ISO 59014 Standard for Secondary Material tackles secondary resources challenges
ISO 59014 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 still missing. This challenge is tackled by the ISO Technical Committees on Environmental Management (TC207/SC5) and Circular Economy (TC323), co-convened by Sonia Valdivia (SRI).
In SRI phase II, the ISO-IWA 19 “Guidance Principles for the sustainable management of Secondary Metals” will be transferred into an official ISO standard.
In phase I, SRI has convened an International Workshop Agreement (IWA) to consult with key and affected stakeholders the development of Guidance Principles for secondary metals. The IWA is a consensus building process under ISO, included four working sessions, followed by public reviews, and was finalised in April 2017.
Guidance Principles
The Guidance Principles aim to influence the development of international, national and local policies, regulations and frameworks on secondary resources management, related corporate codes of practice, and standards and certification schemes. In particular, they shall ensure that sustainability aspects of secondary metals management (collection, recycling and disposal) are taken into account in the context of micro, small and medium enterprises and the informal sector in developing countries.
The final version of the IWA 19:2017 Guidance Principles can be purchased from the ISO store. The last draft version from he public review process can be downloaded free of charge (ISO-IWA-19_FinalDraft).
ISO 59014 Standard for Secondary Materials
As a follow up of the ISO-IWA 19: 2017, WRFA convened the first Working Group meetings of the ISO 59014 Standard for Secondary Materials in May 2021 with aim to kick-off the international discussions. This is part of the 2.5 years process to develop this standard as Joint Working Group (JWG) under the Technical Committees on Environmental Management (TC207/SC5) and Circular Economy (TC323).
The ISO Standard 59014 on Secondary Materials: Principles, Sustainability and Traceability Requirements envisions to ensure social equity, environmental justice, and optimal material recovery worldwide, for present and future generations.
Experts from more than 15 countries, including from our SRI partner countries such as Peru, Ghana, Egypt and South Africa were present throughout the first two working group sessions. Fruitful discussions were held on fundamental terms and such as on ‘secondary materials’, inclusion of ‘reuse and refurbishment’ in the scope and alignment with the ‘circular and life cycle perspectives’.
Next WG meeting will take place in August.
Join the process
If interested in participating, please contact your national standardisation body expressing your interest in participating. These are the official organization for nominating countries’ representatives.
