CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia – Today, GreenBlue in partnership with NSF International announces the launch of the public comment period for the Recycled Material Standard (RMS), which is due to be published in early 2021. Once published, the RMS will be the only standard that offers both a mechanism for assuring claims of recycled content by corporations and creates a certificate trading system that directly incentivizes value chain participants to invest to grow recycling capability and capacity.
During this public comment period, feedback is solicited from supply chain members across all manufacturing segments, NGOs, and other stakeholders with interests in the standard. In addition to providing comments on the standard, participants are asked to provide feedback on the first of the material modules — the Plastics Module. This module defines how the principles of the RMS apply specifically to the plastics recycling value chain. Future modules will be developed for other materials.
“We are excited to work with NSF, leveraging their expertise in standards development, to bring the RMS to the marketplace at a critical time when brands must demonstrate progress on recycled content goals,” says Nina Goodrich, Executive Director of GreenBlue. Goodrich goes on to add, “based on the feedback we’ve received through the course of developing the standard, this will be an important tool to enable supply chain transparency for recycled content, something that is much needed to advance circularity and create investment, particularly for plastics.”
NSF International has guided the standards development process, gathering input from supply chain representatives at every stage of development to ensure the standard can be practically implemented and is relevant to address today’s challenges.
“There is much enthusiasm around the development of this standard, and everyone involved has been working hard for the past year to bring it to this important public comment stage,” says Jessica Evans, Director of Standards Development at NSF International.
NSF has been developing public health standards since it was founded over 75 years ago and brings independent, unbiased leadership to the standard development process. NSF currently has over 80 active public health, safety, environment, and sustainability standards.
Stakeholder feedback will be considered in finalization of the standard. The public comment period is open through December 18, 2020.
Those interested in participating in the public comment period should visit https://www.rmscertified.com, where they can download the RMS, the Plastics Module, and access recorded webinars that offer a deeper dive into key elements of the standard, such as mass balance allocation and the Attributes of Recycled Content (ARC) trading system.
Comments should be provided through https://www.rmscertified.com/about/standard or by contacting Jessica Evans directly at NSF at jevans@nsf.org.
About NSF International
NSF International is an independent, global organization that facilitates standards development, and tests and certifies products for the food, water, health sciences and consumer goods industries to minimize adverse health effects and protect the environment. Founded in 1944, NSF is committed to protecting human health and safety worldwide. With operations in 180 countries, NSF International is a Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center on Food Safety, Water Quality and Indoor Environment.
About GreenBlue
GreenBlue is an environmental nonprofit dedicated to the sustainable use of materials in society. Our mission is to promote the principles of sustainable materials management — use wisely, eliminate toxicity, and recover more. Through our projects, we achieve our goal by influencing the debate, enhancing supply chain collaboration, and creating action. GreenBlue is the parent nonprofit to The Sustainable Packaging Coalition, How2Recycle, CleanGredients, Forests in Focus, and other programs.