What is the difference between pre-consumer and post-consumer material?
When manufacturers use recycled material in their product, they define it in two ways: pre-consumer or post-consumer. Pre-consumer is basically manufacturing waste. For example, an envelope manufacturer might recycle the clippings left over when envelopes are cut from paper. These clippings could be made into other paper products instead of being thrown away. Post-consumer content, on the other hand, is the material that was previously used by consumers, such as, newspaper, plastic bottles, glass containers, and aluminum cans. In order for recycling to work, manufacturers need to make more products with post-consumer recycled content and consumers must buy more products with post-consumer recycled content. We will all then be closing the loop on recycling.
