Recycling terms & what they mean

Contaminant: Any material harmful to the recycling process when included with recyclable material.

Converter: An industrial process in which a processed material is made into a specific product. An example would be the manufacture of envelopes from the required grade of paper.

Grade: A class of secondary material that is distinguished from similar classes on the basis of quality, appearance, use, content, density or other factors.

High-grade waste paper: Waste paper with the most value, consisting of pulp substitute and de-inking high grade categories.

Low-grade waste paper: Commonly referred to as bulk grades, usually of lesser value, consists of newspaper, corrugated and mixed paper.

Mill broke: Waste generated within the paper-making process (normally returned to the process within the same mill).

Post-consumer materials: These are finished products or other materials that have served their intended use and been discarded for disposal or recovery. For the products in this Guide, they are considered to be those which have completed all stages of the production process, and have arrived at the final point of sale or distribution. This would, therefore, include such items as unsold newspapers, or out-of-date letterheads, even though they may not strictly have been used for their final purpose. It would not include unsaleable or unusable goods damaged in the production process, or overruns, which have not left the printer's or converter's premises.

Pre-consumer materials: Production wastes or factory scrap generated by manufacturers and product converters, for example, trimmings, damaged or obsolete goods, and overruns. Uncontaminated with other materials, they can be fed straight back into the production system, resulting in high quality goods. Plastics and steel shavings are routinely recycled in this manner. Alternative terms in regular use are: post-industrial waste or industrial waste, process scrap, and manufacturing waste, with different industries tending to use different terms. Information about their use in a product is given in the Guide under the heading 'Other recovered content'.

Post-use: With particular reference to plastic, this is defined as "Materials collected from outside the individual manufacturing industry after it has been used for its primary purpose. This can include material from agricultural use, commercial, industrial, retailing, distribution and domestic outlets, but in all cases the material will have been used for the purpose for which it was manufactured." (British Polythene Industries 1994)

Pulp substitutes: Unprinted, clean waste paper that can be used directly in paper making as a substitute for wood pulp.

Reconditioning: Making a product suitable for reuse, perhaps by cleaning and repairing it. Often applied to packaging materials, such as cartons or tanks.

Recovered materials: This is a broad term, covering both 'pre-consumer' and 'post-consumer' materials which would otherwise be regarded as 'waste'.

Recycling: The collection and separation of materials from the waste stream and subsequent processing to produce marketable products. Recycling differs from product re-use because of the need to process the recovered material to realise its value. The most desirable form of recycling, environmentally and economically, is when the recycling process creates products that are of comparable, or only slightly lowered, quality to the original. Energy savings are often quite significant in this high-grade recycling. An example is aluminium, which can be recycled again and again without losing any of its properties. Glass is another example. Some materials, notably paper, do suffer a loss of quality on being recycled, and this limits the number of times recycling can occur. However there are many applications that do not require a high quality, bleached white paper product, for example, toilet tissue and paper towels.

Recyclable: This is a term often used loosely, and sometimes misleadingly, on products. For example, just because a product is 'recyclable' does not mean it is environmentally benign. Most products have some environmental impact when the entire lifespan is taken into consideration. Even if a product is technically 'recyclable', collection facilities may not exist in a particular locality.

Recycled content: The term 'recycled' does not mean that a product contains 100% recovered materials. Nor does it mean that a product contains post-consumer materials. Recycled means that a product contains some recovered materials. 'Recycled content' can vary from small percentages of pre-consumer to 100% post-consumer materials.

Recycled feedstock: Material that has been recovered from the waste stream and is suitable for manufacturing new products.

Remanufacturing: A process of refurbishing a manufactured article in order to extend its lifespan. The term is frequently used for toner cartridges for photocopiers and laser printers whereby the original cartridge is checked for wear, parts replaced if necessary, and refilled for further use. In the Guide it is also applied to traditional activities such as tyre retreading.

Reprocessing: A fairly general term which is used to covers a range of industrial activities including recycling.

Re-refining: Refining of a material which has been refined already. This may be oil, solvents or other chemical product.

Reuse: Reuse of containers and/or packaging in the original form, either by householders, or via the manufacturer, without reprocessing.

Secondary material: Recyclable materials such as waste paper and scrap metals.

Source reduction: Waste prevention actions taken close to the source of waste generation, i.e. the point at which changed behaviour or direct action can reduce the volume of waste generated that would otherwise be recycled, incinerated or dumped in landfills. Source reduction is therefore an approach that precedes waste management by addressing how products are manufactured, purchased and used. Without waste prevention, everything else can only ever be a second-best option.

Source separation: The separation of individual secondary materials at the point of generation for recycling.

Sustainable consumption: The United Nations Environment Programme's Oslo Symposium 1994 used the following working definition, "the use of goods and services that respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life, while minimising the use of natural resources, toxic materials and emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle, so as not to jeopardise the needs of future generations."

Waste: Any substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard is considered as waste (EU Directive 75/442).

Woodfree: A technical term meaning paper which has been made by chemical process, during which lignin is extracted from the wood.