Sourcing checklist

1. What is the full composition by weight, including coatings, backing and finishes?

A usable answer is a breakdown that adds up. A non-answer names the interesting layer only. The coating and the backing usually govern how the material actually performs, and they are the layers most often left out of a headline figure.

2. What is the bio-based content as a percentage, and measured against what?

A usable answer states both the number and the denominator. The denominator is where this goes wrong: EN 16785-1 determines bio-based content as a mass fraction, while the USDA BioPreferred figure is bio-based carbon as a share of total organic carbon (7 CFR 4270.7). Those are different quantities, and quoting one as the other inflates it.

A non-answer is the word “bio-based” with no number at all — which from 27 September 2026 is exactly the kind of unsubstantiated generic claim the ECGT Directive prohibits.

3. If there is recycled content: what percentage, and is it post-consumer or pre-consumer?

ISO 14021 requires the percentage by mass to be stated, and requires product and packaging figures to be stated separately and never aggregated (clause 7.8.2). It does not oblige anyone to say which category the content falls into — so you have to ask.

A non-answer is a headline percentage the supplier cannot split. Pre-consumer material (the market usually says post-industrial) is cheaper and easier to secure, and a claim built on scrap that would have been reused anyway will not survive scrutiny.

4. Is any part of it “plant-based”, and what does that mean here?

There is no legal definition of “plant-based” for materials in the EU or the US. It implies a majority plant composition to a reader while requiring nothing of the seller. Ask for the bio-based percentage by weight instead and treat the phrase itself as a liability, not a wording preference.

5. Which certificates does the material hold, with certificate numbers and expiry dates?

A usable answer is a number you can enter into the issuing body’s own register. A non-answer is a logo in a PDF.

6. Is the certificate held by the material, the mill, or the trader?

These are routinely conflated. A mill-level certificate does not travel with a specific batch to your factory, and a trader’s certificate says nothing about the sheet in front of you.

7. What does the certificate not cover?

Most disputes live here. A certificate covers a defined scope; everything outside that scope is uncertified regardless of how the logo is used. Ask for the scope statement itself, not a summary.

8. Does the certificate carry any environmental requirement at all?

Some widely used marks do not. “Vegan”, for example, means no animal input and carries no environmental requirement whatsoever — a virgin fossil-based PVC sheet is vegan.

9. What test reports exist, from which laboratory, on which method, and on which batch?

A usable answer names the method (the standard and its clause), the lab, and the date. A non-answer is a performance figure with no report behind it. Ask whether the report covers the version of the material you are actually buying — coatings get reformulated, and reports do not follow.

10. If a durability or lifetime figure is quoted, what is it based on?

Ask for the test, the conditions and the endpoint. A number without those three is a marketing figure. We publish none of our own: this site runs no tests.

11. If it is described as biodegradable or compostable: under which conditions, and to which standard?

EN 13432 covers industrial compostability at controlled elevated temperature. Home composting, soil biodegradation and marine biodegradation are separate standards with separate certificates. An unqualified “biodegradable” is treated as deceptive outright in the US (16 CFR 260.8(c)), and from 27 September 2026 it is a per-se unfair practice in the EU under new Annex I point 4a of Directive 2005/29/EC, inserted by Directive (EU) 2024/825 — whose recital 9 names “biodegradable” as a generic environmental claim.

12. Who is the legal entity behind the material, and what is its current trading status?

Trademarks outlive companies. Check the register in the company’s own jurisdiction before you design a collection around a material. If a supplier is offering stock of a material whose producer has stopped trading, ask whether you are being offered remnant inventory and what happens to resupply.