The GRS is intended for companies that are making and/or selling products with recycled content. The standard applies to the full supply chain and addresses traceability, environmental principles, chemical restrictions, social requirements, and labelling. Developed with the textile industry in mind, the GRS may also be applied to products from any industry.

This standard applies to all companies that manufacture or trade GRS products. It covers processing, manufacturing, packaging, labelling, trading and distribution of all products that are made with a minimum of 20% recycled material. The Material Collection and Material Concentration processes are not required to be GRS certified. But companies will have to declare that they have met a set of requirements, consistent with the goals of this standard, and agree to be inspected by a certification body on a random basis. The range of products to be certified is inspired by, but not limited to textile products.

Focusing of GRS

The Global Recycled Standard is an international, voluntary, full product standard that sets requirements for third-party certification of
 

• Identification and traceability of the recycled content in textile along the entire chain of custody
• Environmental requirements
• Social responsibilities according to the ILO conventions
• Define and uphold restrictions in the use of chemicals

The GRS is intended to meet the need of companies looking to verify the recycled content of their products (both finished and intermediate products) and to verify responsible social, environmental and chemical practices in the production of these products. The objectives of the GRS are to define requirements to ensure accurate content claims and good working conditions, and that harmful environmental and chemical impacts are minimized as much as possible.