Thursday, February 12, 2009

Things that keep me up at night

I bought tissues tonight at Trader Joe's. They're 100% recycled, made from 80% post-consumer content. How does that work? What is the other 20% recycled from? Paper that hadn't been used yet? Why did that need to be recycled?

Maybe I don't understand fully. If I'm thinking about this wrong, feel free to set me straight.
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2 comments:

Unknown said...

From wikipedia:

Post-consumer waste is distinguished from pre-consumer waste, which is the reintroduction of manufacturing scrap (such as trimmings from paper production, defective aluminum cans, etc.) back into the manufacturing process. Preconsumer waste is commonly used in manufacturing industries, and is often not considered recycling in the traditional sense.

I'll admit, I've never thought about that before!

Robin Shreeves said...

Thanks Despairing. You're my hero for the day!