CEN Standards - A Background.
The European Committee for Standardisation (Comité Européen de Normalisation (CEN)) have published 6 European packaging standards which were agreed to support the essential requirements of Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste. They were developed under mandate from the European Commission.
These six standards include:
- EN 13427:2004 – Requirements for the use of European Standards in the field of packaging and packaging waste
- EN 13428:2004 – Requirements specific to manufacturing and composition – Prevention by source reduction
- EN 13429:2004 – Reuse
- EN 13430:2004 – Requirements for packaging recoverable by material recycling
- EN 13431:2004 – Requirements for packaging recoverable in the form of energy recovery, including specification of minimum inferior calorific value
- EN 13432:2000 – Requirements for packaging recoverable through composting and biodegradation – Test scheme and evaluation criteria for the final acceptance of packaging
There is also another standard available relating to Heavy Metals in packaging and this can be found at:
- CR 13695-2:2004 - Requirements for measuring and verifying the four heavy metals and other dangerous substances present in packaging, and their release into the environment.
More information relating to the standards is available on the CEN website.
Also, Europen have produced a guideline for the packaging industry which is available through their web site.
Back to Guides & Reports.
