Textile Exchange

GRS Global Recycled Standard

Recycled content plus social, environmental and chemical requirements through the supply chain. A voluntary certification standard, not a test method. Compliance is demonstrated by third-party audit of a site and by transaction certificates following the material through the chain, rather than by a laboratory result on a specimen.

Number

GRS

Edition

GRS 4.0

Status

active

Equivalents

Body	Number	Equivalence	Deviation
Textile Exchange	RCS	NEQ	Published on one page and constantly confused. Both verify recycled content and chain of custody; this one adds social, environmental and chemical requirements that the other does not. Accepting a Recycled Claim Standard certificate against a specification asking for the Global Recycled Standard accepts a narrower audit.

What this standard is for

Where it is used

Named directly on purchase orders and on the certificates a mill supplies with recycled polyester and recycled cotton.

What to watch for

Not the same thing as the Recycled Claim Standard, though the two share a publication page. This one adds social, environmental and chemical requirements that the Recycled Claim Standard does not; a buyer who accepts one against a specification asking for the other has accepted a narrower audit.

Buy the official copy from Textile Exchange

Metadata only — purchase the standard from the issuing body.