ENAC has granted IVAC-Instituto de Certificación the first accreditation as a management systems certifier for thermoplastic producers of material that cease having the status of waste, in accordance with the provisions of Order TED/646/2023, which sets out that producers or importers must implement or require, respectively, a management system enabling them to demonstrate their compliance with the requirements and that this system must be certified by a certification body accredited in accordance with Regulation No. 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which implies, in the case of Spain, having an accreditation granted by ENAC.

Making use of accredited certification bodies for this activity is a regulatory requirement included in the aforementioned Order and attests that the accredited body has reliable assessment and decision-making processes carried out by competent and impartially assessed personnel who are capable of technically confirming that the producer (waste manager) has implemented a management system that enables it to demonstrate, in this case, compliance with the criteria indicated in the districts Regulations and national regulations.

 

Accreditation at the service of the circular economy

The concept of end-of-waste status was introduced by the Strategy on the prevention and recycling of waste, adopted by the European Commission in 2005, which proposed that the Waste Framework Directive provision should clarify under what conditions waste could cease to be waste and be considered as non-waste material that could be freely marketed as such on the open market.

In line with this, both the European Commission and the Spanish environmental administration have approved – and plan to approve in the future – a set of national regulations and normatives aimed at enabling certain by-products hitherto considered "waste" to be reintroduced into production cycles in accordance with European regulations in this regard. Regulation establishes the mechanism and requirements that recovered materials and their producers must comply with in order to guarantee high-level protection of the environment and human health by satisfying different industries’ purity specifications.

This accredited certification scheme is an important step forward and contributes to putting an end to the outdated concept of "waste" and adds value to the concept of "end-of-waste status" by representing an alternative way for correctly developing recycling and recovery procedures, as well as for saving natural raw materials.

Once again, accreditation becomes a tool serving public administrations to achieve their public policy objectives with reduced cost and greater agility, flexibility, and harmonization, while guaranteeing the security and integrity of assessment and control activities involved in key sectors such as waste management for a circular economy.