A1 - References

A1.1 Reference Documents

The following additional documents cover the requirements of the TE Recycled Claim Standard, and are

fully binding:

• Content Claim Standard

• Content Claim Standard Implementation Manual

All documents can be found at http://textileexchange.org/RCS.

A1.2 Definitions

The Content Claim Standard has a complete set of the terms used in the TE standards. The following are

specific to the RCS, and are important in defining the verification requirements for the input materials

for recycling:

A1.2a Material Collection: Material collection refers to the point in the recycling lifecycle when a

material is reclaimed from the waste stream.

Entities involved in material collection could include, but are not limited to:

• Individuals who collect post-consumer materials for sale to brokers

• Government organizations (eg: municipalities) that offer curbside recycling or operate

transfer stations

• Brokers that purchase pre/post-consumer waste from individuals, municipalities, or

commercial operations for re-sale

• Commercial operations that generate pre-consumer waste from manufacturing operations

• Commercial operations that collect post-consumer waste (eg: retail stores)

A1.2b Material Concentration: Material concentration refers to the point in the recycling lifecycle

when a reclaimed material receives primary handling. This may include, but is not limited to,

sorting, screening, basic contaminant removal, or baling. Material is still unprocessed at this

stage, meaning it has not been physically or chemically altered beyond basic handling,

e.g. screening, crushing, or washing.

Entities involved in material concentration must have legal authorization to operate as one of the

following:

• Government organization (eg: municipality)

• Non-profit organization

• Business entity (eg: brokers)

A1.2c Material Recycling: Material recycling refers to the point in the recycling lifecycle when a

reclaimed material is processed into a recycled material.

A1.2d Reclaimed Material: Material that would have otherwise been disposed of as waste or used for

energy recovery, but has instead been collected and reclaimed as a material input, in lieu

of new primary material, for a recycling process.1

i. Post-Consumer Material: Material generated by households or by commercial, industrial,

and institutional facilities in their role as end-users of the product that can no longer be used

for its intended purpose. This includes returns of materials from the distribution chain.2

ii. Pre-Consumer Material: Material diverted from the waste stream during the manufacturing

process. Excluded is the reutilization of materials such as rework, regrind or scrap generated

in a process and capable of being reclaimed within the same process that generated it.3,4

A1.2e Recycled content: Proportion, by mass, of recycled material in goods or packaging. Only preconsumer

and post-consumer materials shall be considered as recycled content.

A1.2f Recycled Material: Material that has been reprocessed from reclaimed material by means of a

manufacturing process and made into a final product or into a component for incorporation into

a product.5