Consumer Brands Tout Packaging Recyclability

The Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), Charlottesville, Va., says it has secured additional participants for its How2Recycle on-package recycling labeling system. “Major brand names, including Best Buy, Clorox and Minute Maid, will be joining 10 other leading companies already participating, including Costco Wholesale, General Mills, Seventh Generation and REI,” says SPC in a late November news release.

The participating companies will be using the label “on select packaging available nationwide in early 2013, according to the SPC.

How2Recycle has been designed “to reduce consumer confusion around recycling in the United States with a clear and consistent recycling label,” says the SPC. How2Recycle also has a corresponding website at www.how2recycle.info.

The SPC says the program “provides companies with an easy way to conform to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) ‘Green Guides,’ while using nationwide recyclability data.” The SPC says the system also specifies when a package component is not recyclable.

The How2Recycle Label will be appearing on a new juice product from Minute Maid, on Clorox’s Scoop Away products and on and select Exclusive Brands products from Best Buy.

“Reducing our environmental footprint is important to Clorox,” says Gwen Lorio of Clorox, Oakland, Calif. “One way we can do this is to encourage consumers to recycle our packages. Consumers understand the concept of recycling but are frequently confused on what packages can or can’t be recycled. They want the process to be easier and we think the recovery label does just that.”

Other brand owners who have agreed to use the How2Recycle Label include Esteé Lauder for its Aveda Outer Peace Acne Pads; a variety of Kirkland products from Costco Wholesale; General Mills’ Yoplait yogurt brand; Microsoft computer accessories; REI’s Novara bicycle accessories, multi-towels and hang tags; most Seventh Generation products; and Sealed Air’s Fill-Air inflatable packaging.

The SPC says it plans to add up to 20 additional participants after an initial launch How2Recycle launch phase and “aims for the label to appear on the majority of consumer product packaging by 2016.”

More information on How2Recycle can be found at www.greenblue.org.