A new effort is under way to better connect consumers with recycling information for plastics and other substrates using both on-package and online messaging.
The Recycling Partnership, a nonprofit group that works to increase residential recycling rates, has created Recycle Check, which aims to connect people with up-to-date recycling information specific to their location.
The partnership is leveraging its National Recycling Database, which provides recycling access information for more than 9,000 localized recycling programs covering 97 percent of the population in the United States, as a backbone for the project.
Through the use of on-package QR codes, the project aims to allow consumers to scan products, enter their zip codes, and get a quick yes or no answer regarding whether the packaging is recycled in their communities.
Recycle Check, which has just launched, also will allow companies to link to the database through links on their websites or apps.
"The truth is that the fragmented recycling system in the U.S. really creates high variability on what's recycled locally making recyclability communication difficult," said Kendall Glauber, recyclability solutions director at the partnership.
"We've seen that 60 percent of consumers are confused about what and how to recycle and that they are really looking for an easier way to get information about what can and can't be recycled in their communities," she said.
"We know that people want to recycle. They are looking for recycling instructions on packaging. Without those instructions, they often get it wrong," Glauber said. Recycling plastics can be especially confusing for consumers, she said. One survey showed "as many as 64 percent were wrong about what to do with those plastics," she said.
Recycle Check is working with two existing platforms to put the information in front of consumers — the How2Recycle program from environmental nonprofit GreenBlue that has exploded in popularity in recent years as well as the SmartLabel program created by the Consumers Brands Association. SmartLabel provides additional product information that is not included on packaging.
"Recycle Check is an elegant solution for GreenBlue's How2Recycle and the partnership to collaborate simply and with greater connectivity," GreenBlue Executive Director Paul Nowak said in a statement. "By connecting consumers to local data and leveraging the country's most recognized on-pack recycling instructions, we are truly creating an inclusive, best of both worlds solution."
General Mills and Horizon Organic are set to be the first two companies to begin using Recycle Check on select packaging this year, the partnership said. They will both incorporate Recycle Check with How2Recycle labeling. Companies will pay a one-time set-up fee and an annual licensing fee to participate in RecycleCheck.
Recycle Check will include information about the recycling of plastics as well as paper, metals and glass.
"Some examples that we're thinking about when we are thinking about plastics in particular include PET thermoforms, different types of beverage cups or even items that have [recycling] access rates that are still growing, such as polypropylene formats," Glauber said.