Certification Standards

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A certificate is an official document used to guarantee a specific characteristic. For biodegradable polymer materials, a certificate attests that a product is degradable under the conditions specified in the standard. For materials made from renewable resources, the certificate proves the product contains a specific percentage of renewable content.

Issued certificates carry the label of the certification authority, state the standards on which the certificate is based, and include a certification number. Validity can be verified on the certification organization's website. Only final products may use the certification label proving that a product is compostable — this distinguishes it from products without the certificate.

Products bearing certification logos give consumers beyond-doubt proof of product/material properties. The certification logo for compostable plastics enables simpler waste sorting, correct handling, and a guarantee of the product's quality.

Source: bio4life.nl/information/standards-certification

NEN develops and controls national standards, and also offers the gateway to European and global standards. The most common agreement types:

Source: nen.nl — European and international standards

• Applicable to monomers, polymers, plastic materials, and biocomposites.
• Based on Carbon-14 analysis.
• Developed by CEN Technical Committee CEN/TC 249 "Plastics"; provides reference test and calculation methods based on EN 15440 and ASTM D6866.
• First published July 31, 2011. Biobased carbon content is expressed as a fraction of sample mass, total carbon content, or total organic carbon content.
• A Technical Specification (TS) is a pre-standard with a maximum lifetime of 2–3 years; it may later become an EN standard via a CEN Enquiry and Formal Vote.

Testing provider: ISO/IEC 17025:2005-accredited Beta Analytic (Miami, FL) provides biobased carbon content analysis under CEN/TS 16137 using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS), with standard deviation as low as 0.1%. Beta Analytic is not affiliated with CEN or CEN/TC 249.

Source: betalabservices.com/biobased/cen-16137.html

• Radiocarbon (carbon-14) is present in all living and recently expired matter.
• Anything more than 50,000 years old no longer contains carbon-14.
• One industrial application of radiocarbon dating is ASTM D6866.

Carbon-14 is an unstable, weakly radioactive isotope present in minute amounts in all living things. When a plant stops assimilating CO₂ or an organism stops eating, carbon-14 intake stops and radioactive decay takes over — the basis for radiocarbon dating.

Example: A 100% petroleum-based polyethylene product returns a 0% biobased content result via ASTM D6866, while 100% plant-derived polyethylene returns 100%.

Source: betalabservices.com/biobased/carbon14-dating.html

• Developed for renewable content determination of solid recovered fuels (SRF).
• Includes methods based on carbon-14 analysis.
• Beta Analytic provides carbon-14 analysis according to EN 15440.

CEN/TS 15440:2006 originally outlined three methods; the revised EN 15440:2011 (CEN Working Group 343) dropped the reductionistic method and specifies three carbon-14–based methods: Proportional Scintillation Method (PSM), Beta Ionisation (BI), and Accelerated Mass Spectrometry (AMS).

Sampling standards: EN 15442/15443 (sampling, transport, storage, field prep) and EN 15413 (lab sample preparation).

Sources: betalabservices.com/renewable-carbon/cen15440.html · European Commission MRR Guidance Document No. 3 (Oct 2012)

The international reference for testing and calibration laboratories that want to demonstrate their capacity to deliver reliable results. It lets laboratories demonstrate competence and generate valid results, promoting national and international confidence, and helps test reports/certificates be accepted across borders without further testing — improving international trade.

Useful for any organization performing testing, sampling, or calibration — government, industry, universities, research centres, regulators, inspection bodies, and product certification organizations.

Source: ukas.com — ISO-17025 Brochure

CEN Technical Committee 249 covers all plastics standards. Its Working Group 17, established October 2008 (active since January 2009), develops standards for biopolymers. As of October 2012, CEN/TC 249 has published one technical report and three technical specifications relevant to the biobased industry:

• CEN/TR 15932:2010 — Terminology & characterisation of biopolymers/bioplastics (published March 2010)
• CEN/TS 16137:2011 — Determination of bio-based carbon content (published April 2011)
• CEN/TS 16295:2012 — Declaration of the bio-based carbon content (published February 2012)
• CEN/TS 16398:2012 — Reporting/communication template for bio-based carbon content and recovery options (published October 2012)

Source: betalabservices.com/biobased/europe-standards.html

If bioplastics prove compostability under international standards, they can be processed in industrial composting plants. Two harmonised European standards define the technical specification for compostability:

Key EN 13432 requirements (also embedded in the OK compost mark, with third-party market monitoring):

• Chemical composition: limits on volatile matter, heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Ni, Cd, Pb, Hg, Cr, Mo, Se, As), and fluorine.
• Biodegradation: at least 90% of materials must break down biologically into CO₂, water, and minerals within 6 months.
• Disintegration: after 12 weeks, at least 90% of the product must pass through a 2 × 2 mm mesh.
• Compost quality & ecotoxicity: composted packaging must not reduce compost quality, verified via plant germination/biomass tests.

All constituents and components of the packaging must be compostable for certification. An OK compost logo confirms: (1) compliance with EN 13432, (2) compliance with the Packaging Directive, and (3) independent third-party validation and market monitoring.

Concise guide to the four EN 13432 test criteria:

Other definitions: Home compostability ≠ industrial compostability. Natural materials (wood, wool, cotton, paper pulp, jute) skip biodegradation testing but still require disintegration, chemical, and compost-quality testing. Additives ≤1% by mass need only an MSDS + heavy metal check; above 1% require full chemical/biodegradability testing; above 5% require proven compostability.

