Voluntary sustainability schemes in Germany have agreed to work together to improve communication to tackle trading of fraudulent used cooking oil (UCO), Biofuels Digest wrote.
As part of the initiative – introduced in response to an influx of Chinese biodiesel with partially doubtful declarations of origin and feedstock into the European biodiesel market – the voluntary schemes ISCC, 2BSvs, KZR Inig, RSB and REDcert had agreed to improve their already established system of sharing certification-related information, the 28 June report said.
In addition to a publicly available and up-to-date list of certificates indicating the status and scope of an economic operator’s certification – including the certification history under the particular scheme – there would now be a systematic and immediate exchange of suspended and withdrawn certificates between those schemes, Biofuels Digest wrote.
The sharing of this information would contribute to the common goal of preventing economic operators from ‘scheme hopping’ due to suspended or withdrawn certificates, the report said.
The exchange of such information will allow all voluntary schemes to cross-check new applicants’ background, particularly their certification history and any related incidents, before they are accepted/contracted under a scheme, according to the report.
The voluntary schemes had also agreed to establish a regular platform for collaboration, where system updates and continuous improvement processes could be discussed and co-ordinated.
