, postcards, etc.)