Author: Jane Gardner (ERFMI)

The Ecolabel Index (ecolabelindex.com), the largest global directory of ecolabels, lists 455 ecolabels in 199 countries and across twenty-five industries. In Europe alone there are 231 ecolabels listed of which 89 are linked to buildings and building products.

The labels are aimed at various audiences including corporate purchasers, retailers, consumers, manufacturers, specifiers, and designers. Some certify products, others certify companies or organisations. They are all based on a varying number of national, international or European standards.

Many of them are based on ISO14021:2016 Environmental labels and declarations – Self-declared environmental claims (Type II environmental labelling) or ISO 22095:2020 Chain of custody – General terminology and models, defining the approach taken to control inputs and outputs and associated information in a particular chain of custody system, for example to track recyclates from the end-of-life of a product right through their use in a new product.

The sheer number and complexity of environmental certificates and labels makes it difficult for manufacturers as well as end users of products to navigate their way through.

This report focuses on labels and certification schemes which relate to recycled content, design for recycling or traceability of materials through the supply chain. It looks at certifications and labels relevant to plastics, textile, and wood in line with the products that are part of the CISUFLO project.

Traceability of recyclates through the supply chain is becoming increasingly important as we move from a linear economy to a circular economy in Europe, where the EU Green Deal launched by the Commission in 2019 is driving change on a systemic level. For this purpose, several new approaches are being developed and tested, including an incorporation of the blockchain technology into the existing tracing techniques. 

The EU Green Deal is the key initiative of the European Commission to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 and to decouple economic activity from the consumption of finite resources. A large number of policies, legislations and initiatives have grown from this vision since 2019. Recycled content requirements are a key for the development of circular systems and reuse of resources and many of the initiatives currently under consideration by the EU, focus on minimum recycled content targets. This includes the proposed revision of the Construction Products Regulations, which foresees in Article 22 the obligation to declare mandatory sustainability characteristics, including minimum recycled content.

Table 1 highlights some of the certifications and labels that are currently operating in Europe and globally which look at recycled content and lifecycle assessment of products. It also covers sustainability certifications and labels that apply to textile floorcoverings, wood, and plastics.

