If you’ve been in the conversation about sustainable packaging at all in the last few years, you’ve seen the rise in use of recycled content in plastic packaging. But what exactly is post-consumer recycled (PCR) content, and where does it fit into the sustainable packaging landscape? Is it really sustainable? In this Deep Dive we’ll focus on PCR in plastic packaging.
Defining PCR and PIR
Post-consumer recycled content refers to materials that have already been used by consumers, recycled, and then repurposed into new products, including packaging. A piece of packaging is said to have some percentage of PCR – if for example, a plastic bag with 20% PCR was made of 20% recycled content, and the other 80% was virgin (new) content.
In the world of sustainable packaging, PCR is most commonly part of the discussion in plastics (you may also hear PCR spelled out as “post-consumer resin” in the context of plastics), but most kinds of packaging can have recycled content – glass, metal, paper, and more. For whatever reason, the term PCW (post-consumer waste) is sometimes used, especially in paper products, but the concept is the same.
What about PIR, or post-industrial recycled content? PIR basically refers to the capturing and recycling of “scrap” material on a manufacturing floor to be put into a product. For example, if a plastics manufacturer generates scrap, they can recapture that material immediately and put it back into their manufacturing process. The PIR material never actually leaves the building before it’s recycled into its original product.
Many sustainability advocates find claims of PIR content hollow, or even greenwashing. Most packaging manufacturers are collecting and recycling their production scrap as just a matter of doing good business. Because PIR never left the building, it tends to be very clean material to recycle into something else.
more at: https://www.atlanticpkg.com/2024/02/deep-dive-pcr-in-sustainable-packaging-a-closer-look-at-post-consumer-recycled-content-in-plastic-packaging/