A recycled-content claim means one thing when it is written down: a share of the material was recovered from the waste stream — from factory scrap or from used goods — and fed into this product. In the United States the reference rule is the Federal Trade Commission's Green Guides. They allow such claims only for material diverted from the solid waste stream.
Everything else on the pack — the leaf, the shade of green, the word circular — is set dressing until two records exist. One: where the material came from. Two: who can show the paperwork. The sections below sort the documented claims from the decorated ones. This connects to our earlier piece, Sustainability Definition — Sustainability Explained: What the Word Actually Means.
What Does the Percentage Actually Claim?
The federal rule is narrow. Marketers may make recycled-content claims, the Green Guides state, only for materials recovered or otherwise diverted from the solid waste stream — either during manufacturing or after consumer use. A percentage with no provenance behind it is not a measurement. It is a mood.
The rule comes from the trade commission, the agency that oversees advertising in the United States. Its guides do not measure anything themselves. They set what a claim may say, and in this corner the claims are provenance claims — stories about where material came from, written as numbers.
Why Do Pre-Consumer and Post-Consumer Differ?
The two streams carry different weight. Pre-consumer material is factory scrap — paper trimmings, flawed cans — fed back into production. The reference entry on the subject notes that such scrap is often not considered recycling in the traditional sense. Post-consumer material is waste that reached an end user, left the bin, and re-entered production.
The entry draws the line simply: post-consumer waste comes from the end user of a material stream, where the use did not feed another product's output. The split matters because mill scrap was never headed for a landfill. A bottle with 30 percent factory offcuts is a tidier factory. A bottle with 30 percent collected household waste is a loop that closes.
What Does the Regulator's Paper Actually Say?
The Guides live at Title 16, Part 260, of the Code of Federal Regulations. The trade commission opened a formal review of them in December 2022 — a public request for comment on whether to retain, modify, or rescind the guidance. That request, dated December 20, 2022, is the federal posture on record.
The notice runs through the Guides claim by claim. Its question on recycled content, keyed to 16 CFR 260.13, asks whether the current guidance is enough. Comments were invited from anyone with evidence — costs, benefits, better wording. The recycled-content rule stands as written while the review runs.
How Should a Buyer Weigh the Claim?
Read the claim as a supply story. First question: where was this material recovered? Factory scrap means a tidier plant. Post-consumer share means a collection and reprocessing system that exists and works. Second question: who checked the share? A named verifier can be checked in turn. A round number on a green leaf cannot.
Ask for the split written out — pre-consumer against post-consumer — and for the years the claim covers. Claims that answer in specifics tend to have specifics behind them. The rest is paint.
Conclusion: Follow the Waste Stream, Not the Leaf
A recycled-content claim is a provenance statement, and the federal guides compress it into one line: material recovered or diverted from the solid waste stream, during manufacturing or after consumer use. Pre-consumer fiber is factory tidiness. Post-consumer fiber is a loop that closes. The claim earns belief when its stream is named, its split is printed, and its verifier can be found. Readers following this should also see Fiber-to-Fiber Recycling: The Technology That Could Make Old Clothes New.
The leaf on the pack is not evidence. The waste stream is. Read for the stream first, and the label starts speaking plainly.