Table 1 Overview certification, auditing systems and related labels

Name	Focus	What is targeted	Target audience	Related Standards	Area of operation
AENOR	Recycled Plastics Traceability and Recycled Plastic Content .	Plastic products containing recyclates	Manufacturers, end users	UNE EN 15343Plastics plastics – Traceability in plastics recycling and evaluation of conformity and recyclates content	Spain
Blue Angel	The Blue Angel has been the ecolabel of the German federal government for more than 40 years. It is awarded to environmentally friendly products and services.  It is an independent label that certifies  products in a product group based on a comprehensive range of criteria such as Resource-conserving production (water, energy, (recycled) materials), sustainable production of raw materials, avoidance of pollutants in products, reduced emissions of harmful substances into the soil, air, water and indoor spaces, reduction of noise and electromagnetic radiation and efficient use and products that use a low level of energy or water.	Products	Consumers	ISO 14024 “Environmental labels and declarations – Type I environmental labelling – Principles and procedures (ISO 14024:2018)”.	Germany
CRI Green Label Plus	In 1992, the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) launched its Green Label program to test carpets, cushions, and adhesives to help specifiers identify products with very low emissions of VOCs. This enhanced program sets the standard for indoor air quality.	Textile floor coverings	Retailers		USA
DIN CERTCO	Certification programme for plastic product made from recycled material. The certification focuses on the evaluation of the system for traceability and for calculating the recycled content in the plastic product. DIN CERTCO uses auditors recognised by it to conduct the necessary audits as a basis for the assessment and certification of the products.	Plastic products	Plastic products	ISO 1402 1 Environmental labels and declarations – declarations (Type II environmental labelling) DIN EN 15343 Plastics plastics – Traceability in plastics recycling and evaluation of conformity and recyclates content DIN EN 15342 Plastics – Recycled plastics – Characterisation of polystyrene(PS) recyclates DIN EN 15344 Plastics – Plastic recyclates – Characterisation of polyethylene(PE) recyclates DIN EN 15345 Plastics – Recycled plastics – Characterisation of polypropylene (PP) recyclates DIN EN 15346 Plastics – Recycled plastics – Characterisation of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) recyclates DIN EN 15347 Plastics – Recycled plastics – Characterisation of waste plastics DIN EN 15348 Plastics Recycled plastics – Characterisation of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recyclates DIN EN 71-3 Safety of toys – Part 3: Migration of certain element	Germany
EcoVadis	EcoVadis – company sustainability reporting. EcoVadis sustainability assessment methodology is an evaluation of how well a company has integrated the principles of Sustainability/CSR into their business and management system.	Company sustainability reporting	companies and organisations		Global
EPD Environmental Product Declaration	The EPD provide relevant, verified, and comparable information to meet various customer and market needs. In an EPD manufacturers report comparable, objective and third party verified data that show the environmental performance of their products and services. It provides product specific LCA data.	Products	Manufactures, end users	ISO 14025: Environmental labels and declarations, ISO 14040 Environmental management: Lifecycle assessment principles and framework, For the construction sector ISO 21930 – Sustainability in Building construction, EN 15804 +A2 Sustainability of construction works – Environmental product declarations	Global
EucertPlast	Traceability of plastic materials (throughout the entire recycling process and supply chain) and quality of recycled content in the end-product.	Plastic recyclates	Recyclers operating according to high standards and implementing best practice	EN 15343:2007 Plastics – Recycled Plastics – Plastics recycling traceability and assessment of conformity and recycled content	EU
EU Eco label	EU Eco labels are attached to products that meet the environmentally friendly criteria determined by official institutions, associations, or certification bodies. These criteria are determined on the basis of the environmental impact of the product’s life cycle and on the basis of extensive scientific research. Eco labels focus on certain environmental aspects of products. It covers many environmental aspects, for example energy consumption, water use, timber resource, and so on. Eco labels have a different structure than green symbols and environmental claims. Eco-labelled products are evaluated and verified by an independent and impartial third party. As a result of these studies, the products are guaranteed to meet certain environmental performance requirements.	Products	Consumers	Life cycle assessment standards	EU
FSC	The Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC) promotes environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world’s forests. FSC® chain of custody (CoC) tracks FSC certified material through the production process – from the forest to the consumer, including all successive stages of processing, transformation, manufacturing, and distribution. Only FSC CoC certified operations are allowed to label products with the FSC trademarks.  The FSC label provides the link between responsible production and consumption and enables the consumer to make socially and environmentally responsible purchasing decisions.	Wood	Corporate purchasers, government purchasers, consumers, retailers, specifiers, and designers	FSC-STD-40-004 V2-1 EN Chain of Custody Standard	Global
GRI – Global reporting initiative	The Global reporting standard develops standards which enable sustainability reporting providing information on an organisations positive or negative contribution to sustainable development.	Sustainability performances of companies and organisations, not material specific	Companies and organisations	Global reporting initiative develops its own reporting standards. the GRI Universal Standards, which apply to all organizations; the GRI Sector Standards, applicable to specific sectors; and the GRI Topic Standards, each listing disclosures relevant to a particular topic.	Global
GUT	The aim of GUT is to improve continuously all environmental and consumer protection aspects throughout the life cycle of a textile floor covering (from production to installation, to use phase and recycling).	Textile floor coverings	Consumers, retailers, specifiers, and designers	Life cycle assessment standards	EU
ISO 2600: Corporate Social Responsibility	Corporate Social responsibility standard. It provides guidance rather than requirements, so it cannot be certified to unlike some other well-known ISO standards. Instead, it helps clarify what social responsibility is, helps businesses and organizations translate principles into effective actions and shares best practices relating to social responsibility.	Company sustainability reporting	Companies and organisations		Global
Plastica Seconda Vita	Plastica Seconda Vita is an environmental product certification system dedicated to materials and products obtained from the recycling of plastic waste; It covers quality and traceability of recycled materials.	Plastic Products containing recyclates	Manufacturers, end users	EN ISO 14021	Italy
QACer	QACer assures the quality system related to the recycling process and use of recycled materials. Both the recycled content and the quality of the end product are addressed in order to support the principle of sustainability.	Recycled products	Industrial companies that produce polymer recyclates and/or use them in extrusion processes.	ISO 9001 forms the basis; EN 15347 Plastics – Recycled Plastics – Characterisation of plastics wastes; EN 15343 used to define:  a traceability system for polymer waste flows	EU
RAL GÜTEZEICHEN	RAL is an assurance make that benchmark technical requirements, for the process stages of the recyclable material chain of PET beverage packaging, with the expressed goal to increase the amount of recyclates in PET beverage	Plastic PET beverage packaging	Producers, end users		EU, Germany
RecyClass	RecyClass is a technical cross-industry initiative that works to advance plastic packaging recyclability and to establish a harmonized approach towards recycled content calculation and traceability in Europe. Activities within RecyClass include the development of Recyclability Evaluation Protocols and scientific testing of innovative materials which serve as the base for updating the Design for Recycling guidelines and the free online tool. Furthermore, RecyClass develops and maintains certification schemes for plastic packaging recyclability and for recycled content traceability in plastic products. RecyClass activities focus on giving a detailed and personalised assessment to companies to improve the recyclability of their plastic packaging and to integrate recycled plastics in their plastic products.	Certification system for plastic packaging recyclability.	Packaging Products	ISO 22095: Chain of custody — General terminology and models                                                                                    EN 15343:2007: Plastics. Recycled plastics. Plastics recycling traceability and assessment of conformity and recycled content	EU

