Certified vs. 'Certified'

Anyone can put a green badge on a website. A leaf icon, a seal, the word “certified” in bold letters — none of it costs anything to publish, and none of it proves anything on its own. Before you hand over equipment holding your organization’s data, it is worth checking whether the certification behind the badge is real.

What a real certification is

A genuine certification has three parts. First, a published standard — a written set of requirements, like R2v3 for electronics recycling, maintained by a standards body. Second, an independent certification body that audits the facility against that standard — not the facility grading itself. Third, a public listing: the certification body or the standards body keeps a directory where you can look the facility up by name, see its certificate number, what the certification covers, and when it expires.

If any of those three parts is missing, you do not have a certification you can verify. You have a claim.

How to check a claim in a few minutes

Start with the standard. Ask which one, by name. “Certified” without a named standard is a warning sign on its own — so are vague labels like “eco-certified” or “green certified” that point to no standard at all.

Then ask who certified them. A real answer names an accredited certification body. From there, go to the directory: SERI, for example, maintains a public directory of R2v3-certified facilities. If you cannot find the company there, or the listing does not match what the website claims, that is your answer.

Then check two details people often skip: scope and dates. A certification covers specific things, and the scope matters. Under R2v3, for instance, a facility is certified to particular appendices — data sanitization, downstream due diligence, test and repair, and others are separate scopes. A facility certified to one appendix is not automatically certified to the rest. And certificates expire. A badge from a certification that lapsed two years ago is not a current credential, however good it looks on the page.

Red flags worth taking seriously

A badge that is not clickable and names no standard or certifier. A certificate number that does not appear in any directory. A claim of certification to a standard that does not exist, or a logo that resembles a real program’s mark without being it. And self-certification dressed up as third-party certification — phrases like “we certify ourselves to the highest standards” mean the facility graded its own homework.

None of these automatically means a recycler is dishonest. But each one means the claim cannot be verified, and an unverifiable claim should not carry weight in a decision about your equipment and your data.

What to ask before you hand equipment over

Four questions will settle most of it: Which standard are you certified to? Which certification body audited you? What is your certificate number, and where can I verify it? And what exactly does your scope cover?

A facility with a real certification will answer all four quickly — it is information they already publish. Hesitation, vagueness, or a redirect to a badge instead of a listing tells you what you need to know.

Our own certification, for reference, is R2v3 through Perry Johnson Registrars, certificate number C2023-03024, covering Appendices A, B, and C — all verifiable in SERI’s R2 directory. We would rather you check than take our word for it. That is, after all, the whole point.