UL Environment Releases Manufacturer Guidance on Use of Pre-Consumer Recycled Content

NORTHBROOK, Ill., July 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, UL Environment, a global leader in environmental validation and standards development, published the position paper Interpreting Pre-Consumer Recycled Content Claims, which outlines multi-industry guidelines regarding the use of pre-consumer recycled content. The paper provides clearer definitions and guiding principles expressing what constitutes pre-consumer recycled content and leads the global marketplace towards best practices for its incorporation into product manufacturing.

"Manufacturers have historically struggled to understand pre-consumer recycled content," said Steve Wenc, president of UL Environment. "Our guidelines are intended to make it easier for manufacturers to identify and incorporate pre-consumer recycled content, helping to make recycled content more prevalent in many products and industries."

The new UL Environment position paper represents a shift in the common understanding of this type of recycled content and has process implications across a wide range of industries, including: chemicals, metals, minerals and plastics.  The paper is based on the concept of industrial ecology, which takes a holistic approach to examining sustainability in industrial systems and leads to a well-defined goal of zero-waste manufacturing.  

"UL strongly believes that the foundation of environmental responsibility starts by creating a common vocabulary," said Wenc. "We are helping to support a more sustainable economy by providing manufacturers with direction to achieve greater material reuse and encouraging recycling and reuse of all waste materials."

To download a copy of the UL Environment pre-consumer recycled content white paper or learn more about related testing and certification services, visit http://www.ulenvironment.com/ulenvironment/eng/pages/env/newsroom.

About UL Environment, Inc.

UL Environment is helping support the growth and development of sustainable products, services and companies in the global marketplace through standards development, independent third-party assessment and certification and knowledge services. UL Environment is a wholly owned subsidiary of Underwriters Laboratories, a global leader in conformity assessment that has been testing products and writing standards for more than a century. UL Environment currently offers Environmental Claims Validation (ECV), a service testing and verifying manufacturers' self-declared environmental claims, Sustainable Products Certification (SPC), a service evaluating and certifying products to accepted industry standards for environmental sustainability and Energy Efficiency Certification (EEC), a service certifying products for compliance with government energy efficiency specifications.  UL Environment is developing additional environmental standards, as well as training and advisory services to support organizations in the sustainable products and services industry.

SOURCE UL Environment, Inc.