| Nowadays it is impossible to turn on your | | | | consumer recycled content is not considered as |
| television and not see some sort of | | | | “golden” as the nest type of recycled |
| advertisement that involves green products. But it | | | | content; post-consumer. |
| is important to be a wise consumer and have a | | | | Post-consumer recycled materials is any object or |
| little background knowledge about what makes a | | | | material that avoid a landfill after its original |
| product truly green versus | | | | purpose of use. Great examples of this type of |
| “greenwashed.” One of the first basic | | | | recycled content are soda cans and milk jugs. |
| steps to becoming a well versed green product | | | | Everything you place in your recycle bin at home, |
| consumer is to have some knowledge about | | | | such as newspapers, are picked up and delivered |
| recycled content, the different types of recycled | | | | to the recycling plant on the first step to become |
| content (did you know there was more than | | | | post-consumer recycled content. This type of |
| one?) and what recyclability is in contrast to | | | | recycled content is considered “better” |
| something having recycled content. | | | | because it embodies items that were recycled in |
| The first type of recycled content is | | | | lieu of going to the landfill directly. |
| pre-consumer recycled content. This a product | | | | There are limits to the number of times a |
| that contains the “leftovers” or the waste | | | | product can be recycled and reused. There gets |
| from a manufacturing process. A good example | | | | to be a point where a material cannot be used |
| of this is Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF). MDF | | | | again because it begins to lack in structural |
| contains wood particles and sawdust that are | | | | integrity. Also, it is really important to keep in |
| then compressed with adhesives and binders to | | | | mind that just because something contains |
| create a very dense material that is used for | | | | recycled content does not mean it can be |
| building. The sawdust and wood particles that | | | | recycled…and just because something can be |
| make up MDF can be collected from wood mills | | | | recycled does not mean it contains recycled |
| and slicing plants. Depending on the amount of | | | | content. In an ideal world we would get both – |
| sawdust that is collected versus created for the | | | | high recycled content and recyclability! |
| MDF determines its recycled content. Pre | | | | |