What’s post-consumer recycled (PCR)?
2 min read
If you happen to’ve shopped for a laptop computer, speaker or actually any tech product just lately, you might have come throughout the time period “post-consumer recycled” or PCR.
Preserve studying to study every part you could learn about PCR supplies, together with what they’re and the way they contribute to many manufacturers’ sustainability efforts.
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What’s post-consumer recycled (PCR)?
Put up-consumer recycled or PCR supplies are supplies salvaged from merchandise that will in any other case have ended up in landfills. This will embody the plastic from plastic bottles, the cardboard from cardboard packing containers and packaging and the aluminium from drink cans.
These supplies are collected and brought to recycling centres the place they’re melted down and remodeled into supplies that may be then used once more in new merchandise, thus extending their life span.
Not solely does this course of assist to maintain plastic, cardboard and aluminium out of landfills for longer, but it surely additionally reduces the necessity for brand spanking new supplies to be produced which may have a dangerous impact on the atmosphere.
Put up-consumer recycled supplies fall beneath the umbrella class of recycled supplies alongside pre-consumer recycled supplies, which come from offcuts saved throughout the manufacturing of a distinct product, and post-industrial recycled (PIR) supplies.
Sadly, PCR supplies can’t be recycled indefinitely as, over time, the supplies will degrade in high quality. This occurs progressively throughout every recycling course of. That stated, the actual fact these supplies could be reused a number of occasions signifies that PCR nonetheless has its benefits over single-use plastic and different options.
In recent times, fairly just a few tech firms have begun incorporating PCR supplies when constructing new merchandise as a part of their sustainability efforts.
Acer’s Aspire Vero, for instance, has a singular inexperienced and blue speckled look because of the inclusion of PCR plastics within the shell of the laptop computer. Not solely that, however the firm has since expanded the Vero line to incorporate projectors, desktop PCs, mice and screens – all made partially with PCR supplies.
PCR plastics can be discovered within the keycaps and audio system of the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED and the woven Rewind material used all through Home of Marley’s headphones and audio system, together with the Get Collectively 2.
