Over the past decade a lot has changed in the recycling world, new products such as bio-plastics have made their way into the recycling stream. The original “No. 7” group for non-recyclables is now too large to contain the new materials on the market. A complete redesign for the labeling of recyclable material is too important to ignore anymore. A pilot program was put together by the Package Recovery Label System, rolling out sometime 2012 hopefully. The program included five companies such as Microsoft and REI.
“Consumers are faced with a confusing landscape of recycle messages…” Anne Bedarf, the Project Manager of the test labeling project. Bedarf hopes to prove the effectiveness of the new labels which in turn will increase recycling rates in many communities.
The new labels will classify packaging of products into three categories:
- widely recyclable
- not yet recyclable
- not recyclable
For material with limited recycling the phrase “check locally” will be in the center of the chasing-arrows icon. For non-recyclable material a black diagonal line will cross through the arrows.
This pilot-program is the beginning of change, the beginning of more accurate way to sort recyclable material found in consumer packaging as well as an attempt to change the way we think about whether something can or cannot be recycled. Hopefully, it will lead to more material making it to the recycling bin rather than the trashcan.
There are still bumps along the road ahead, recyclable material may become easier to identify but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be easy to actually recycle it. Hopefully this over-haul of the recycling labels will encourage more communities to institute curbside-recycling or create more recycling centers or drop-off locations.
If you would like to learn more about this project, please read my other article about recycling labels.
Let me know what you think, leave a comment below…
Do you believe that new recycling labels will increase recycling rates?
