So many paper products are now labeled recycled – which of course is wonderful and always exciting to see.  But – how truly recycled is that paper?  There are two phrases you’ll see – Post Consumer Waste and Pre-Consumer Waste.  The latter is really just left over bits from the manufacturing process which immediately gets re-used – that’s great but they should do that anyway!  Post-Consumer waste is the stuff we toss in our recycle bins after its first life and then gets re-made into something in its second life.  This is the type of recycled paper you should be using.  Pre-Consumer recycled paper is really a joke – of course they’re going to recycle the wasted bits from processing their paper, it makes complete sense – they’re not making  much of an effort there!  The point is – when buying recycled paper products read the fine print and make a responsible choice!  If only Pre-Consumer recycled products are available then that’s an easy choice but otherwise go with Post-Consumer.