Improving Recycling process of an organization with ISO 14001 EMS certification

If you're accustomed to ISO 14001 EMS certification, then you may recognize that when the necessities and requirements of this ISO certification are implemented in a proper way to align with Environmental Management System. With this risk of environmental impact and eventually, the magnitude of wastages is reduced. In the newer version of ISO 14001 EMS standard, the need to contemplate activities that contribute to “the prevention of pollution,” where “recycling” is included as the previous version did not cover it. It thus becomes obviously significant in certain industries that efficient recycling will play an integral part in meeting environmental and legislative needs. So, how the implementation of ISO 14001 certification can effectively improve the recycling performance and ensure the economical recycling at the same time?

Why Recycling is important?

In section 5.2 of ISO 14001 EMS certification, it is explicitly mentioned that an organization’s Environmental Policy must embody a commitment to the prevention of pollution additionally as a need to satisfy compliance obligations. By doing this, you will be able to implement effective and efficient recycling practices in your organization. Be that as it may, the compliance obligations with ISO 14001 EMS standard could actually vary from sector to sector and region to region but the significance of recycling remains constant no matter the degree of changes. Imagine these situations and the implications if recycling hasn't been administered effectively, for example:

Similar to ISO 14001 certification, another famous certification in Dubai is ISO 9001 certification. ISO 9001 certification in Dubai is based on Quality Management System (QMS).

• A TV manufacturer features a “take back” scheme. This means that instead of economical recycling, components are disassembled, and a few of them are illicitly disposed to a lowland.
• A battery vendor takes back a large proportion of units sold. In order to resell those proportion of return to a scrap dealer, he cuts corners and sells it with no proper information of the destination or outcome of those probably hazardous units.
• A PC manufacturer takes back the expired or outdated product and devise a recycling process which is not updated to the current standard. The end result will be the substances that are declared hazardous since that unit’s manufacture information have now been wrongly returned to the public domain.

Therefore, It becomes crucial that not utilizing or devising proper recycling practices, be it intentionally or unintentionally, will have a considerably negative impact on the environment. So, what components of the ISO 14001 EMS standard must be applied to build a positive recycling process in order to ensure that these choices actually makes sense and ethical?

What are the things to be considered to devise ethical recycling practices

This ISO certification provides a structured and elaborated approach to waste management. There are many clauses of ISO EMS standard which will facilitate identify the real purpose of your organization and also to ensure that your organization's recycling practice is efficient and economical. Let’s look into what those clauses are and how they could assist towards this objective.

Section 5.2, Leadership - The leaders of your organization are accountable for the performance of the EMS. So, it is quite important that an announcement or statement regarding the prevention of pollution exists in the Environmental Policy. Similarly, it is significant that the top management ensures that every detail are acknowledged and that the organization's recycling process, whether carried out in-house or subcontracted, is taken care ethically.

Section 6, Planning - There are many sub-sections of clause 6 that are relevant and in line with Environmental Management System. This clause states that an effective recycling process should be a part of an organization’s compliance obligations, and a part of your organization aim to accomplish environmental objectives. One among that can be 100% recycled product returns. It may also be prudent to focus on your recycling method in the environmental perspective, or perhaps as the subject of yearly risk assessment to make sure that you take the time to review and improve your method of recycling.

It seems you have got many choices here, it is wise to keep in mind that technology and legislation are modified constantly, and you may need to make sure that your recycling strategies are reviewed and amended frequently. Computer and electronic goods are a good example; substances or material like PVC that were acceptable a couple of years ago currently don't seem to be, as legislation has been amended. Likewise, the process of stripping cable has changed with technology in the recent few years. Consequently, if you were to perform a similar cable recycling method as you probably did many years ago, not only your method would be costlier and time-consuming than it was back then, but you would also be returning what have currently prohibited substances back to a production chain.

Section 10, Improvement - As mentioned earlier, periodic review and action is the best and efficient way to guarantee a continual improvement in your organization ISO 14001 EMS, and the same degree of review of your recycling method will additionally make sure that it meets investors requirements, complies with legislation that frequently evolves and improves.