What is post-consumer recylcing, anyway?

There are lots of ways to recycle. You can re-use the paper bags Trader Joe's loads your groceries in as trash or recycling bags. You can re-purpose that footstool with the spilled-on upholstery and make it into a cat bed. Those things are wonderful. But, they're not post-consumer recycling.

Post-consumer recycling is when you find or buy something that someone else has purchased, then discarded. Then, you use it.

Re-use or re-purpose is when you have something that you own, and instead of throwing it out, you use it again in a different way.



There are also a few gray areas. If you are given something that someone else purchased that would otherwise have been thrown away, is that post-consumer? I say yes. If you buy fabric samples that were never purchased by a consumer, but were indeed used, is that post-consumer? Not really, but I think it counts the same.

The purse in the photo, which I made for a friend with a camping-themed wedding, is made of some post-consumer recylced materials. The bandana, the handles and the patch are re-purposed; the interior is recycled. Is it all clear now?