Many people recycle everything from aluminum cans, cardboard, plastic and glass bottles, and paper to help eliminate the waste and landfill production, preserve our environment, and to conserve our natural resources. Recycling means to return to an earlier usable condition. In many schools, supermarket and stores, you will find recycling slots or binges that holds recycled materials. .
However, there sometimes can be a problem with the labeling systems of recycling material for the consumers, us. Many people do not fully understand or see the difference between the words: 100% recycled paperboard, 80% recycled paper and 65% post-consumer, and 100% recycled paperboard and the minimum 35% post-consumer content. There also can be a problem with the packagers because they compete and claim that their packaging is "produced from recycled material". .
For the consumers the problem can be easily addressed by informing consumers what the words mean. For example, the word post-consumer means that the material has been produced by commercial and institutional facilities, or households and can not be used anymore for its intended purpose and has been returned to recycling center by us, the consumers. The word scrap is also sometimes used meaning that the material has been left over from an industrial process and cannot be reused or reprocessed within the same plant. For example, 100% recycled paperboard means that 100 percent recovered paper has been abstracted from the solid waste stream - collected, separated and recycled for use. In the article, 80% recycled paper and 65% post-consumer means the manufacturer did not "adhere to strict efficiency production standards, but at the same time does not incorporate 65% recycled material into the product". Another example used in the article was the 100% recycled paperboard and 35 % post-consumer meaning that the manufacturer is strict about the efficiency production as well as a significant amount (35%) of the recycled material.