CEN/TS 16010:2020

Plastics - Recycled plastics - Sampling procedures for testing plastics waste and recyclates

This document specifies a system for sampling procedures for testing plastics waste and recyclates which take into account the specifics of the plastics waste and recyclates. It is intended to cover all stages of the plastic recycling process.
The sampling procedures include the statistical specifics of the plastic waste and the behaviour of recyclates.
The sampling method is expected to produce a representative testing sample. Differences can arise due to:
-   the mixture of plastics;
-   the origin (e.g. green dot in Germany, or electronic/automotive industry);
-   the previous use of the plastic material;
-   the residual contents (e.g. of containers);
-   inert, residual or moisture content on or in the material.
This document is without prejudice to any existing legislation.

Kunststoffe - Kunststoff-Rezyklate - Probenahmeverfahren zur Prüfung von Kunststoffabfall und Rezyklaten

Das vorliegende Dokument legt ein System für Probenahmeverfahren zur Prüfung von Kunststoffabfällen und Rezyklaten fest, die die Besonderheiten von Kunststoffabfällen und Rezyklaten berücksichtigen. Es ist dafür vorgesehen, alle Phasen des Kunststoff-Recyclingprozesses abzudecken.
Die Probenahmeverfahren berücksichtigen die statistischen Besonderheiten der Kunststoffabfälle und das Verhalten von Rezyklaten.
Es wird erwartet, dass das Probenahmeverfahren eine repräsentative Messprobe ergibt. Abweichungen können aufgrund folgender Faktoren entstehen:
- der Mischung von Kunststoffen;
- des Ursprungs (z. B. Grüner Punkt in Deutschland oder Elektronik-/Automobilindustrie);
- der vorherigen Verwendung des Kunststoffmaterials;
- des Restinhalts (z. B. von Behältern);
- des inerten Gehalts, des Rest- oder Feuchtegehalts auf dem oder im Material.
Dieses Dokument berührt keine bestehende Gesetzgebung.

Plastiques - Plastiques recyclés - Procédures d'échantillonnage pour l'essai des déchets de plastiques et des recyclats

No Scope available

Polimerni materiali - Reciklirani polimerni materiali - Postopki vzorčenja za preskušanje polimernih odpadkov in reciklatov

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 01-Dec-2020
• ICS: 13.030.50 - Recycling
• ICS: 83.080.01 - Plastics in general
• Technical Committee: CEN/TC 249 - Plastics
• Drafting Committee: CEN/TC 249/WG 11 - Plastics recycling
• Current Stage: 6060 - Definitive text made available (DAV) - Publishing
• Start Date: 02-Dec-2020
• Due Date: 19-Nov-2021
• Completion Date: 02-Dec-2020
• Ref Project: SIST-TS CEN/TS 16010:2021 - Plastics - Recycled plastics - Sampling procedures for testing plastics waste and recyclates

Relations

• Replaces: CEN/TS 16010:2013 - Plastics - Recycled plastics - Sampling procedures for testing plastics waste and recyclates
• Effective Date: 09-Dec-2020

Standards Content (Sample)

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
SIST-TS CEN/TS 16010:2021
01-februar-2021
Nadomešča:
SIST-TS CEN/TS 16010:2014
Polimerni materiali - Reciklirani polimerni materiali - Postopki vzorčenja za
preskušanje polimernih odpadkov in reciklatov

Plastics - Recycled plastics - Sampling procedures for testing plastics waste and

recyclates
Kunststoffe - Kunststoff-Rezyklate - Probenahmeverfahren zur Prüfung von
Kunststoffabfall und Rezyklaten

Plastiques - Plastiques recyclés - Procédures d'échantillonnage pour l'essai des déchets

de plastiques et des recyclats
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: CEN/TS 16010:2020
ICS:
13.030.50 Recikliranje Recycling
83.080.01 Polimerni materiali na Plastics in general
splošno
SIST-TS CEN/TS 16010:2021 en,fr,de

2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

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SIST-TS CEN/TS 16010:2021
CEN/TS 16010
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
SPÉCIFICATION TECHNIQUE
December 2020
TECHNISCHE SPEZIFIKATION
ICS 13.030.50; 83.080.01 Supersedes CEN/TS 16010:2013
English Version
Plastics - Recycled plastics - Sampling procedures for
testing plastics waste and recyclates

Plastiques - Plastiques recyclés - Procédures Kunststoffe - Kunststoff-Rezyklate -

d'échantillonnage pour l'essai des déchets de Probenahmeverfahren zur Prüfung von

plastiques et des recyclats Kunststoffabfall und Rezyklaten

This Technical Specification (CEN/TS) was approved by CEN on 9 November 2020 for provisional application.

