§ 16. Supplies furnished by secretary and clerk. a. The secretary of the senate, or such other officers or employees of the senate as the temporary president of the senate shall designate and the clerk of the assembly, or such other officers or employees of the assembly as the speaker of the assembly shall designate, respectively, shall purchase all stationery, office supplies and equipment necessary for the official use of the members, officers and employees, and shall prepay the postage on all official mail deposited in the post office of the respective houses for transmission through the mails by members of the senate and assembly, respectively.

b. All products purchased shall be recycled products, which meet contract specifications, unless the only available product does not contain recycled content, and provided that the cost of the recycled product does not exceed a cost premium of ten percent above the cost of a comparable product that is not a recycled product or, if at least fifty percent of the secondary materials utilized in the manufacture of that product are generated from the waste stream in New York state, the cost of the recycled product does not exceed a cost premium of fifteen percent above the cost of a comparable product that is not a recycled product. For the purpose of this section and until July first, nineteen hundred ninety-six, "recycled product" shall mean any product which has been manufactured from secondary materials, as defined in subdivision one of section two hundred sixty-one of the economic development law, and meets secondary material content requirements adopted by the office of general services under subdivision one of section one hundred seventy-seven of the state finance law for products available to the legislature under state contract or, if no such contract for such product is available, any product which meets the secondary material content requirements adopted by the secretary of the senate, or such other officers or employees of the senate as the temporary president of the senate shall designate, and the clerk of the assembly, or such other officers or employees as the speaker of the assembly shall designate, respectively, with respect to a specific commodity procurement by such entity. On or after July first, nineteen hundred ninety-six, "recycled product" shall mean, for the purposes of this section, any product which has been manufactured from secondary materials, as defined in subdivision one of section two hundred sixty-one of the economic development law, and which meets the requirements of subdivision two of section 27-0717 of the environmental conservation law and regulations promulgated pursuant thereto. Whenever purchasing or causing the purchase of printing on recycled paper pursuant to this section, the secretary of the senate, or such other officers or employees of the senate as the temporary president of the senate shall designate, and the clerk of the assembly, or such other officers or employees as the speaker of the assembly shall designate, respectively, shall require the printed material to contain the official state recycling emblem established pursuant to subdivision two of section 27-0717 of the environmental conservation law and regulations promulgated pursuant thereto if such paper has been approved by the department of environmental conservation as satisfying the requirements of such statute and regulations, or, if such paper has not been so approved, require the printed material to include a printed statement which indicates the percentages of pre-consumer and post-consumer recycled material content of such paper.