Do you recycle?
Let's assume you do -- the majority of the U.S. population has access to at least some curbside recycling services, and recycling has become an ingrained habit, at least for some materials. So let's rephrase the question.
Are you recycling everything you're able to? Are you recycling too much, or recycling the wrong items? Do you even know what types of plastic you can recycle?
And lastly, are you recycling the caps of your plastic bottles?
Those questions -- and many more like them -- are among the reasons that recycling has become a thorny issue, and serve as obstacles to getting recycling of plastic above its currently anemic 28 percent recovery rate.
"The consumer is stuck in the middle," says Anne Bedarf, a project manager at the Sustainable Packaging Coalition. "There are too many labels and not enough clarity about what they should do."
To overcome those challenges, the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, a project of GreenBlue today is announcing a pilot program and educational website that will put a new generation of recycling label on packaging at major retailers, and in the process educate shoppers and manufacturers alike about just how recyclable their packaging is.
Starting in January 2012, five retailers from a broad swath of categories will begin putting the new label on products. ConAgra Foods, Costco Wholesale, Microsoft, REI, and Seventh Generation have all signed on to the pilot project.
"The SPC's labels provide radical transparency to us," explained REI's Eric Abraham during a press briefing yesterday. "The label is also an excellent opportunity for us to rethink our packaging designs and materials. [For example,] we get a lot of feedback from our customers about the RICs [resin identification codes, better known as the numbers on plastic bottles]."
The label design comes in three flavors, pictured below:
Any given package will contain one of those squares; the left side in the picture above is the "widely recycled" category, representing a material that's recyclable in 60 percent or more of the U.S. The right segment is "check locally," which means they're accepted in 20 to 50 percent of communities. The middle segment is "not yet recycled," for materials that are recycled in 20 percent or fewer communities.
Next page: Four requirements for a successful eco-label
Sorry, I have to say I agree
Sorry, I have to say I agree with Brittany.
Maybe I'm missing something,
Maybe I'm missing something, but these new labels seem even more simplified and less informative than the numbers system .. As of now, I know that I can recycle #s 1-7 in plastics, which covers a broad range and gives me a sense of confidence in what I currently buy. I already know that plastic film is iffy, since it has no number (altho some stores allow recycling of their plastic bags, which leads to confusion over what other thin packaging could be included) .. It seems that "check locally" is terribly vague and impractical; most people who don't check locally now aren't going to do so because of another label that requires confusion or effort beyond the market, I feel.
Again, I might be missing the larger implications .. Would these new labels really encourage manufacturers to change their packaging methods? I feel like there wouldn't be an incentive for this unless consumers began making drastic changes in their purchase choices, and I'm not sure how the new labels would have such an effect.
I haven't yet checked out the website, tho I'm eager to. Unfortunately, I feel like checking a website is too much hassle for the average consumer. People care about their own health and efficiency in daily living .. Even the issue of buying cruelty-free isn't enough for most to people to want to change. I worked in Trader Joe's for awhile, and the only questions I ever got regarding the purchase of meat were related to shoppers' personal health concerns about growth hormones, etc .. No mention of 'organic' or 'cage-free' unless it was related to the healthfulness of the food.
These are my experiences .. Not sure how accurate a picture they give of the general public on a larger scale tho.
Hi Brittany, Thank you for
Hi Brittany,
Thank you for your comments. My name is Danielle, and I am a project associate at GreenBlue involved with this project.
I wanted to address some of the points you raised, starting with the Resin Identification Codes (RICs) on plastics. I applaud your initiative to understand what your community expects you to recycle. However, as Keefe Harrison of the Association of Post-Consumer Plastics Recyclers correctly pointed out, the numbers were never intended to be a public interface or used for educational purposes (http://www.plasticsindustry.org/PublicPolicy/content.cfm?ItemNumber=875 for some history here). They are not an indicator of recyclability, which is a very common misconception. Though most plastics are technically #1-#7, recyclable, and contain the well-recognized chasing arrows within the RIC, not all of these plastics are currently recycled.
You also brought up a very important point about plastic bags and films. Many plastic bags and films actually do have a “number”—a #2 or #4 indicating it is made of a type of polyethylene—which are recyclable at many retail locations. We also created a special version of the label for these films, like toilet paper wrappers, directing consumers to use these store drop-offs. We have posted an example of this label on the www.how2recycle.info website. Also, our website links to www.plasticbagrecycling.org . Please check it out as there is much more information on this material that is important to collect!
One of the largest implications of this label is that it will go on all types of packaging, not just plastics. As the graphic above shows, many label types currently exist. The benefit of this label is consistency across material types as well as helping companies comply with the Federal Trade Commission Green Guides. We hope that this label will help companies, and consumers, think about each piece of their packaging and its current recyclability status.
We have had many conversations about the need to “check locally” and how we might make this as easy as possible for consumers. We believe that consumers will see a “check locally” item (or repeatedly see it), decide to learn what is recycled in their community, and be informed from then on out. Folks tend to purchase the same products, so we don’t think this will represent a burden. Of course, that’s why we are doing a pilot in 2012 and are glad to receive feedback from folks like yourself.
Let us know what you think about the website! There is a contact form at http://www.how2recycle.info/contact. In the future, we will also have a consumer survey. Thank you again for your comments!
Thanks for the added info ..
Thanks for the added info .. I'll definitely check it out.