Any manufacturer can describe their bags as “made from recycled materials.” The claim requires no audit, no third-party verification, and no documentation trail. It is a statement — and in a market where greenwashing scrutiny is intensifying, a statement without evidence is becoming a liability rather than an asset.
GRS certification exists to close that gap. The Global Recycled Standard transforms a self-declaration of recycled content into an independently audited, publicly verifiable claim — one that covers not just the material itself but every stage of the supply chain through which it passes, and the environmental and social conditions of each facility involved.
For brands sourcing bags made from rPET, recycled cotton, recycled nylon, or other recycled materials, GRS is the most relevant and widely recognised certification available. Understanding what it requires, how its content thresholds work in practice, and where certification chains commonly break is essential before placing orders that will carry recycled material claims.
What Is GRS Certification?
GRS stands for the Global Recycled Standard. It is an international, voluntary product standard owned and managed by Textile Exchange, the global nonprofit organisation that also manages the GOTS and RCS standards. The GRS was first developed in 2008 by Control Union Certifications and was transferred to Textile Exchange in 2011, since which time it has become the dominant global benchmark for third-party recycled content verification.
Despite being managed by Textile Exchange — an organisation primarily focused on textiles — GRS is not limited to fabric and apparel. It applies to any product containing recycled content, including bags, packaging, footwear, furniture components, and consumer goods. For the bag market specifically, it is the standard that verifies recycled claims for rPET bags, recycled PP bags, recycled cotton bags, and any other construction using post-consumer or post-industrial recycled materials.
GRS covers four interconnected areas: recycled content verification (confirming the percentage and source of recycled material in a product), chain of custody (documenting and auditing every facility in the supply chain that handles the certified material), social compliance (ensuring fair labour practices at all certified facilities), and environmental and chemical requirements (restricting hazardous substances and requiring responsible waste management at processing sites).
The relationship between GRS and GOTS is worth clarifying at the outset. GOTS certifies organic natural fibres — cotton, linen, hemp, wool — and covers their entire production chain from farm to finished product. GRS certifies recycled content across both synthetic and natural materials. A recycled cotton bag should carry GRS, not GOTS. An organic cotton bag should carry GOTS, not GRS. The two standards are complementary, not competing, and each covers material categories the other does not.
What GRS Certification Actually Requires
Recycled Content Thresholds: The 20% and 50% Rules
GRS operates with two content thresholds that have different practical implications for buyers and brands, and which are frequently confused in supplier conversations.
A product containing a minimum of 20% recycled content is eligible for GRS certification. At this level, the certification is primarily a supply chain tool — it produces documentation (Scope Certificates and Transaction Certificates) that can be used in B2B contexts to verify recycled content claims along the supply chain. However, a product at the 20% threshold cannot carry the GRS logo on consumer-facing labelling.
A product containing a minimum of 50% recycled content qualifies for use of the GRS logo on product labels, hangtags, and consumer-facing marketing materials. This is the threshold that enables a brand to display the GRS mark visibly to end customers.
The practical implication for buyers is direct: if a brand plans to print the GRS logo on bag labelling or use it in retail point-of-sale materials, the product must contain at least 50% certified recycled content. A bag whose fabric is 35% rPET can receive GRS certification and accompanying documentation, but cannot carry the GRS logo on its label. Brands who specify GRS-certified bags without confirming which threshold applies to their specific construction risk producing labelling that does not comply with GRS claims policy.
When briefing suppliers, always confirm the recycled content percentage of the proposed construction and cross-reference it against the intended labelling requirement before finalising the specification.
Post-Consumer vs Post-Industrial Recycled Content
GRS accepts two categories of recycled material, and understanding the difference between them matters both for certification purposes and for how a brand communicates its sustainability credentials.
Post-consumer recycled content comes from materials that have been used by an end consumer and subsequently discarded — PET beverage bottles collected from recycling programmes, old clothing gathered through take-back schemes, discarded fishing nets. These materials have completed a full use cycle before re-entering the production chain, and the environmental narrative around them is strong: the product is keeping real waste out of landfill or the ocean.
