Increased enforcement against fraud in the recycling sector and the role of green claims verification
The role of green claims verification for consumer product businesses is of increasing importance due to the emergence of fraud in the recycling sector. There has been an increase in arrests relating to recycling fraud in the UK, as part of an ongoing investigation by the Environment Agency and Joint Unit for Waste Crime into fraud, money laundering and offences under the producer responsibility regulations.
The Packaging Producer Responsibility Regulations require producers of waste packaging made from materials like plastic, glass, and cardboard to contribute towards the financial cost of recycling and waste disposal. These Regulations introduce credits with monetary value for companies which meet the required criteria, making them the target of organised criminal gangs engaging in high-value recycling fraud.
The increased enforcement of these Regulations aims to reduce the amount of fraud in the recycling sector, which is undermining compliant businesses and contributing to plastic pollution. With numerous extended producer responsibility schemes already in place or on the horizon, it’s becoming more important than ever that sustainability-related claims are both credible and verifiable. A way to protect your business and ensure you are getting the materials you intended is through strategies around green claims verification, such as recycled plastics testing.
This focus on the substantiation of environmental claims is further reinforced by initiatives like the EU’s Green Claims Directive, which sets out clear requirements to ensure that any green claims made by businesses are accurate, evidence-based, and not misleading.
How Eurofins Sustainability Services can help with green claims verification and recycled plastics testing
If you’re interested in green claims verification, we offers a range of services to support third party green claims verification, such as biodegradability & compostability testing, biobased content analysis, vegan verification, supply chain mapping, and recycled plastics testing.
We recently launched our recycled plastics testing service, which is a proprietary and comprehensive solution for reliable recycled plastics testing for the textile, apparel, and footwear industries. By using the most advanced methodology, this is the first service of its kind that can accurately verify recycled polymer content in recycled plastics by focusing on their physical and chemical properties, instead of analysing generic chemical markers. Watch this webinar on-demand to learn more.
In addition to green claim verifications and recycled plastics testing, we also offer an extensive array of chemical testing services to support claims related to chemical or contaminant content.
For more information on how Eurofins Sustainability Services can help you on your sustainability journey, feel free to contact us.
Or read the original article from the Environment Agency here.
