Quality and Environment - Seals
At the present time, consumers pay more attention than ever on three very important aspects when it comes to wallpaper: Ecology, health safety and quality.
For each wallpaper manufacturer, it must be self-evident, to only bring products to market that are safe for the consumer and the environment. The wallpaper manufacturers have united to a quality association to meet the high demands of consumers for quality and environmental friendliness.
It succeeds the German manufacturers often to keep the already stringent EU directives and even to stay well below the specified limits. The RAL organization is the independent Institute for Quality Assurance and identification, which recognizes and checks the different RAL quality mark. The principles and requirements of the various labels are determined individually.
Compliance to these principles and requirements will be regularly checked by neutral institutes, testings or experts.
Blue Angel
One of the most known eco-label is "The Blue Angel" - with its founding in 1978 at the same time also the oldest environment-related label for products (except food) and services. Products wear this mark, subject to a strict set of criteria, which is especially trained to ensure that environmental and health protection aspects are respected.
AS Creation flame retardant
The State Materials Testing Office NRW checks, if wallpaper with the MPA approval meet the requirements that are placed in the testing principles for building materials class B1 according to DIN 4102, Part 1 of flame resistant building materials and approved by the German Institute for Building Technology in Berlin to the corresponding labeling.
CE
The CE marking only explains that the product meets the applicable requirements of the EU regulation. There is no seal, but administrative certificate. By attaching the CE mark on the depositors of the products, the manufacturer confirms that the product matches with the guidelines of the european directives for construction.
FSC
The FSC ® (Forest Stewardship Council) was founded in 1993 and is a non-governmental, non-profit organization that promotes an environmentally and economically viable use of the woods.
For this reason, the FSC ® has determined that environmental and social requirements must be respected in the management of forests. At the FSC ® label, consumers can thus recognize that for the production of the concerned product, wood was used from a sustainable and responsibly forest management.
RAL
RAL-GZ 479, wallpaper
Quality requirements and tests regarding the health and environmental safety of wall coverings (wallpaper). The quality wallpaper community as a member of the RAL eV has developed quality and testing for wallcoverings. This includes, firstly quality requirements for water resistance, washability, color fastness to light, shock resistance, liability of the yarn, fire resistance, thermal resistance and sound absorption. There are also requirements in relation to health and environmental safety of these products. This includes, among other things, the disclaimer of the use of containing heavy metals pigments such as lead, cadmium and ‘organzinnhaltigen’ stabilizers, but also the limitation of volatile organic connections and formaldehyde. Another key feature of quality assurance is the constant testing of compliance with these requirements through the quality mark users, but also the regular foreign control by independent institutes or inspections.