Post-industrial recycled content (also called pre-consumer) comes from manufacturing waste — off-cuts from fabric production, plastic extrusion rejects, yarn remnants from spinning mills. These materials have never reached a consumer; they are production byproducts that would otherwise be discarded. While diverting industrial waste is genuinely valuable, the environmental story is less compelling to consumers than post-consumer claims.
GRS certifies both categories and does not require a specific ratio between them. However, suppliers should be asked to specify the source type when providing material documentation, and this information should appear in the Transaction Certificate. A bag described as “made from recycled plastic bottles” must contain post-consumer PET — not post-industrial PP film rejects. Brands whose marketing references specific waste streams should confirm the source type matches the claim before communicating it publicly.
Environmental, Social and Chemical Requirements
GRS requirements extend beyond content verification into the conditions under which certified products are manufactured — a scope that distinguishes it from simpler recycled content standards.
Chemical restrictions prohibit the use of substances on the GRS restricted substances list, which covers hazardous dyes, heavy metals, formaldehyde, and other compounds known to pose risks to human health or the environment. Wet processing facilities — those involved in dyeing, coating, or finishing — must operate wastewater treatment systems that meet defined effluent quality standards before discharge.
Social compliance requirements are based on ILO core conventions. Certified facilities must prohibit child labour and forced labour, respect workers’ rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, pay wages that meet applicable legal minimums, and maintain safe working conditions. Annual audits by accredited certification bodies verify compliance at each certified facility.
These requirements apply to every certified facility in the supply chain — not just the bag manufacturer. A recycling facility, yarn spinner, or fabric mill that is part of the certified chain must independently meet the same social and environmental criteria, and hold its own GRS Scope Certificate.
GRS vs RCS: Understanding the Difference
What RCS Covers
The Recycled Claim Standard (RCS) is a lighter-weight standard managed by the same organisation as GRS — Textile Exchange — and is frequently confused with it by buyers and suppliers.
RCS verifies only one thing: that a product contains the stated percentage of recycled material, with a minimum threshold of just 5%. It does not require the environmental production criteria that GRS mandates. It does not include the social compliance requirements that GRS enforces. It is, in essence, a content-verification tool — useful for documenting recycled material in a supply chain, but not a statement about how that material was processed.
The distinction matters significantly when evaluating supplier certifications. A facility certified to RCS has confirmed its recycled material claims through third-party audit. A facility certified to GRS has done that and demonstrated compliance with environmental and social standards in its production operations. For brands positioning their products as sustainably made — rather than simply containing recycled content — GRS is the more substantive credential.
GRS vs RCS: A Direct Comparison
| GRS | RCS | |
|---|---|---|
| Managed by | Textile Exchange | Textile Exchange |
| Minimum recycled content | 20% (certification); 50% (logo use) | 5% |
| Content verification | ✓ Third-party audited | ✓ Third-party audited |
| Environmental production requirements | ✓ Chemical restrictions + wastewater | ✗ |
| Social compliance requirements | ✓ ILO-based labour standards | ✗ |
| Consumer-facing logo permitted | ✓ At ≥50% content | ✓ At ≥50% content |
| Best suited for | Retail products, regulated markets, full sustainability claims | Internal supply chain documentation, low recycled content products |
Why “GRS Certified Material” Does Not Always Mean “GRS Certified Bag”
A common point of confusion in the bag sourcing market is the difference between material-level and product-level GRS certification.
A yarn supplier or fabric mill may hold a valid GRS Scope Certificate covering its production of rPET yarn or fabric. That certification applies to the material it produces — it does not automatically extend to finished products made from that material by other factories downstream. If the bag manufacturer that cuts, sews, and finishes the bags does not hold its own GRS Scope Certificate, the finished bags cannot be described as GRS certified, even if the fabric they contain is sourced from a certified supplier.
GRS operates on a full chain-of-custody principle: every entity that takes ownership of or processes the certified material — from recycler to spinner to weaver to bag factory — must hold its own valid certification. A single uncertified link breaks the chain for everything downstream.
Scope Certificates, Transaction Certificates and How to Verify Both
Scope Certificate vs Transaction Certificate
The same SC and TC framework that applies to GOTS certification operates identically within GRS — and carries the same risks if buyers conflate the two.
