British Retail Consortium (BRC) Global Standard - Packaging

This Standard is most applicable to manufacturers of food contact packaging for retailers’ labeled products and branded products as well. Manufacturers have an obligation to put appropriate systems and controls in place to ensure the suitability of their packaging for safe food use.

Degradability and Food Safety Standards of Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department (HKEPD)

This Testing Guideline is developed to evaluate the degradability and food safety of containers and bags. The Guideline includes two parts. Part 1 gives the background, scope and technical specifications for degradable containers and bags. Part 2 describes the details of the testing methods for three main aspects: food safety, degradability and physical performance.

Hong Kong Green Label Scheme

Eco-labelling schemes have been widely used worldwide since the late 1970's. To date, there are approximately 30 different green label schemes worldwide. Most of them are run on a voluntary basis. Germany's "Blue Angel" eco-label, the first national scheme in the world, was introduced in 1977.

In Asia, countries such as China, Japan, Korea, India, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore have already established their own eco-labelling schemes. The Green Council (GC) is committed to start the Hong Kong Green Label Scheme (HKGLS) in Hong Kong.

Din Certco (DIN EN 13432, DIN V 54900 and ASTM D6400)

DIN CERTCO operates a certification scheme for compostable products made of biodegradable materials and licenses the use of the corresponding Mark developed by European Bioplastics (the former IBAW Interest Group for Biodegradable Materials).

Certification is an integral part of an industrial recycling system. It enables compostable products to be identified by a unique mark and channelled for recovery of their constituent materials in a specially developed process. The Compostability Mark thus conveys product information to waste-disposal plant operators and product image to consumers.

With the new version of our certification scheme a certification can be conducted according to three well-accepted standards:

DIN V 54900 - "Testing of the compostability of plastics" (replaced by DIN EN 13432)

DIN EN 13432 - "Packaging - Requirements for packaging recoverable through composting and biodegradation - Test scheme and evaluation criteria for the final acceptance of packaging"

ASTM D 6400 - "Standard Specification for Compostable Plastics"