The period of validity of this CEN/TS is limited initially to three years. After two years the members of CEN will be requested to

submit their comments, particularly on the question whether the CEN/TS can be converted into a European Standard.

CEN members are required to announce the existence of this CEN/TS in the same way as for an EN and to make the CEN/TS

available promptly at national level in an appropriate form. It is permissible to keep conflicting national standards in force (in

parallel to the CEN/TS) until the final decision about the possible conversion of the CEN/TS into an EN is reached.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,

Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway,

Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and

United Kingdom.
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION
EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG
CEN-CENELEC Management Centre: Rue de la Science 23, B-1040 Brussels

© 2020 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. CEN/TS 16010:2020 E

worldwide for CEN national Members.
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Contents Page

European foreword ...................................................................................................................................................... 3

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................... 4

1 Scope .................................................................................................................................................................... 5

2 Normative references .................................................................................................................................... 5

3 Terms and definitions ................................................................................................................................... 5

4 Symbols and abbreviations ......................................................................................................................... 7

5 Calculating the probability that a given set of samples is representative ................................. 7

6 Sampling from non homogeneous material streams ....................................................................... 10

7 Procedures for the determination of material characteristics through sampling................ 10

Annex A (normative) Procedures for the determination of material characteristics through

sampling ........................................................................................................................................................... 13

A.1 General.............................................................................................................................................................. 13

A.2 Independence of samples .......................................................................................................................... 13

A.3 Representative samples ............................................................................................................................. 13

A.4 Increments ...................................................................................................................................................... 13

A.5 Calculation of standard deviation, arithmetic mean and variance of sampling .................... 14

A.6 Minimum number of increments ............................................................................................................ 15

A.7 Minimum volume of increments ............................................................................................................. 15

A.8 Sample mixing ................................................................................................................................................ 15

Annex B (informative) Principal development of standard deviation 's' as a function of

number of samples 'n' ................................................................................................................................. 16

Annex C (informative) Development of factor 't' of the Student distribution for different

levels of confidence ...................................................................................................................................... 18

Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................................. 20

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European foreword

This document (CEN/TS 16010:2020) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 249

“Plastics”, the secretariat of which is held by NBN.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of

patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

This document supersedes CEN/TS 16010:2013.

In comparison with the previous edition, the following technical modifications have been made:

— formula in A.5.3 “Calculation of arithmetic mean” was corrected.

This document is one part of a series of CEN publications on Plastics Recycling that is structured as

follows:

— EN 15342, Plastics — Recycled Plastics — Characterization of polystyrene (PS) recyclates

— EN 15343, Plastics — Recycled Plastics — Plastics recycling traceability and assessment of conformity

and recycled content

— EN 15344, Plastics — Recycled Plastics — Characterization of Polyethylene (PE) recyclates

— EN 15345, Plastics — Recycled Plastics — Characterization of Polypropylene (PP) recyclates

— EN 15346, Plastics — Recycled plastics — Characterization of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) recyclates

— EN 15347, Plastics — Recycled Plastics — Characterization of plastics wastes

— EN 15348, Plastics — Recycled plastics — Characterization of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET)

recyclates

— CEN/TR 15353, Plastics — Recycled plastics — Guidelines for the development of standards for

recycled plastics
— CEN/TS 16011, Plastics — Recycled plastics — Sample preparation

According to the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the

following countries are bound to announce this Technical Specification: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria,

Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland,

Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of

North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the

United Kingdom.
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Introduction