Sources: european-bioplastics.org · okcompost.be · organicsrecycling.org.uk

EN 13432 certification is issued by two European bodies, each with its own recognised logo:

Sources: okcompost.be · dincertco.de

ISO 14040:2006 describes the principles and framework for LCA (goal & scope, inventory, impact assessment, interpretation, reporting, limitations). ISO 14044:2006 specifies the corresponding requirements and guidelines.

LCA (a.k.a. life-cycle analysis, ecobalance, cradle-to-grave analysis) assesses environmental impacts across a product's full life — raw material extraction, processing, manufacture, distribution, use, and disposal/recycling — by compiling an inventory of inputs/releases, evaluating their impacts, and interpreting results for decision-making.

Four main phases:

• Life Cycle Inventory (LCI): flow model of inputs (water, energy, raw materials) and outputs (releases to air/land/water), typically covering ~99% of product mass and energy use.
• Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA): selection of impact categories, classification of inventory flows, and characterization into common equivalence units. Optional: normalization, grouping, weighting (ISO 14044 advises against weighting for public comparative claims).
• Interpretation: identifies significant issues, checks completeness/sensitivity/consistency, and produces conclusions and recommendations.
• Reporting & critical review.

Common LCA variants: Cradle-to-grave (full life cycle), Cradle-to-gate (extraction to factory gate), Cradle-to-cradle (recycling end-of-life), Gate-to-gate (single process step), Well-to-wheel (transport fuels/vehicles).

LCA is widely used to support business strategy and R&D, product/process design, education, and labeling/product declarations, and underpins ISO Type III labels (Environmental Product Declarations).

Sources: en-standard.eu · en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life-cycle_assessment

Published as ISO/TS 14067:2013, this standard specifies principles, requirements, and guidelines for quantifying and communicating the Carbon Footprint of a Product — the total GHG emissions across its life cycle, expressed in mass-based CO₂ equivalents (CO₂e).

System boundaries defined by the standard:

• Cradle-to-grave: emissions/removals across the full product life cycle.
• Cradle-to-gate: emissions/removals up to the point the product leaves the organization.
• Gate-to-gate: emissions/removals arising in the supply chain.
• Partial CFP: emissions/removals from specific stages only.

Communication formats: CFP external communication report, CFP performance tracking report, CFP declaration, or CFP label — each with a standardized template.

Benefits: reliable, comparable parameters for organizations and consumers; identification of high-impact life cycle stages; support for related standards (ISO 14001, ISO 14025, ISO 14044); a first step toward emissions reduction/offsetting strategies.

Source: advisera.com/14001academy

ISO 14020 provides the general framework for environmental communication (transparency, terminology, reduced confusion). Three related standards define graded environmental claim formats:

Source: ecomundo.eu/en/environmental-performance/labelling/14020-ISO-standard

ISO 14024:2018 (2nd edition) establishes principles and procedures for Type I environmental labeling: a voluntary, multiple-criteria, third-party program that awards an environmental label to products meeting a set of predetermined requirements, identifying products as environmentally preferable within their category. Programs may be operated by public or private agencies at national, regional, or international level.

Key changes in the 2018 revision:

• Updated reference documents
• Added definitions for "verifier" and "verification"
• New subclause 5.16 (and 6.1 paragraph) on verifier competence
• New subclauses 5.1 (data quality) and 7.4.5 (verification)

Source: blog.ansi.org — ISO 14024:2018 Revision

Prepared by ISO/TC 207 SC 3 (Environmental Labelling), this standard governs self-declared claims made by manufacturers, importers, distributors, retailers, or anyone likely to benefit — via labels, literature, advertising, or digital/electronic media. It requires a clear, transparent, scientifically sound, and documented evaluation methodology, and does not override legally required environmental information.

Selected terms with defined usage requirements (see clause 7 of the standard):

Source: iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso:14021

An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is an independently verified and registered document communicating transparent, comparable life-cycle environmental impact data for a product. Having an EPD does not imply the product is environmentally superior — it is a transparent declaration, created and registered under a programme such as the International EPD® System, per ISO 14025.

Application areas: building assessment schemes (LEED, BREEAM, GreenStar, HQE), green public procurement, business-to-business and business-to-consumer communication, environmental management systems (ISO 14001, EMAS), and ecodesign.

Three things to check for a valid EPD:

• Reference to a registered EPD programme (publicly verifiable registry)
• Reference to the Product Category Rules (PCR) used for development
• Documented verification information (verifier name, validity date)

Validity: normally 3 years (5 years for construction products) from registration/publication. An EPD must be updated during its validity if any environmental indicator worsens by more than 10% versus published data.

Creating an EPD generally involves: finding/creating the relevant PCR → performing an LCA per the PCR → compiling the data into the EPD reporting format → verification → registration & publication. PCR development typically takes 5–12 months; the LCA study 1–12 months.

Climate Declarations are single-issue variants focused only on the carbon footprint (kg CO₂e) of a product across its life cycle stages.

EPD vs. Environmental Label: an EPD (ISO 14025 + ISO 14040/14044) gives detailed, verified life-cycle data without implying superiority; a Type I ecolabel (ISO 14024) is a pass/fail, third-party-verified mark showing a product meets defined environmental criteria, intended to drive the market toward lower-impact products.

Sources: environdec.com/What-is-an-EPD · environdec.com/contact/FAQ