This post was originally published on Sustainability Matters
Whether you’re a business, specifier or individual consumer, buying products made with recycled content can help keep materials out of landfills and groundwater, grow new markets, and encourage more manufacturers to use recycled materials and rethink product design. Minimising the consumption of virgin resources can save water and energy and reduce pollution.
Greenwashing harms brand value and can undermine credibility, creating scepticism around recycled content claims. It can also expose businesses to serious legal risks. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) has prioritised greenwashing as a significant compliance priority. What you exclude can be just as meaningful (or misleading) as what you include — for example, claiming that your product is made from 100% recycled plastic yet failing to be upfront that plastic only makes up a small portion of the product’s overall ingredients.
GECA infographic outlining the ACCC’s 8 Principles to Guide Businesses’ Environmental Claims.
Recycled content claims relate to items containing a specific amount (by mass percentage) of pre-consumer or post-consumer recycled material. This excludes rework, regrind or scrap produced in the manufacturing process, which could be reclaimed within the same process that generated it.
GECA’s updated position requires all recycled content claims to include the following:
- A precise percentage of recycled content that specifies the type of recycled material, such as glass, plastic, rubber or timber. A product may have two types of recycled materials — for example, 90% recycled plastic and 95% recycled timber — or only one, such as 100% recycled rubber.
- A statement on whether the recycled material is pre-consumer or post-consumer material. If there is a mix of both, the percentage of each shall be specified.
- Disclosure of any virgin material categories that make up the final product and their percentage total of the product by weight. Examples of virgin material categories may include inks, additives, dyes and adhesives.
- The recycled content calculation for any claims must conform with ISO 14021:2016 and be approved by third-party assessors.
Critical tips for any business promoting a recycled content claim include considering the overall impression created, including visual elements. Ensure you’re not insinuating more than your claim covers. Is evidence of your claim and all associated information prominent and easily accessible to the public, such as on your product’s website page? And when communicating your claim, have you used clear language free from jargon?
An example of how to put GECA’s guidance on communicating recycled content claims into practice. For a larger image, click here.
Not all recycled products can be considered equal regarding the environmental, health and social impacts generated during manufacture, use and disposal. GECA’s Recycled Products ecolabel standard defines sustainable performance benchmarks for these products throughout their entire life cycle — making it easier for consumers and procurement teams to identify your leadership.
Top image credit: iStock.com/aydinmutlu
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