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Companies to get new sustainability label

Solar panels do the planet a huge favour when operational, but old and worn-out units can leach toxic heavy metals. <i>Photo: Getty</i>

Solar panels do the planet a huge favour when operational, but old and worn-out units can leach toxic heavy metals. Photo: Getty

Australian companies will soon have access to a new labelling system that will quickly tell consumers how sustainable their products are.

The independent International Organisation for Standardisation works on global standards that aim to address some of the world’s most pressing problems.

From next month, companies worldwide will be able to access the system and demonstrate how they’re reusing materials and minimising waste to address threats such as climate change and pollution.

The system includes a set of guidelines to help businesses assess and then label the sustainability of their products.

The system will be made available online and also offer consumers a quick way to work out how much of a plastic bottle is recycled material, how sustainable a piece of clothing is, or whether solar panels go to landfill when they break or if the parts are reused.

Professor Seeram Ramakrishna, a world-renowned scholar, materials scientist and expert in circular economy principles, is in Adelaide for an international conference focused on addressing the world’s contamination crisis.

He says reusing everything that’s already made, for as long as possible, is essential and the new circularity performance label will help consumers make good choices.

“If a product is circular, at the end of its designed life, it isn’t thrown out but is used in another way,” he said on Wednesday.

“Creating a global circular economy is the only way we can suitability meet future demand. There will be more people, but not more resources. We need to reduce, re-use, repurpose, recycle and repair so that we can still create.”

The circulatory performance reporting framework will be for companies of all sizes from October.

The International CleanUp 2022 conference runs until Thursday.

– AAP

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