E-waste recycling in Ghana, (c) SRI

St. Gallen, 1 July 2016 The public review of the Guidance Principles for the sustainable management of secondary metals is open as of today. Until July 31 everyone is invited to provide feedback. This ISO process is part of the Sustainable Recycling Industries (SRI) Roundtable, which is led by the WRF Secretariat in cooperation with several partners. The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs supports the SRI project. Detailed instructions and relevant reads can be found on the SRI website.

The aim of the Guidance Principles is to provide a credible and practical framework for companies, governments, policy makers, NGOs, standard organisations and other interested stakeholders. The Guidance Principles are expected to support these stakeholders in improving their environmental and socio-economic performance as well as working practices in the recovery and recycling of secondary metals. Sustainability aspects of secondary metals management (collection, recycling and disposal) need to be taken into account by micro, small and medium enterprises and the informal sector in developing countries.

The SRI Roundtable convenes an International Workshop Agreement (IWA) under the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to consult with key stakeholders about the development of the principles. This ISO IWA process is a consensus building one and includes four workshop sessions, followed by public reviews., The IWA runs until the end of 2016.This activity is directed by the Swiss Association for Standardization (SNV) on behalf of the International Standards Organization (ISO) and supervised by the SRI Roundtable, which is hosted by the World Resources Forum (WRF).

More about the Roundtable on Sustainable Recycling Industries (SRI)

The Roundtable on Sustainable Recycling Industries (SRI Roundtable) addresses sustainability criteria in secondary resources management in developing and emerging economies. Whilst international efforts on standards and traceability mechanisms to ensure sustainable mining of raw materials exist, similar tools for secondary resources are missing. The objective of the SRI Roundtable is to facilitate the international promotion and recognition of policies and standards for the sustainable management of secondary resources.More specifically, the multi-stakeholder SRI Roundtable develops internationally recognized Guidance Principles which includes sustainability criteria for the management of secondary resources in current and emerging stewardship initiatives, as well as their corresponding conformity assessment and traceability schemes. Furthermore, the SRI Roundtable supports the development of standards based on the Guidance Principles and conducts field testing of conformity assessment and traceability schemes in Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, India, Peru and South Africa.