St. Gallen, 9 May 2016: The Sustainable Recycling Industries (SRI) Roundtable has published today the report of its ISO IWA Session #2 on Guidance Principles for secondary metals. The session was organised by the World Resources Forum (WRF) and the Swiss Association for Standardization (SNV) via teleconference on 12 April 2016.

The Session #2 was addressed to ISO IWA 19 members. 25 participants joined the discussion of comments received on the ‘Draft 1’ of the Guidance Principles. During the 2-month Public Review, about 480 comments were received from more than 30 organisations worldwide. The Report summarises the main agreements reached by the participants of the Session #2, which will be considered in the next Draft of the Guidance Principles (‘Draft 2’).

The Workshop Session #2 was the second of four Sessions foreseen in this process and in line with the ISO IWA requirements and the ISEAL Standard-setting Code. The Version 1.0 of the Guidance Principles is expected to be completed by November 2016.

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 Guidance Principles are being developed through an International Workshop Agreement (IWA), that is a consensus building process under ISO that includes working sessions and is followed by public reviews.

This IWA process is directed by the Swiss Association for Standardization (SNV) on behalf of the International Standards Organization (ISO) and supervised by the Secretariat of the SRI Roundtable which is hosted by the World Resources Forum (WRF).

The Report of the ISO IWA Session #2 can be downloaded here.