Recycled content is generally classified as one of two types: post-consumer or post-industrial. Post-consumer recycled materials have served their intended use, been collected from the end-user, and reprocessed. By contrast, post-industrial recycled material is usually derived from manufacturing waste or sub-standard products that have not been used. (The Federal Trade Commission distinguishes between the different types of recycled content in its Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims )

Typically recycling post-industrial material is thought of as less environmentally beneficial, since it indirectly encourages inefficient manufacturing processes that produce waste. Sometimes the same is claimed of all recycled products. In general, though, recycled materials are environmentally preferable to conventional virgin materials. Recycling helps to conserve primary material resources, usually consumes far less energy than extracting and processing a virgin resource, and helps keep usable materials from becoming a pollution problem.

At the other end of the spectrum from recycled content materials are the materials collected for recycling. Recycling building construction and demolition waste can have significant environmental benefit, since studies show that these types of waste make up over a third of the nation's total waste stream. Including job-site recycling in the project specifications provides a means for diverting material from the waste stream and giving it a new life, perhaps as another building product.

There are many different types and brands of recycled-content building products. In many cases, including them in a project in place of conventional materials can be a simple substitution that the builder or client may not even notice. In other cases recycled products may require special effort to obtain or call for a different installation method. This effort is usually minimal, especially when it is weighed against the environmental benefit of recycling a waste material.

Look at the project as a whole to identify recycling opportunities:

 For which components of the project can recycled materials be specified? It may be helpful to reference the U.S. EPA's Comprehensive Procurement Guideline program, which exists to promote the use of materials recovered from solid waste.

Can job-site waste recycling be required as part of the construction process? Which materials are recyclable locally? Can a recycling program be required of the contractor in the contract? Is it possible to include subcontractors in the recycling requirements?

Does the project encourage its future occupants to recycle by including facilities or space for collection of recyclables?

Weigh the pros and cons of a specific recycled product being considered:

Is the proportion of recycled content significant in terms of the amount and type of resources used in the product as a whole?
Is the recycled content post-consumer, or post-industrial, or a mix of both?

Has the recycled content of the product been verified by an independent source?

Is the recycled content being downcycled? When a high-value product is recycled into a low-value product for which there is less chance of material recovery, this is termed downcycling, and it is less environmentally desirable than applications that will allow material to be repeatedly recycled. (For example, when old carpet is recycled into new carpet, this is a use of comparable value, but when carpet is recycled into say, parking bumpers, this is a lower-value application that can be served as well by other materials and is not likely to be recycled again.)

Does this product create a market that encourages waste and inefficiency?