Certification logos are easy to collect and easy to misread. This page states which certificate applies to which product, who holds it, and what it does and does not tell you.
Who holds what
| Certificate | Held by | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| ISO 9001 | all four manufacturers | quality management |
| ISO 14001 | sack, film plants | environmental management |
| ISO 45001 | film plant | occupational health and safety |
| BRCGS Packaging | food film plant | hygiene for food-contact supply chains |
| PEFC chain of custody | pallet plant | responsibly sourced timber |
| EPAL licence | pallet plant | authority to produce EPAL pallets |
| ISPM 15 | pallet plant | heat treatment for export packaging |
Mervia Group holds none of these. They are issued in the manufacturers’ names and we supply copies with the order documentation on request. A trading company that lists its suppliers’ certificates as its own is making a claim that would not survive an audit, and the same looseness usually shows up in specifications.
Product standards
EN 13592 — plastic sacks for household waste collection
Defines how a refuse sack is designated and tested. Two things matter in practice:
Designation. A sack is described by useful width P and useful length L in millimetres — written 500/700 — not by a litre rating. Litre figures on retail packaging are marketing numbers and are not comparable between manufacturers. Our bin liner size finder converts a bin volume into the dimensions the standard uses.
Testing. Drop and impact tests at rated load. A sack that meets EN 13592 at its stated duty class has been tested carrying what it claims to carry.
EN 13432 — compostable packaging
Industrial compostability: disintegration, biodegradation, heavy metal limits and no adverse effect on compost quality. Applies to our caddy liners.
It is not home compostability, and it is not the same as “biodegradable”, which has no regulatory meaning. See sustainability for when a compostable liner is actually the right specification.
ISPM 15 — wood packaging for export
Heat treatment against timber pests, marked with the IPPC stamp. Required for wooden packaging leaving the EU; not required for intra-EU movements.
If you re-export goods on our pallets to a third country, order treated pallets from the start. Retro-treating a loaded pallet is not practical.
EPAL / UIC 435-2 — euro pallets
An EPAL pallet is 1200 × 800 × 144 mm, weighs about 25 kg, and carries a safe working load of 1500 kg. Static load is 3000–4000 kg; racked load is roughly 1000 kg, and that last figure is the one that surprises people — it is a third of static, not most of it.
Only a licensed producer may make EPAL pallets. Ours is licensed, and the licence number appears on the documentation.
Food contact
Food-contact grades are available across sacks and film, supplied with a declaration of compliance to Regulation (EC) 1935/2004 and, for plastics, Regulation (EU) 10/2011.
Food contact is a specification, not a general property. A sack is food-contact grade because it was made that way and documented; the same sack ordered without the specification is not, even if it comes off the same line. Ask for it explicitly and it will be on the order confirmation.
What certification does not tell you
A certificate confirms a system exists, not that your specific order was right. ISO 9001 means the plant has a documented quality process; it does not mean every pallet is in tolerance.
That gap is what pre-shipment inspection is for, and why we send the measured report with every order rather than a certificate and a promise.