National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN 15347‑1:2024. It supersedes BS EN 15347:2007, which is withdrawn.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 31 August 2024.

This European Standard was approved by CEN on 24 June 2024.

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 15347‑1:2024) 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 February 2025and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by February 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 15347:2007.

EN 15347‑1:2024 includes the following significant technical changes with respect to EN 15347:2007:

the title was clarified; “sorted” has been added;
the normative references have been updated;
Table 1 “Required characteristics of sorted plastic wastes” and Table 2 “Optional characteristics of sorted plastic wastes” have been completely revised;
Clause 5 “Quality assurance” has been reworded;
the bibliography has been updated.

This document is one part of a series of CEN publications on Plastics Recycling, which is structured 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
CEN/TR 15353, Plastics — Recycled plastics — Guidelines for the development of standards for recycled plastics

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 organizations 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 materials, water and energy), while minimizing harmful emissions into air, water and soil as well as any impacts on human health. Collection of waste is the starting point to enable plastics recycling.

The type of collection and sorting process of plastic waste will determine the composition and quality of a batch of plastics sent for recycling. When it comes to municipal waste, a deposit system or separate collection will ensure a lower risk of incidental contamination compared to a mixed waste collection, where different materials are collected together with the residual fraction. Municipal waste will commonly be sent to a sorting centre, where it will be separated per materials, focusing on targeted recycling streams. In the case of plastics, these streams generally follow the polymer types. The purity of the sorted waste can contribute to the quality of the final recycled plastic and determine the end application. The output of the sorting centre is typically a bale of targeted material that in the case of plastics will be sent to a plastic recycler.

Characterization of waste determines the composition of the batch, describing maximum or minimum thresholds for presence of contaminants of the main polymer of the sorted waste targeted for recycling. An accurate characterization can be used to determine suitability for a recycling process and specific end applications, as well as estimation of the value of the batch. Therefore, the information included in the product specification can be part of the purchase specifications from the recycler.

A standardized method for characterizing waste provides harmonized waste specifications to ensure a transparent transaction between a supplier and a customer of a plastic waste batch.

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.

1 Scope

This document provides a scheme for the characterization of sorted plastics wastes, laying out those properties for which the supplying party of the waste makes information available to the receiving party. This document provides for a division of information between “Required Data”, where a statement is required, and additional “Optional Data” as agreed between the supplying and receiving party.

This document is the general part of a series on sorted plastics wastes. This document does not cover the description of quality grades per polymer(s) and stream as well as test methods specific to each plastic waste stream; these aspects are addressed in the other parts of EN 15347.

2 Normative references

3 Terms, definitions and abbreviated terms

4 Requirements

4.1 General

4.2 Classification scheme

5 Quality assurance

Bibliography

BS EN 15347-1:2024

Plastics. Sorted plastics wastes - General characterisation

Current

Published:

31 Aug 2024