EU recycling initiative RecyClass (Brussels; www.recyclass.eu), created by Plastics Recyclers Europe (www.plasticsrecyclers.eu), has awarded traceability certificates to an initial group of products that includes flexible and rigid plastics and those used in food and non-food applications. The RecyClass Plastics Traceability Certification verifies the inclusion of recycled content of between 10% and 100%.

The group said nine companies have received certificates:

• Alpla (Hard / Austria; www.alpla.com) in Germany with a PET bottle containing 89% recycled plastic
• Portugal’s Selenis (Portalegre; www.selenis.com) for using 30% and 50% recycled content in PET compounds
• Spanish firms Silvalac (Barcelona; www.silvalac.com) and Macresac (Tarragona; www.macresac.com) for incorporating varying volumes of recyclate in their films
• Greece’s Mornos (Thiva; www.mo.gr) for including 30% pre-consumer recycled content in its LDPE bags
• Germany-based Neemann LiteFlexPakaging (Leer; www.neemann.de) for using recycled content in its film bags
• Versalis (Milan / Italy; www.versalis.eni.com) for an EPS that contains post-consumer recyclate
• Sleever Technologies (www.sleever.com) with at least 30% recycled plastics in its PET shrink films in France
• Colpack (Bergamo / Italy; www.colpack.com) for its garbage bags that contain various amounts of recycled content.

RecyClass said further certifications are ongoing for products in Belgium and the UK, among others. It also pointed out that it is currently in the process of being accredited under ISO 17065, the standard for bodies that are certifying the quality of a product.