I always thought that paper (among other things) could be either “new” or “recycled.” Apparently, however, there are at least three categories of recycledness: new, recycled, and “postconsumer” recycled paper, which is what certain fast-food and greeting-card companies say they use in modest quantities. What is postconsumer recycled paper? How can recycled paper be anything but postconsumer? If recycled paper is not postconsumer, what is it and where does it come from? –Suzan Charlton, Bethesda, Maryland
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Any industrial process generates waste, much of which is routinely (and profitably) recycled. The paper and printing industries, for example, recycle ends of paper rolls, “makeready” (test copies), misprints, scraps from trimming, and so on. This preconsumer waste has several advantages over the postconsumer kind: it’s produced in large quantities at a relatively small number of sites, making collection easy, and it’s clean, i.e., not mixed with the orange rinds and other junk found in the average consumer’s garbage can.
While we’re on the subject, several readers have asked for an explanation of the recycling codes used on plastic packaging: a number from one to seven inside the arrows-chasing-arrows recycling symbol. Years ago we said the problem with recycling plastics was that there were so many different kinds. To aid in sorting, many plastics manufacturers now use a code designed by the Society of the Plastics Industry. Here’s an explanation of the numbers, courtesy of Consumer Reports:
(5) Polypropylene. Food lids, containers; rarely recycled.