Recycling of plastics waste is one type of material recovery process intended to save resources (virgin

raw materials, water, energy), while minimizing harmful emissions into air, water and soil as well as

their impacts on human health. The environmental impact of recycling should be assessed over the

whole life cycle of the recycling system (from the waste generation point to the disposal of final

residues). To ensure that recycling constitutes the best environmental option for treating the available

waste, some prerequisites should preferably be met:

— the recycling scheme being contemplated should generate lower environmental impacts than

alternative recovery options;

— existing or potential market outlets should be identified that will secure a sustainable industrial

recycling operation;

— the collection and sorting schemes should be properly designed to deliver recyclable plastics waste

fractions fitting reasonably well with the available recycling technologies and with the (changing)

needs of the identified market outlets, preferably at minimum costs for society.

This document has been produced in accordance with the guidance produced by CEN on Environmental

Aspects and in accordance with CEN/TR 15353, Plastics — Recycled plastics — Guidelines for the

development of standards for recycled plastics.

NOTE CEN/TR 15353 considers the general environmental aspects which are specific to the recycling

process.
This document is intended to serve two purposes.

1. To provide a guide to plastic recyclers and others that enables a calculation to be made of the risk

of inaccuracy presented by a chosen sampling regime. This will help to inform decisions about

sampling that can also be influenced by factors such as the supply record of a supplier or the

reliability of a process. This is covered in Clause 5.

2. To define the sampling procedures to be followed to characterize the material being sampled.

These procedures may be followed where a particular level of accuracy is required, or where the

sampling is in support of the resolution of a dispute. This is covered in Clause 7 and Annex A.

It is not the intention of this document to develop new sampling methods.
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1 Scope

This document specifies a system for sampling procedures for testing plastics waste and recyclates

which take into account the specifics of the plastics waste and recyclates. It is intended to cover all

stages of the plastic recycling process.

The sampling procedures include the statistical specifics of the plastic waste and the behaviour of

recyclates.

The sampling method is expected to produce a representative testing sample. Differences can arise due

to:
— the mixture of plastics;
— the origin (e.g. green dot in Germany, or electronic/automotive industry);
— the previous use of the plastic material;
— the residual contents (e.g. of containers);
— inert, residual or moisture content on or in the material.
This document is without prejudice to any existing legislation.
2 Normative references

The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content

constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For

undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.

CEN/TR 15353:2007, Plastics — Recycled plastics — Guidelines for the development of standards for

recycled plastics
CEN/TS 16011, Plastics — Recycled plastics — Sample preparation
EN ISO 472:2013, Plastics — Vocabulary (ISO 472:1913)

ISO 11648-1:2003, Statistical aspects of sampling from bulk materials — Part 1: General principles

ISO 11648-2:2001, Statistical aspects of sampling from bulk materials — Part 2: Sampling of particulate

materials
3 Terms and definitions

For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in EN ISO 472:2013 ,

CEN/TR 15353:2007 and the following apply.

ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:

— IEC Electropedia: available at http://www.electropedia.org/
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp
NOTE The terms used are confined to the field of bulk sampling.
As impacted by EN ISO 472:2013/A1:2018.
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3.1
bulk material

amount of material within which component parts are not initially distinguishable on the macroscopic

level
[SOURCE: ISO 11648-1:2003]
3.2
sample

combination of a set of increments of material taken from a lot, intended to supply information, and

possibly serve as a basis for a decision concerning the lot or the process by which it has been produced

[SOURCE: ISO 8656-1:1988]
3.3
increment
quantity of bulk material taken in one action by a sampling device
[SOURCE: ISO 11648-1:2003]
3.4
laboratory sample
sample intended to be used for an inspection or for laboratory tests
[SOURCE: ISO 8656-1:1988]
3.5
test sample

sample taken from the laboratory sample and prepared in a suitable manner for subjection to particular

tests

Note 1 to entry: Test samples might be prepared, for example, for the determination of particle size distribution,

moisture content, chemical composition, physical or other properties. See also CEN/TS 16011.

