- Scope
This Standard establishes environmental requirements for paper towels and napkins.
- Definitions
This section provides definitions for terms used in this Standard.
2.1 Recovered paper material: paper waste generated after the completion of a paper making process, such as post-consumer materials, envelope cuttings, bindery trimmings, printing waste, cuttings and other converting waste, butt rolls and mill wrappers, obsolete inventories, and rejected unused stock. Recovered material, however, shall not include fibrous waste generated during the manufacturing process, such as fibers recovered from wastewater or trimmings of paper machine rolls (virgin mill broke), regardless of whether such materials are used by the same or another company and shall also not include fibrous by-products of harvesting, extractive or woodcutting processes or forest residues such as bark.
2.2 Post-consumer material: those finished products, packages or materials generated by a business or consumer that have served their intended end uses, and that have been recovered from or otherwise diverted from the waste stream for the purpose of recycling.
- Product Specific Performance Requirements
3.1 Product must be made in accordance with reasonable industry practice with respect to holes, tears, wrinkles, cleanliness, foreign materials or dirt. It must have no disagreeable odor, either wet or dry, in accordance with reasonable industry practice. Edges of the product must be cleanly cut and not ragged. Product must dispense properly from the container or roll.
- Product Specific Environmental Requirements
4.1 Recovered Fiber Requirements
4.1.1 The fiber in paper towels and napkins shall contain 100% recovered materials and at least 40% post-consumer material by weight.
4.1.2 The percentage of recovered material and post-consumer material shall be calculated and certified based on the FIBER weight of the paper. Calculations will also be performed based on the total weight of the paper.
4.1.3 The calculation of recycled content based on fiber weight shall be performed using the following formulas:
4.1.4 The calculation of recycled content based on total weight shall be performed using the following formulas:
4.1.5 Yield will depend on the product manufactured, the raw material, the level of contaminants and the cleaning and deinking technology employed. The percentage yield shall be calculated by dividing the total material output by the total material input.
If a particular manufacturer's operating procedures do not provide for accurate yield measurements, the following shall be used as default values:
Recovered/Post-consumer Material: 75%
Non fibrous material: 100%
4.1.6 The percentage of recovered material and post-consumer material shall be calculated based on a weighted average of the materials used for a period of time not to exceed the previous three months.
4.2 Deinking of Recovered Material
The recovered material used to manufacture the products shall not be de-inked using any solvents containing chlorine;, benzene, cadmium and cadmium compounds, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, chromium and chromium compounds, cyanide compounds, dichloromethane, lead and lead compounds, mercury and mercury compounds, methyl ethyl ketone, nickel and nickel compounds, tetrachloroethylene, toluene, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, trichloroethylene, or xylene; or the sum concentration level of more than 1% by weight of finished product of the toxic chemicals listed by the U.S. EPA pursuant to section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act.
4.3 Bleaching
4.3.1 The recovered material used in making a certified product shall not be bleached using chlorine or any of its derivatives (such as hypochlorite and chlorine dioxide).
- Additional Ingredients
Paper towels and napkins (not including packaging) shall not contain any added pigments, inks, dyes, or fragrances, with the exception that;
Paper towels and napkins may be printed with inks or dyes provided these inks or dyes contain a sum concentration of less than 100 parts per million, by weight, of the following toxic heavy metal ions: lead, cadmium, mercury, or hexavalent chromium.
- Requirements for Paper Towel Cores
The core of a roll of paper towels must be manufactured from 100% recovered fiber.
- Toxics in Packaging
The sum of the concentration levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, and hexavalent chromium present in any package or packaging components shall not exceed 100 parts per million by weight.
- Green Seal Labeling Requirements
8.1 The Green Seal Certification Mark must appear on the product's packaging. It may be embossed, or printed on the product as well as provided in Section 5.
8.2 The Green Seal Certification Mark shall not be used in conjunction with any modifying terms, phrases, or graphic images that might mislead consumers as to the extent or nature of the certification.
8.3 If the product is certified to have been made without bleach, the package or the product may bear the additional endorsement: "Unbleached" or an equivalent description approved in writing by Green Seal.
8.4 If the product is certified to have been bleached without chlorine or any of its derivatives, the package, or the product, may bear the additional endorsement: "No Chlorine Bleach," or "Oxygen Bleached," as appropriate, or an equivalent description approved in writing by Green Seal.
8.5 Whenever the Green Seal Certification Mark appears on a package of paper towels or napkins the package must contain a description of the basis for certification. The description shall be in a location, style, and typeface that are easily readable by the consumer. Unless otherwise approved in writing by Green Seal, the description shall read as follows:
"This recycled product contains 100% recovered paper fiber and XX% post-consumer materials by fiber weight, and meets Green Seal's environmental standard for bleaching, deinking and packaging. It contains no added fragrances." [where XX is the certified level of post-consumer materials]
8.6 Manufacturers, at their discretion, may also add to the package of a certified product the description "XX% recovered material including YY% post-consumer material by total weight" in addition to the fiber weight description. [where XX is the level of recovered material by total weight and YY is the level of post-consumer material by total weight, or as calculated pursuant to Section 4.1.2].