How2Recycle Launches Scannable Recycling Label With Localized Instructions

Brands across the country will soon be able to provide real-time local recycling instructions to consumers, telling them exactly what packaging is and is not accepted in their individual communities. 

They will do it leveraging a new interactive label dubbed as How2Recycle Plus. People will scan a QR code, enter a zip code, and learn on the spot if they can toss a given item in their blue bins.

How2Recycle Plus draws from data from 9,000-plus recycling programs, accounting for 99 percent of the population, according to The Recycling Partnership who developed the label working with GreenBlue’s How2Recycle program.

The new product builds on years of work to tackle a decades-old problem: a lack of reliable, up-to-date information to advise consumers, wherever they live, on what to do with their disposables.

The Federal Trade Commission allows companies to legally make recyclable claims only when at least 60 percent of the population can access collections where their products are sold. But access percentages are hard to come by; there is no comprehensive dataset. Enter the teaming of GreenBlue/How2Recycle and The Partnership.

The Partnership has spent years collecting on-the-ground municipal data and feeding it into their expanding database. And How2Recycle already had a well-known, on-pack label, says Paul Nowak, executive director, GreenBlue.

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“Eight of 10 consumers recognize our label and over 800 brands use it, so we thought that by combining the Partnership’s access data with our label we could accelerate the process of getting real-time instructions to consumers,” he says.

The new scannable, dynamic version will co-exist with a static label with only instructional text and images, named How2Recycle Pro. The latter is a refresh of the original label, with tweaked language intended to inspire a call to action. The two-product route is meant to meet folks where they are – whether deeply connected to the world of apps or wanting more traditional on-pack guidance.

It's envisioned that the scannable option will help clear up confusion around less commonly recycled items than say a PET water bottle. The goal is to cut down on missed opportunity to capture what’s wanted as streams evolve, and, conversely, prevent contamination where these materials are not accepted today.

Early work included a pilot and consumer surveys to get a sense of if people would use the scan feature; to test the language explaining its use as well as the language around the modified static label.

How2Recycle leaned into the brands to determine which packaging to start with.

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Pilot participant General Mills flagged the Pillsbury pie crust package to take for a test run. The winter holidays were approaching when sales climb, opening opportunity to capture more data and ultimately inform tweaks.

And the pie crust packaging is multi-layered, with its end-of-life path not so obvious. So, it told some of the story of whether consumers would take advantage of a tool to learn about items they might not be sure about.

What came from the early research?

“We learned that less friction is better. Language with a clear message that’s an action statement is important.

“And we learned that scanning alone is not the answer. The label can only do so much of the lift to educate consumers,” Nowak says.

So How2Recycle is working with industry groups to develop a national campaign explaining the label, how to interact with it, and to drive home to consumers the importance of their role in making sure materials wind up where they belong.

Nowak and brand partners are counting on the dynamic label to deliver payoffs in the face of a quickly changing landscape, whether around legislation, new materials entering the market, or shifting material recyclability trends.

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As brands clamoring for more recycled content are called on to keep pace, they like that they will be able to continue to easily update instructions without having to do a label reprint, Nowak says.

Danone is the first to roll out the QR-coded label, incorporating it on some of its Silk line this past October. The global food and beverage  company plans to introduce it on other products in 2025, the year it becomes available to all How2Recycle members.

“The static labels are great for items like aluminum cans that are recyclable in nearly all recycling programs and for materials like PVC that aren’t recyclable anywhere.

“But for materials where acceptance varies from town to town, How2Recycle Plus is another step in building trust and confidence in recycling,” says Sam Harrington, director, packaging sustainability, Danone.

How2Recycle Plus comes at a premium price, but Danone went with it hoping to gain that trust and to bring back materials that are slipping by where this can be done. 

“Some of our formats are recyclable in some communities, but access is below 30 percent nationwide. Those items would qualify for the “not recyclable” static How2Recycle label, which could discourage recycling in communities where it is now possible. [The scannable label] is a great solution for evolving streams,” Harrington says.

Better clarity through this add-on to a well-established label system can go a long way, believes Katherine Huded, vice president of Recyclability Solutions, The Recycling Partnership.

"Reducing confusion on what can be recycled is essential to improving the U.S. recycling rate. Real-time, location-specific education is a critical tool for recovering the 76 percent of what could be recycled but is instead sent to landfills or incinerators," she says.

How2Recycle’s trial achieved a 12 percent scan rate. Though Nowak believes the drivers are there to push widespread participation.  

“There will not be huge adoption right out of the gate. But consumers, especially younger generations, want to do something for the environment in their daily lives, especially as the realities of extreme weather and climate sink in.“You have to be ready with programs like this that give them something they can do easily to feel they are participating in a good way.”