Environmental Leader

International standards for packaging and the environment should be the result of newly laid groundwork by the International Standards Organization, which oversees the widely used series of ISO certifications.

About 70 packaging industry leaders are meeting Dec. 10 and 11 in Stockholm, Sweden, to iron out the details, reports Packaging Digest. Representatives from the U.S., 11 European countries, China, Korea and Japan are on hand.

ISO aims to develop six standards: source reduction, reuse, recycling, energy recovery, chemical recovery, composting and biodegradation.

After the six standards are finalized, a seventh umbrella standards will outline requirements for using the other standards. ISO expects to complete a final draft of the standards sometime in 2012.

In early December, the Sustainable Packaging Coalition released metrics to help companies measure their progress toward the coalition’s stated definition of sustainable packaging.

Certain metrics from the coalition’s new framework will serve as a baseline for the Global Packaging Project, which is an initiative from the Consumer Goods Forum that is seeking global consensus on best practices for sustainable packaging indicators and metrics, according to a press release.

The Consumer Goods Forum has said that it would make sure its initiative meets any agreed-upon international standard.

EUROPEN, The European Organization for Packaging and the Environment, is in favor of developing comprehensive international standards, said Julian Carroll, EUROPEN’s Managing Director.

For its part, ISO has established a new subcommittee, dubbed SC4 Packaging and the Environment, under the ISO Technical Committee 122. That committee holds responsibility for all packaging-related standards. China and Sweden are co-chairing the subcommittee.