Rubicon teams with UL on recycled-content certification

Atlanta-based recycling software firm Rubicon says it is partnering with Underwriters Laboratories (UL) “to support each company’s shared circularity and sustainability aspirations to end waste, in all of its forms, while creating economic value.”

As part of the partnership, UL and Rubicon say they will work to extend third-party validation services such as UL’s standards for circularity, recycled content and waste diversion to Rubicon’s customers and collaborators while helping UL customers identify and access Rubicon recycling and waste reduction services across the sustainable material management value chain.

The aim, the two firms say, is to help manufacturers and brand owners secure recognition for their efforts to use scrap materials as feedstock or divert waste “and help create a more circular and sustainable economy.”

“To achieve greater sustainability and more circular economies, we need to use each tool in our toolbox to stem the flow of valuable assets discarded as waste every day,” says Catherine Sheehy, global lead of sustainability partnerships for UL’s Environment and Sustainability division. “By aligning our strengths and roles in the value chain, UL and Rubicon can help customers move forward on this decade of action to achieve the aspirations of the UN Sustainable Development Goals while also informing environmental, social, and governance investment risk analysis.”

David Rachelson, chief sustainability officer at Rubicon, says, “This agreement advances Rubicon and UL’s shared goals of enabling new opportunities for economic growth that do not depend on the old take-make-waste economic model. Since Rubicon’s founding, we’ve known that there are better ways to deal with the global waste problem. Collaborating with UL, a mission-based organization using the power of science to improve the world, just makes sense.”