With the growing pressure to demonstrate to consumers that products are genuinely circular manufacturers, brand owners and retailers are increasingly looking for a reliable and transparent certification. The RecyClass Certification is the solution as it is destined to all actors of the plastics value chain, beyond packaging, for virtually any plastic product. It attests to the physical traceability of recycled plastics as described in EN 15343:2007, following a controlled blending chain of custody approach ISO/IEC 22095 where origins of plastic waste are verified starting with the recycler and moving up the value chain. The certification allows as well for an adequate determination of the share of the post and pre-consumer plastic.
Nine companies were granted the RecyClass Recycled Plastics Traceability Certification include:
- ALPLA with 89% post-consumer recycled content in PET bottle in Germany;
- Selenis Portugal S.A., certifying the use of 30 and 50% of post-consumer recycled content in PET compounds in Portugal.
- Silvalac, S.A., certifying the use of 20, 30, 50, 60, 75, and 95% recycled content (both pre-consumer and post-consumer) in films in Spain;
- Macresac, S.A. with 30, 50 and 70% of post-consumer recycled content in films in Spain;
- Mornos S.A. with 30% pre-consumer recycled content in LDPE bags in Greece;
- Neemann LIteFlexPackaging, certifying the use of recycled plastics in film bags 23, 40, 60, 80% post-consumer and 20, 40 and 50% pre-consumer in Germany;
- Versalis S.p.A. with 10 and 35% post-consumer recycled in expandible polystyrene in Italy;
- Sleever Technologies with at least 30% post-consumer recycled plastics in PET shrink films for shrink sleeve labels in France;
- Colpack S.r.l. certifying the use of both at least 60, 95, 98, and 99% recycled plastics in garbage bags from the post-consumer origin and the use of at least 87, 92, and 97% mixed pre-consumer and post-consumer recycled plastics in garbage bags as well.
The certified products come from all over Europe including Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, France, and Spain, further certifications are presently ongoing also in, among others, Belgium and the UK.
Meeting consumer demand for transparency and verified claims remains high on the agenda of the plastic value chain as the target of placing 10 million tonnes of recycled materials on the European market by 2030 is approaching. With the aim of increasing the robustness of the Audit Scheme, the organization is currently in the process of being accredited under the ISO 17065 standard.
