LEED compliant trash liners

Per page 444 of the LEED for Green Building Operations and Maintenance Reference Guide (2009 edition), compliant plastic trash can liners must meet the recycled-content requirements of the EPA's "Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines for Janitorial Paper and Plastic Trash Can Liners". The compliance threshold for these Guidelines is a minimum of 10% post-consumer recycled content. We don't have specific product endorsement information, but most suppliers currently carry a number of products that meet these requirements.

Would a trash liner with 20% pre-consumer recycled content be sufficient to meet the requirements, or is it strictly post-consumer?

Hmm, that's a good question. The logic used by LEED dictates that 20% pre-consumer is equivalent to 10% post-consumer. However, the CPG, as written by the EPA, make no mention of pre-consumer content in plastic trash bags. This could be just a simple oversight, or it could be an intentional effort to give preference to post-consumer recycled content. In short, I'm not sure. You can review the CPG language yourself at http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/tools/cpg/products/trashbag.htm and feel free to follow up with an EPA service rep. Please share the results on this forum if you're able to get an answer from them.