Objectives

The project

EuCertPlast is a three-year project aiming at creating a European certification for post-consumer plastics recyclers. This project is co-financed by the European Commission under the Eco-Innovation Programme and began in September 2009 and will end in August 2012.

Background Information

European Plastics Recycling industry: 

· 1 500 companies;

· Employing 16 000 persons;

· Recycling more than 4.5 million tonnes of plastics waste.

It is not always clear if the material is recycled or send into trading. Therefore, a unique European audit scheme for the certification of post-consumer plastics recyclers is needed to:

· improve transparency;

· implement traceability of collected post consumer waste;

· determine recycling and trading practices.

Certification

The certification will work according to the European Standard EN 15343:2007 and aims to encourage an environmentally friendly recycling of plastics by standardizing it, particularly focusing on the process for traceability and assessment of conformity and recycled content of recycled plastics.

Specific objective

· Develop a European wide certification scheme for post-consumer plastics recycling;

· This scheme will assess the good practice, the output quality and the gain in terms of greenhouse gases done by the audited recycler.