A clothing factory has extra scraps of material left over that it sends away to be recycled. These scraps are an example of which type of waste?

Question 12 options:

Raw material waste

Pay-as-you-throw waste

Post-consumer waste

Pre-consumer waste

The correct answer is pre-consumer waste.

Pre-consumer waste is a material that was discarded before it was ready for consumer use. It can be trimmings from paper production, defective aluminium cans, material scraps etc). This waste never made it to the costumer but ended up recycled instead of just being thrown away. Pre-consumer material is generated in the manufacturing process and then used again to make the same or a different kind of material.

Post-consumer waste is a waste that comes from a finished product that was purchased by a costumer, used and then recycled.

When a factory sends it's extra scraps of material that were left over to recycle, this is called pre-consumer recycling, and the scraps are called pre-consumer waste (D). The textile industry is a big contributor to the pre-consumer recycling, but post-consumer recycling is the most common form of recycling in the industry.