Recyclate

The proportion of a product, by mass, made from recycled rather than virgin material, usually split into post-consumer content (from products discarded after use) and pre-consumer or post-industrial content (from manufacturing waste). Definitions and self-declared claims are commonly made with reference to ISO 14021.

Recycling by physical processes such as shredding, grinding and re-melting or re-compounding, without breaking the polymer down chemically. Thermoplastics can often be re-melted into new products, whereas thermoset composites typically yield ground filler or short fibre fractions for lower-grade uses.

Recycling in which the recovered material is of lower quality or value than the original, so it can only be used in less demanding applications. Mixed glass fibre composite waste, for example, is often downcycled into filler or aggregate rather than new structural laminate.

An economic model that keeps products and materials in use for as long as possible through reuse, repair, remanufacture and recycling, in contrast to the linear take, make, dispose model. In materials specification it drives requirements for recycled content, design for disassembly and credible end-of-life routes.