GRS, RCS, ISCC PLUS or flustix RECYCLED: what does each system prove?

These systems compete less than it looks. They answer different questions, and in many supply chains two of them make sense at the same time.

Sorted by subject

• RCS (Recycled Claim Standard) and GRS (Global Recycled Standard) from Textile Exchange are chain-of-custody standards for recycled input material and come from the textile world. Both accept post-consumer and post-industrial material. The GRS additionally requires social and environmental criteria for processing as well as restrictions on chemical use, and sets minimum shares: 20 per cent for business-to-business claims, 50 per cent for consumer-facing labelling.
• ISCC PLUS certifies alternative feedstocks along the supply chain, including mechanically and chemically recycled materials, using mass balance, physical segregation or controlled blending. It is the common system where recyclate is absorbed into chemical processes and can no longer be physically separated.
• flustix RECYCLED certifies the verified recycled content of the specific product and declares PCR and PIR separately. The basis is DIN EN 15343 for traceability and DIN EN ISO 22095 for chain of custody; conformity is assessed by independent bodies to ISO/IEC 17065. The trustmark carries the percentage and a licence number anyone can look up in the public database.

The question that decides what you need

If the point is to make flows and origin traceable across several stages, a chain-of-custody system is the right tool. If the point is to put a figure on the packaging that a consumer must be able to verify, what counts is evidence whose subject is exactly this product and exactly this figure.

That is not a contradiction. An ISCC PLUS certified material stream and a consumer trustmark on the finished product do not exclude each other, they prove different things. Where evidence already exists, we credit it instead of repeating the assessment.

And for the PPWR quota?

There only post-consumer recyclate counts. Evidence that does not separate PCR and PIR is useless for Article 7, whichever system sits behind it.