Recycling performance of firms before and after adoption of the ISO 14001 standard

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of ISO 14001 certification on recycling performance. The research is based on a survey conducted on a sample of certified industrial companies that operate in United States. The paper reveals that companies’ recycling performance is significantly positively affected by certification. The paper also reveals that earlier certified companies experience better recycling performance than more recently certified companies. Finally, the paper shows that smaller firms experience greater improvement in recycling performance than larger firms due to ISO 14001 certification.