Jakarta, Indonesia - In December 2009, one of APP Indonesia's major mills, Tjiwi Kimia, achieved Green Seal environmental certification for its recycled photocopy paper products: PPC Paperline Recycled and PPC Exceedo Premium Recycled.

This marks the first Green Seal certified printing and writing paper products outside of the US and Canada.

Green Seal is a US-based independent, non-profit organization dedicated to safeguarding the environment and transforming the marketplace by promoting the manufacture, purchase and use of environmentally responsible goods and services. Based on scientific standards, Green Seal utilizes a life-cycle approach, which means it evaluates the product from the raw material composition continuing through to the manufacturing process and end use of the product and then on to recycling and disposal. The strict standards mean that products can only become Green Seal certified after rigorous testing and scientific evaluations based on internationally accepted methodologies.

The procedures used in the audit process are based on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards for environmental labeling programs; ISO 14020 and ISO 14024. Green Seal has also been accredited by the American National Standard Institute (ANSI).

Tjiwi Kimia first applied for Green Seal certification in May 2007 and has been intensively preparing to meet the certification standards since. After an exhaustive two-day audit in August 2009 the mill was declared to comply with the environmental and performance requirements of the Green Seal Environmental Standard for Printing and Writing Paper (GS-7).

Green Seal certification requires its certified products to have at least 30% post consumer waste fiber -finished products, packages or material generated by a business or consumer that have served their intended purposes and have been recovered from, or otherwise diverted from, the waste for the purpose of recycling. To balance the 30% recycled material in the product, Tjiwi Kimia uses verified fiber source. The mill itself purchased more than 1.3 million tons of Post Consumer Waste pulp in 2008; double the amount used in the preceding year. That same year, Tjiwi Kimia also won the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Award in recognition of its contribution to achieving national environmental protection goals. Through its recycled product line and environmentally friendly waste treatment technology, the mill has also significantly reduced its carbon emissions, the equivalent to planting 20,000 trees in 186 hectares of land.

In addition to the recycled content requirement, Green Seal certification also requires that the product be manufactured in a chlorine free process and wrapped in packaging material with less than 100 parts per million toxic components such as lead, cadmium and mercury. Both PPC Exceedo and PPC Paperline are manufactured using the Process Chlorine Free (PCF) Process, meaning no chlorine or chlorine derivatives are used. They are wrapped in packaging containing no material considered toxic under the Green Seal Standard.

Some of the products made at Tjiwi Kimia paper mill are also PEFC certified under the PEFC Recycle Scheme. This is a relatively new category under the PEFC certification scheme and is part of the organization's campaign to promote the value of recycling in addition to sustainable forest management. Additionally, several recycled products at Tjiwi Kimia have achieved Green Label Certification under the Singapore Green Labeling Scheme.