When looking for recycled content products, what do the terms postconsumer, preconsumer and total recycled content mean?
Recycled products may contain either a percentage of materials collected from office/curbside recycling programs (postconsumer), a percentage of materials generated after the manufacture of a product but before it reaches the end-user (preconsumer) and/or virgin materials. The combination of preconsumer and postconsumer content provides the total recycled content. For example, recycled content copy paper with 30% postconsumer and 10% percent preconsumer content would have 40% total recycled content. Recycled products, however, may not always contain postconsumer content. Remember to ask for postconsumer recycled content when purchasing products to support manufacturers that use the recyclables you set out at home or at work for recycling collection.
