Post-industrial vs post-consumer

The recycling economy's most important distinction. Post-industrial (PIR, also "pre-consumer") material never reached a consumer: converter offcuts, skeleton waste, start-up scrap, reel ends. It is clean, single-grade and traceable — the premium input. Post-consumer (PCR) material served its life in the market — bottles, films, packaging collected from households and commerce — then was collected, sorted and reprocessed.

The paradox: PIR is technically superior, but PCR carries the environmental-claim weight, because diverting consumer waste is what recycled-content policies exist to reward. The UK Plastic Packaging Tax currently counts both toward the 30% exemption, but the expected 2027 rule change moves to post-consumer only — which is why serious batch declarations always state the PIR/PCR split, and why buyers building tax positions should insist on it (EN 15343 provides the calculation framework).