False Arguments Are Promoting Post-Consumer Recycled Content BY JOHN MULLINDER
Don’t get me wrong. I fully support the use of more post-consumer ma- terial in packaging and products. Just not some of the BS that goes with
it. And this is important because governments are stipulating post-consumer content without knowing all the facts. Here are some of the false claims being made: False Claim # 1: That post-consumer is ‘environ- mentally better’ than pre-consumer content. Set- ting aside the big question of what ‘environmentally better’ actually means, I am not aware of any scien-
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John Mullinder
tific evidence that one is ‘better’ than the other. In fact, they are really the same material, just coming from different places along the supply chain. In the paper industry, for example, there is no difference in the way that pre-consumer and post-consumer paper or board is originally manufac-
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tured in a mill. It is exactly the same material with the same environmental production inputs. The only difference is that they come back to the recy- cling mill from a different place (one from a converting operation and the other from the back of factories, supermarkets, offices or homes). In fact, it could be argued that pre-consumer has a lower environmental impact overall because it travels a shorter recycling loop back to the mill. False Claim # 2 : That post-consumer is ‘more circular’ than pre-con- sumer. Not true. Isn’t the circular economy all about minimising waste? So, what could be more circular than minimizing waste at the converting stage? Pre-consumer material is like the off-cuts left after you cut a sewing pattern from cloth. Since you’ve already paid for the cloth, you make sure your design makes maximum use of the cloth you have. And what you have left over you send back (in the paper industry’s case) to a mill to be incorporated into another recycled content product. Nothing is wasted. Sounds pretty circular to me. False Claim # 3 : That post-consumer is ‘better’ because it replaces virgin material. Hogwash. Both pre-consumer and post-consumer replace CONTINUED ON PAGE 14
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June 8, 2020
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