A Scope Certificate (SC) is a facility-level document confirming that a specific company has been audited and approved to handle GRS-certified materials within defined product categories. It is a qualification document — it proves the factory is capable of producing GRS-certified goods. It does not prove that any specific order or shipment is GRS certified.
A Transaction Certificate (TC) is an order-level document issued for a specific batch of goods. It confirms that a particular shipment was produced using certified recycled materials by a certified supply chain, and specifies the product type, quantity, recycled content percentage, and source type (post-consumer or post-industrial). The TC is the document that legally supports GRS claims on a specific product or order.
Without a TC, a brand has no verifiable basis for GRS claims on any specific product, regardless of what the supplier’s SC says.
Who Owns the TC — and What That Means
The Transaction Certificate is issued by the certification body to the selling party (the factory or supplier). The buying party (the brand or procurement team) is named as the consignee — the party to whom the certified goods are being transferred.
This ownership structure has a practical implication: the buyer needs to request and retain the TC as the legal evidence supporting their own downstream sustainability claims. A brand that uses a GRS claim in product labelling, retail communications, or ESG reporting needs the TC on file as the documentary foundation of that claim. If the TC names a different buyer, or covers a different product specification or quantity than the order placed, the claim is not properly supported.
In purchasing contracts, it is good practice to specify explicitly that the supplier must provide a Transaction Certificate for the specific batch before or at the time of shipment, and to define what information the TC must contain: product description, material composition, recycled content percentage, source type, and certified quantity.
The Trading Company Certification Trap
One of the most common points at which GRS certification chains break — particularly in sourcing programmes that involve intermediaries — is the trading company.
Many brands source through trading companies or agents rather than directly from manufacturing factories. Under GRS chain-of-custody requirements, any entity that takes ownership of certified material in the supply chain must hold its own valid GRS Scope Certificate. If a brand orders from a trading company that does not hold a GRS Scope Certificate, even if the factory producing the bags is fully certified, the trading company’s involvement breaks the certified chain.
The result is that the bags produced cannot carry GRS certification, regardless of what the factory’s certificate says.
The fix is straightforward but must be applied before placing orders. Every party in the supply chain — the recycler, the material processor, the bag manufacturer, and any trading company or agent — should be asked to provide their GRS Scope Certificate. Each certificate should be independently verified through the Textile Exchange public database at textileexchange.org before the order is confirmed.
Six-Step GRS Verification Checklist
| Step | Action | What to Check |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Request SC from every supply chain party | Factory, trading company, fabric supplier all need separate SCs |
| 2 | Verify each SC at textileexchange.org | Confirm validity, expiry date, and product category scope |
| 3 | Confirm recycled content percentage of the construction | ≥50% required for logo use; ≥20% for B2B documentation only |
| 4 | Confirm post-consumer vs post-industrial source type | Must match brand marketing claims about waste stream |
| 5 | Specify in contract that TC must be issued before shipment | TC must name your company as consignee |
| 6 | Cross-check TC against order details | Product, quantity, recycled content %, source type must match |
GRS-Certified Materials Used in Bags
rPET: The Most Common GRS-Certified Bag Material
Recycled PET — derived from used PET plastic bottles or other post-consumer PET packaging — is the most widely available and most commonly specified GRS-certified material in the bag market. Both woven and non-woven rPET constructions are eligible for GRS certification, and rPET bags are produced at significant scale by certified manufacturers across Asia.
Post-consumer PET from beverage bottle collection is the dominant source type for certified rPET in bags. The material has a clear, communicable environmental story — a quantifiable number of bottles diverted from waste streams per bag produced — which makes it effective in brand communications as well as in certification documentation.
For a detailed overview of how rPET fabric is produced, its performance properties, and its environmental profile, see our full guide: [What Is rPET Fabric? How Recycled Plastic Becomes a Bag].
Recycled Cotton, Nylon and PP
Coton recyclé can be certified under GRS when produced from post-industrial textile waste (fabric off-cuts from garment manufacturing) or post-consumer textile waste (reclaimed clothing). It is important to distinguish recycled cotton — certified under GRS — from organic cotton, certified under GOTS. The two are produced from entirely different source materials by entirely different supply chains and carry different certifications. A recycled cotton bag is not an organic cotton bag, and GRS is not a substitute for GOTS.
