HUDSON – The Town of Hudson’s Select Board recently renewed the adoption of the “Buy Recycled” program, which is an initiative that aims to motivate town departments and residents to purchase products made with recycled materials.
According to Executive Assistant Thomas Gregory, the initiative began in the 1990s, and each year the town sends out a memo to the various town department heads to remind them to purchase recycled materials.
“In recognition of the need to make more efficient use of our natural resources, create markets for the material collected in recycling programs, reduce solid waste volume and disposal costs, and serve as a model for private and public institutions, the Town of Hudson is committed to purchasing products [that] are environmentally preferable and/or made of recycled materials whenever such products meet quality requirements and are available at a reasonable price and terms,” Gregory said in a letter addressed to the Select Board and town department heads.
According to Gregory, many products that are regularly purchased by town departments such as toilet tissue, paper towels, plastic trash bags and copy paper contain recycled content.
As part of the program, Gregory said when recycled products are readily available at the same quality and price as non-recycled products, they will be purchased instead.
When town departments submit procurement request forms, they must determine the availability and price of the materials and then indicate if they are recycled, Gregory said.
According to Gregory, recycled products have improved because of “tremendous” advances in technology and increase in demand.
He added that the recycling industry is creating many jobs, which is impacting the Massachusetts economy.
“Buying products made with recycled material is critical to our efforts. If we don’t purchase recycled products, there is no economic motivation for manufacturers to use the raw materials that we do recycle,” Gregory said.
