Therefore, they are more accurately referred to as recycled content products. Examples include a rebuilt or remanufactured commodity, such as a remanufactured laser toner cartridge, recycled paper, and recycled plastic lumber. Recycled content products are often labeled with percentages of postconsumer and recovered material. Postconsumer material is a material or a finished product that has served its intended use and then is diverted or recovered before it is disposed. Postconsumer material is part of the broader category of recovered material.
Preconsumer material is material that is recycled before it is used by a consumer.
For example, paper mill scraps that are recycled at a paper mill. Recovered materials are waste materials and byproducts that have been recovered or diverted from solid waste landfills, but do not include those materials and byproducts generated from, and commonly reused within, an original manufacturing process. For example, steel scrap from an automobile plant that is recycled and made into steel beams is recovered material, but scrap paper that is recycled again in the paper mill is not. Yes, but EPA does not endorse any particular product. Nineteen additional items are currently under review.