Recycled nylon is used in higher-value bags, backpacks, and accessories. ECONYL® — produced from reclaimed fishing nets and industrial nylon waste — is a well-known certified recycled nylon brand with its own GRS-aligned documentation. Recycled nylon is generally more expensive than rPET but carries a strong post-consumer narrative, particularly in ocean-plastic contexts.
Recycled polypropylene (PP) is used in woven and non-woven PP bag constructions. It is typically derived from post-industrial PP waste — manufacturing rejects and production remnants from the plastics industry. GRS-certified recycled PP bags are available, though the category is less developed than rPET.
GRS-Certified Materials at a Glance
| Matériau | Common Source Type | Typical Bag Application | Relevant Co-Certification |
|---|---|---|---|
| rPET (recycled PET) | Post-consumer bottles | Woven & non-woven totes, backpacks | OEKO-TEX Std 100 |
| Coton recyclé | Post-industrial off-cuts / post-consumer clothing | Canvas-style bags, totes | OEKO-TEX Std 100 |
| Recycled nylon | Post-consumer nets / industrial waste | Premium bags, backpacks | OEKO-TEX Std 100 |
| Recycled PP | Post-industrial production waste | PP woven / non-woven bags | OEKO-TEX Std 100 |
What GRS Does Not Cover
GRS applies only to products containing recycled content. Virgin materials — regardless of how sustainably they are produced — are outside its scope. A bag made from virgin organic cotton is certified under GOTS, not GRS. A bag made from virgin polyester, however responsibly manufactured, has no applicable GRS certification pathway.
GRS does not apply to bio-based materials such as PLA (polylactic acid) that are plant-derived but do not contain recycled content. These materials may have their own relevant certifications, but GRS is not among them.
GRS and GOTS are fully independent certification systems. Recycled cotton certified under GRS cannot use the GOTS logo or GOTS-associated organic claims. Organic cotton certified under GOTS cannot use GRS recycled content claims. Each standard applies exclusively to its own certified material category.
Foire aux questions
What does GRS certified mean?
GRS certified means that a product has been independently verified to contain the stated percentage of recycled material — post-consumer or post-industrial — and that every facility involved in its production has been audited for compliance with GRS social and environmental standards. It is not a self-declaration: it requires annual third-party audit of every supply chain facility and produces Transaction Certificates for specific orders that can be independently verified.
What is the difference between GRS and GOTS?
GRS certifies recycled content in products made from any material, including synthetic fibres like rPET and recycled nylon. GOTS certifies organic natural fibres — cotton, linen, hemp, silk, wool — and their full production chain from farm to finished product. The two standards cover different material categories and are not interchangeable. An rPET bag should carry GRS; an organic cotton bag should carry GOTS. Neither standard applies to the other’s material category.
What recycled content percentage is needed for GRS certification?
A minimum of 20% recycled content is required to apply for GRS certification. However, only products containing at least 50% recycled content may carry the GRS logo on consumer-facing labelling such as product tags and packaging. Products in the 20–49% range can receive GRS certification and associated documentation for B2B use but cannot display the GRS logo to end consumers.
Does a trading company need GRS certification?
Yes. Under GRS chain-of-custody requirements, every entity that takes ownership of certified material in the supply chain must hold a valid GRS Scope Certificate. This includes trading companies, agents, and distributors — not just the manufacturing factory. If a trading company involved in a transaction does not hold a GRS Scope Certificate, the certified chain is broken at that point, and the finished products cannot be described as GRS certified regardless of the factory’s certification status.
How do I verify a supplier’s GRS certification?
Request the supplier’s GRS Scope Certificate number and search it in the Textile Exchange public database at textileexchange.org. The database lists all valid certificates, their expiry dates, and the product categories they cover. Additionally, request a Transaction Certificate for your specific order — issued before or at shipment — and verify that the product description, quantity, recycled content percentage, and source type match your order specifications. Both documents together constitute the full verification chain for a GRS-certified order.
