04/22/24 - 117 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/9bh4zbtr
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New PA Recycling Markets Center Program To Certfiy Recycled Content Products
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The Pennsylvania Recycling Markets Center Wednesday announced the launch of an exclusive partnership with GreenCircle Certified LLC, Montgomery County, that has developed a system to certify products with recycled content.
The voluntary certification of recycled content is expected to help Pennsylvania companies and products that use recycled materials to stand out and become more competitive in the marketplace.
“Pennsylvanians will soon begin seeing more of the ‘GreenCircle Certified’ mark. This mark will confirm and verify claims of recycled content in a wide variety of goods, from building materials to furnishings to general consumer goods,” said Robert Bylone Jr., executive director and president of the RMC. “Recycled content has become an added value many consumers look for. The certification mark will help them reliably identify products made with recycled materials and the companies that make them.”
The RMC will work with GreenCircle and provide assistance to its clients, but GreenCircle will maintain the certification process as an independent program.
Tad Radzinski, co-founder of and certification officer for GreenCircle, pointed out that “as recycling and sustainability in general have grown in economic importance and gained widespread acceptance with the purchasing public, we’ve seen more and more companies making ‘green claims’ about their products and manufacturing operations. Our role is to validate the legitimate claims so they can be distinguished from those that are either inaccurate or misleading.”
Radzinski served as a national expert in waste minimization for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 1997 to 2007. For his outstanding service to the EPA he received two national Notable Achievement Awards and a Superior Service Medal.
Bylone emphasized that the ultimate purpose of the partnership is to enhance the RMC’s mission of building recycling markets in Pennsylvania—by driving an increase in the use of recycled raw materials and encouraging the manufacture and sale of more products with recycled content.
He made the announcement at the Lebanon headquarters of Regupol America LLC the first Pennsylvania manufacturing company to earn the GreenCircle Certified mark. Regupol America is one of the largest manufacturers in the world of sports and fitness flooring, tracks and turf underlayment using post-consumer recycled tire rubber.
“We use anywhere from 10 to 90 percent recycled materials, depending on the particular product,” said Regupol America President George Soukas. “This kind of voluntary certification program is a welcome step,” Soukas said. “It documents our long-standing recycling efforts, strengthens our brand among our existing customers and gives us a competitive point of differentiation to appeal to prospective customers.”
Radzinski said certification basically demonstrates that a claim made by a company has been evaluated and verified and that the company can consistently manufacture a product that matches its claim about recycled content.
He said he expects manufacturers that make products with recycled content will be eager to benefit from third-party certification. Because third-party certification is inherently objective, he said, it can be “a valuable asset in establishing credibility and developing consumer confidence.”
RMC Chair Michele Nestor said the certification program and partnership with GreenCircle fulfill an objective that the RMC board established in a strategic plan two years ago.
“We saw a need in the marketplace to authenticate claims of recycled content. By doing this, we’re supporting the manufacturers that use materials from Pennsylvania recyclers,” she said. “This is a benchmark in the evolution of recycling as a mainstream industry.”
As part of the arrangement, Bylone added, the RMC will advise and work with companies that want to increase their use of recycled materials and qualify for certification. He said the RMC will also work with GreenCircle to promote Pennsylvania recycling industries beyond the commonwealth’s borders.
According to the RMC, Pennsylvania has 2,265 operations involved in the collection and processing of recyclables, 484 manufacturers and demand-side users of recycled materials, and 1,054 operations involved in reuse and remanufacturing.
A 2009 study by the Northeast Recycling Council said establishments involved in or reliant on recycling or involved in reuse and remanufacturing generated 52,316 jobs with an annual payroll totaling $2.2 billion in Pennsylvania—while also bringing in gross receipts of $20.6 billion.
For more information, visit the Pennsylvania Recycling Markets Center website.
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7/25/2011 |
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