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(Version 5, 10/10)

This tool is designed to assist companies and individuals with evaluating the greenhouse gas (GHG) benefits associated with increasing the recycled content of materials they may purchase or manufacture. ReCon Online was last updated October 2010.

Please follow the steps below to enter the appropriate information and then select the desired “View” button to obtain the estimated GHG or energy benefits of increasing the post-consumer recycled content of materials.

Step 1. Amount of Materials Purchased or Manufactured

First, you can enter a brief description of the "material purchased" in the far left column (not required for the tool to function). Please note that the EPA has not evaluated all material types; if the material of interest is not listed, enter your data in the row of a "surrogate" material similar to the materials you purchase or manufacture.¹

Second, enter the amount of each material that is purchased in pounds. The "tons" column will be calculated automatically. Please note that different materials of the same basic material type (e.g., steel drums and steel rods) should be included in the same row. If you do not have weight information for certain materials, the Unit Converter Sheet provides some conversion factors for each material type.

¹Note: The use of surrogate material types should be considered as an approximation only. Actual GHG emissions and energy consumption related to the manufacture of materials other than those specifically listed in the surrogate material column may differ significantly.

Step 2. Baseline and Alternate Recycled Content

First, enter the baseline (or current) post-consumer recycled content (as a percentage) of each material. The baseline recycled content value should reflect the current proportion of recycled content in materials purchased or manufactured. If you do not know the percent recycled content in the baseline, click the check box to the right of the table to use a default value. You can also click on the “[set all]” link to have to tool fill in all the baseline values for which you have NOT entered a number.

Second, enter the alternate recycled content of each material. This value should represent an increase or change in the recycled content of materials purchased or manufactured that is to be evaluated by the tool. Please note that typical recycled content ranges for each material are provided in the recycled content range table. This table provides the user with reasonable estimates of minimum and maximum post-consumer recycled content for materials in the marketplace.

Notes:
The "default" recycled content values represent an approximation of typical post-consumer recycled content of these materials in the marketplace (provided by Franklin Associates, Ltd.). These values are to be utilized in the absence of actual data and should not be considered to be strictly accurate in all applications. If you do not enter the percent recycled content in the second column above, the tool will assume that you are purchasing materials that are made with the default fraction (or baseline percentage) of recycled inputs.