“Made for Recycling”: an island of positive impact in a sea of green claims

Cologne. The EU Commission’s proposed Green Claims Directive aims to give greenwashing the red card in Europe by creating greater transparency around environmental marketing claims and preventing confusion among consumers. In a study entitled “The State of Green Claims 2024”, experts from House of Change examined the extent to which manufacturers already meet the proposed new requirements. In a sobering verdict, the study revealed that of 163 marketing claims on 78 branded products, only three met the criteria of the Green Claims Directive. The good news is that the “Made for Recycling” quality seal is one of the few positive exceptions. According to the study, this means that Hochland Deutschland GmbH markets the recyclability of its Grünländer cheese packaging in a transparent, substantiated and easy-to-understand way. In addition to providing the information “Recyclability: very good” on its packaging, Grünländer has also printed a link that consumers can follow to view the company’s Interseroh+ certification directly.

“The path to responsible consumption is paved with transparent and reliable information,” said Frank Kurrat, CSO of Interseroh+. “Our ‘Made for Recycling’ quality seal is helping our customers to make their packaging legally compliant in good time – and set themselves apart from the competition when it comes to sustainability.”

Verifiability is key

Verifying green claims is one of the cornerstones of the EU’s new directive, which is scheduled to come into force no earlier than the end of 2024. According to the draft directive, anyone printing terms such as “climate-neutral” or “recyclable” on their packaging must also be able to prove it in future. The “Made for Recycling” quality seal is an internationally recognised standard for packaging recyclability. It was developed jointly by Interseroh+ and the bifa environmental institute on the basis of a scientific assessment method and has been independently validated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging.

Packaging is analysed at Interzero’s Centre of Competence for Plastics Recycling in Maribor, the only accredited EU research institution that specialises in the development and analysis of recycled plastics. Assessments not only consider the packaging materials and the design but also account for local sorting and recycling infrastructure, which can vary widely from one country to another. Manufacturers receive valuable insights into optimising their packaging for sustainability. 

They are then entitled to use the “Made for Recycling” quality seal if they obtain a “good” or “very good” evaluation from the packaging analysis.

The attached photo can be used freely by citing ©House of Change / info.link as a source

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