National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN 15344:2025. It supersedes BS EN 15344:2021, which is withdrawn.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee PRI/89, Plastics - Environmental Aspects.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 30 June 2025.

This European Standard was approved by CEN on 28 April 2025.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document (EN 15344:2025) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 249 “Plastics”, the secretariat of which is held by SIS.

This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by December 2025, and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by December 2025.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

This document supersedes EN 15344:2021.

This document includes the following significant changes with respect to EN 15344:2021:

Scope has been clarified;
Clause 2 “Normative references” was updated;
Clause 3 “Terms and definitions” was updated;
Clause 5, including Table 1 “Characterization of PE recyclates” was revised;
Clause 6 has been clarified;
Annex A was revised (apparatus and procedures);
Bibliography was updated.

This document is part of CEN publications on plastics recycling, listed as follows:

EN 15342, Plastics — Recycled plastics — Characterization of polystyrene (PS) recyclates
EN 15343, Plastics — Recycled Plastics — Plastics recycling traceability and assessment of conformity and recycled content
EN 15344, Plastics — Recycled plastics — Characterization of Polyethylene (PE) recyclates
EN 15345, Plastics — Recycled plastics — Characterization of Polypropylene (PP) recyclates
EN 15346, Plastics — Recycled plastics — Characterization of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) recyclates
EN 15347 (all parts), Plastics — Sorted plastics wastes
EN 15348, Plastics — Recycled plastics — Characterization of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) recyclates
EN 18064 (all parts), Plastics — Quality recommendations and basis for specifications for application of plastic recyclates in products
EN 18065, Plastics — Recycled plastics — Classification of recycled plastics based on Data Quality Levels for use and (digital) trading
EN 18067, Plastics — Recycled plastics — Characterization of Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (ABS) recyclates
CEN/TR 15353, Plastics — Recycled plastics — Guidelines for the development of standards for recycled plastics
CEN/TR 00249A5G1, Plastics recycling — Classification of plastic recyclates as postconsumer recyclates (PCR) and postindustrial recyclates (PIR)

This document has been prepared under a standardization request addressed to CEN and CENELEC by the European Commission. The Standing Committee of the EFTA States subsequently approves these requests for its Member States.

Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CEN website.

According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom.

Introduction

Recycling of plastics waste is one type of material recovery process intended to save resources (virgin raw materials, water, and energy), while minimizing harmful emissions into air, water and soil. The environmental impact of recycling is assessed over the whole life cycle of the recycling system (from the waste generation point to the disposal of final residues). To ensure that recycling constitutes the best environmental option for treating the available waste, some prerequisites should preferably be met:

recycling scheme being contemplated should generate lower environmental impacts than alternative recovery options;
existing or potential market outlets should be identified that will secure a sustainable industrial recycling operation;
collection and sorting schemes should be properly designed to deliver recyclable plastics waste fractions fitting reasonably well with the available recycling technologies and with the (changing) needs of the identified market outlets, preferably at minimum costs to society.

This document has been produced in accordance with the guidance produced by CEN on Environmental Aspects and in accordance with CEN/TR 15353.

NOTE CEN/TR 15353 considers the general environmental aspects which are specific to the recycling process.

During their use phase, products are temporarily out of industrial control. Consequently, at the end user stage, it is often impossible to trace back each individual product and whether it has been used correctly through its life cycle.

1 Scope

This document specifies the main characteristics and associated test methods for assessing of polyethylene (PE) recyclates intended for use in the production of semi-finished or finished products.

It is intended to support parties involved in the use of PE recyclates to agree on specifications for specific and generic applications.

This document does not cover the characterization of plastics wastes, which is covered by the EN 15347 series, neither traceability topics which are covered by EN 15343.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 Symbols and abbreviations

5 Characterization of PE recyclates

6 Quality assurance

Bibliography

BS EN 15344:2025

Plastics. Recycled plastics. Characterization of Polyethylene (PE) recyclates

Current

Published:

30 Jun 2025