[SOURCE: ISO 8656-1:1988]
3.6
central limit theorem

fundamental theorem of probability and statistics, stating that the distribution of the mean of a random

sample from a population with finite variance is approximately normally distributed when the sample

size is large, regardless of the shape of the population's distribution

Note 1 to entry: If x , x , …., x are independent measurements (i.e. a random sample of size n), from a population

1 2 n
where the mean of x is μ, and the standard deviation of x is σ, then:
xx+ ++... x
12 n
The distribution of x= = has mean and standard deviation given by:
µµ= and σ =
x x

When n is sufficiently large, then the distribution of x is approximately normal.

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3.7
Student's t-distribution
t-distribution

probability distribution that is effective in the problem for estimating the mean of a normally

distributed population when the sample size is small
3.8
duration
length of sample time when sampling from a continuous stream
3.9
plastics waste
plastics fraction of waste
3.10
waste

material or object which the holder discards, or intends to discard, or is required to discard

[SOURCE: ISO 15270:2008]
4 Symbols and abbreviations
n number of single samples, number of measurements
x independent single measured value
x arithmetic mean (average value, average)
s standard deviation of samples
σ standard deviation of population
μ is the real value of the true mean of the known distribution
t the value of the Student deviation for different levels of confidence
5 Calculating the probability that a given set of samples is representative
5.1 General

In everyday circumstances plastics recyclers require sampling for two basic purposes: to provide input

quality control and to verify the quality of the output recycled plastic. Although the physical properties

of input and output materials might be very different, the underlying statistical principles are the same.

The samples taken shall be sufficiently representative of the batch to satisfy the user of the sample

information that it is relevant for his purpose. The sampling regime will be based on a number of factors

including:
— the physical form and homogeneity of the material being sampled;

— the level of confidence in the consistency and reliability of the material being sampled;

— the consequences of the sample not being representative.
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The purpose of this section is to provide a tool for the plastic recycler to use to calculate the

effectiveness of his chosen sampling routine or, conversely, to calculate the risk associated with a

particular sampling regime.

Sample sizes are often small, and the population standard deviation (σ) is usually unknown. The

population standard deviation (σ) can be replaced with the sample standard deviation (s). To be more

conservative in the analysis, the t-distribution may be used rather than the normal distribution. When

sample sizes are large the results are the same (Central Limit Theorem).

Many common statistical procedures require data to be approximately normal, but the Central Limit

Theorem enables these procedures to be applied to populations that are strongly non-normal. How

large the sample size shall be depends on the shape of the original distribution. If the population's

distribution is symmetric, a sample size of 5 might yield a good approximation; if the population's

distribution is strongly asymmetric, a larger sample size is necessary (50 or more).

Sampling error is in effect and this gives a guide to the limit of detection in that it would be possible

to miss a 10 % component by taking a sample of 100 pieces. It is also important to recognize that the

sampling error is based on the particles as sampled. If these particles have an average mass of 10 g then

a sample of 1 kg is needed to get a 10 % error and 100 kg to get a 1 % error.
5.2 Power and sample size

Power is the likelihood of identifying a significant difference (effect) when one truly exists. Errors are

referred to as Type 1 and Type 2 errors. A Type 1 error results in rejecting good material and a Type 2

error results in accepting bad material. The easiest way to improve power is to increase sample size.

5.3 Calculation of the variance of sampling

To understand the effect of changing the number of samples, see Annex C. With a number of samples ‘n’

the factor ‘t’ is determined with different levels of confidence. Using an estimated or calculated standard

deviation ‘s’ it is possible to calculate the influence on the sampling by variation of the number of

samples with the formula in Annex A under A.5.2 (reverse calculation).
5.4 Determining the confidence in a sampling routine

In this example a load of ten tonnes of waste plastic is delivered to a plastic recycler for processing.

— The load consists of ten bags of shredded plastic, each bag weighing approximately one tonne.

— The plastic has been shredded to give pieces averaging 150 mm × 150 mm (range > 75 mm

to < 200 mm) by 3 mm thick (range > 2,5 mm to < 3,5 mm).
— The average mass of each shredded piece is 0,06 kg.

— The load is known to contain a mixture of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP). The supplier

claims that the PP content is less than 5 %.

— The plastic recycler hand samples each bag, taking two sample pieces from each bag; a total of 20

samples.

— Each sample is analysed to find its PP content with the results shown in Table 1.

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