What is post-consumer waste (PCW) content?
There are 2 types of recycled materials that can be used in paper creation – post-consumer waste and pre-consumer waste. Post-consumer waste content has been used as its final end product and then recycled by the end user. For example, a magazine was printed, mailed to its recipient, read and then recycled by the recipient. Pre-consumer waste content is the scrap that was recouped in the paper mill when the paper was being created. This type of recycled content never actually made it to the end user but was recycled nonetheless. For example, when the paper for the magazine was trimmed and cut down, the mill recycled those scraps and that is considered pre-consumer waste.
