A new product made from reprocessed post-consumer or pre-consumer waste.
Recyclable: A product that can be reprocessed where facilities exist. Tip: Make sure that facilities exist in the city or region to process them. Just because a product is recyclable it does not mean that it will be recycled unless it is properly disposed of.
Post-consumer: When referring to waste, post-consumer waste is produced by the end-user of a product. It is different from pre-consumer waste, which is the reintroduction of manufacturing scrap into the production process.
Tree Free: Refers to paper that does not use tree fiber, but other kinds of fiber (i.e., hemp, sugar cane).
Vegetable-based ink: Inks that are used may be petroleum-based or vegetable-based, and made with materials such as soy and linseed. The benefit of vegetable-based ink is that it is more easily de-inked during the recycling process.
Process Chlorine Free (PCF): This most commonly means that the paper was recycled without chlorine. This does not mean that the original pre-consumer paper did not use chlorine. Chlorine is used to whiten paper, and has significant environmental impacts.
Forest Stewardship Council- or Sustainable Forestry Initiative-certified: These schemes identify and verify environmentally responsible papers. Both frameworks will verify sustainable practices in the production of pulp and paper. FSC is an international standard and arguably the most common. SFI is an American standard required of members of the American Forest and Paper Association.
