ISO 16218:2013涵盖了用过的包装，尽管所描述的工艺并不特定于用过的包装，并且可用于回收其他相同类型的材料。废旧包装的化学回收工艺适用于塑料包装或基于生物质的包装，这可能有两种不同的解释方式: 通过化学处理用过的包装回收有价值的化学物质的方法，例如通过水解、糖酵解或甲醇解回收聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯(PET)单体，通过催化反应或热解回收油，通过气化回收有价值的气体如氢气，通过焦化回收焦炭、油和气体； 直接用废旧包装替代自然资源而无需化学预处理的方法，例如，废旧塑料包装的薄片可以在高炉中代替焦炭用作还原剂。

ISO 16218:2013 covers used packaging, although the processes described are not specific for used packaging and can be used for recovery of other materials of same type. Processes for chemical recovery of used packaging are applicable for plastic packaging or biomass-based packaging, which might be interpreted in two different ways:

• processes to recover valuable chemical substances by chemical treatment of used packaging, for example, to recover monomers of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) by hydrolysis, glycolysis or methanolysis, to recover oil by catalytic reaction or pyrolysis, to recover valuable gases such as hydrogen by gasification, to recover coke, oil and gasses by cokefaction;
• processes to directly substitute used packaging for natural resources without chemical pretreatment, for example, flakes of used plastic packaging may use in blast furnace in the place of coke as a reducing agent.