SCS Announces Updated Recycled Content Certification Standard

SCS Global Services (SCS), provider of third-party environmental and sustainability certification, has released an updated version of its Recycled Content Certification Standard, which helps manufacturers conserve natural resources, support corporate sustainability goals, and meet customer specifications for recycled products.

The SCS Kingfisher Recycled Content label has been applied to products in a wide range of industries, such as textiles, carpet, packaging, building and interior products, wood and paper, insulation, jewelry, precious metals and more.

The SCS Recycled Content Certification process ensures that recycled material is derived from verifiable sources, that thorough material tracking procedures are in place, and that production data produces accurate claims about the recycled content of final products.

The Version 7.0 additions to the SCS Recycled Content Standard includes a new "made with" certification option for a material or product that contains recycled ingredients. For example, "made with 100 percent post-consumer recycled PET resin." This claim provides an opportunity for Recycled Content claims to be more easily passed along the supply chain. SCS will continue to offer the traditional minimum content claim based on the entire product.

New criteria for vendor selection and formula control have been added to improve and streamline the material qualification process, along with other steps to streamline the review.

The update features a new Reclaimed Silvicultural Fiber claim, which had been under the umbrella of the Recycled Content Standard, and will be replaced by a new certification program, to be developed by the SCS Natural Resources team. This program will include criteria for recovered wood, as well as minimum legal requirements for reclaimed wood and wood fibers.

Finally, for recycled precious metals and 3T metals (tin, tungsten, tantalum), the manufacturer will demonstrate the implementation of a "Know Your Customer" procedure.

Novelis recently benefited from SCS certification for its first commercial use of evercan™, the company's high-recycled content aluminum sheet for beverage cans. Craft brewer Red Hare was the first to make use of Novelis' evercan aluminum sheet – made of a minimum 90 percent recycled content.