Recycled materials are materials that would have otherwise been disposed of as waste or used for energy recovery, but have instead been collected and recovered as a material input, in lieu of new primary material, for a recycling or a manufacturing process. It includes pre-consumer material and post-consumer material.
Pre-consumer material is material diverted from the waste stream during a manufacturing process. Excluded is reutilization of materials such as rework, regrind or scrap generated in a process and capable of being reclaimed within the same process that generated it.
Post-consumer material is material generated by households or by commercial, industrial and institutional facilities in their role as end-users of the product which can no longer be used for its intended purpose. This includes returns of material from the distribution chain.
In case of partial recycled material content, the actual quantity of recycled material must be considered.