All these labels either look at the lifecycle of products using lifecycle assessment standards, or they look in particular at ensuring and certifying the quality and contents of recyclates in products placed on the market.

This is important with regard to the Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA), a Commission initiative to encourage industry to pledge the use of ten million tonnes of recycled plastics in new products placed on the market in the EU by 2025.

These targets require robust auditing and certification schemes to verify recycled content and ensure quality of recyclates. Standards define how to calculate the content and define quality and certification and audit schemes serve to verify the correctness of claims made by the manufacturers.

The Circular Plastics Alliance has set up a monitoring system to monitor the flow of recyclates from the recycler to their use in new products at the convertor site. The CPA has approved two platforms for collecting data in compliance with the CPA monitoring rules and methodology

• MORE, managed by EuPC, collecting data only on the use of recycled plastics – https://www.moreplatform.eu
• RecoTrace managed by PolyREC, collecting data on both the production and use of recycled plastics – https://recotrace.com/auth/login

MORE – Monitoring Recyclates for Europe is an EU harmonized digital platform to monitor the uptake of recycled polymers into products. It collects data for use of recycled plastics in the form of a survey from converters. RecoTrace collects data for both the recycling and the use of recycled plastics.

In order to provide traceability of the data collected via MORE, EuPC has set up the PolyCert Europe, which facilitates the verification and auditing of the volumes reported into the MORE platform. PolyCert Europe is an umbrella technical platform set up to harmonise existing certification schemes for converters of polymeric materials in Europe. The idea behind the system is to bring together national accredited certification bodies from all over Europe to harmonise the calculation of recycled content in new products. Currently it covers QA-CER, Plastica Seconda Vita, RAL Gütezeichen, DIN CERTCO and AENOR (see Table 1). This approach ensures that converters can be certain of the quality of recyclates they obtain and ensure that the way to calculate recycled content across different national certification schemes is the same.

Given the sheer number of certification and labels that are present in Europe, this approach helps the manufacturers of products to navigate their way through the system and to ensure consistent messaging with regard to recycled content.