The US Department of Agriculture has announced a new certification scheme for biobased products.
The voluntary scheme, for commercial and industrial products, includes a label which can be applied to any non-food or feed products that meet the USDA biobased products standard. The scheme includes lubricants and greases.
The full registration rules were published on 20 January under the US Federal Register and includes all aspects of use by manufacturers who register their products for the scheme.
Qualification for the label can happen in two ways:
Either the products already fall within pre-identified categories and must meet the minimum biobased content of that category.
Or, if they do not fall within a pre-identified category, must be 25% biobased, or the applicant can apply for an alternative minimum biobased content allowance.
The initiative was created by the 2008 Farm Bill and some 5,100 biobased products have already been identified, with an estimated 20,000 bio products now being produced in the US, including biofuels.