The case for dynamic recycling labels

As the conversation continues around reducing consumer confusion about recycling, panelists convened in November 2023 at the Packaging Recycling Summit in Atlanta to discuss dynamic labeling.

Katherine Huded, vice president, recyclability solutions, at The Recycling Partnership (TRP), moderated a session called Dynamic Recycling Labels: Building Trust, Transparency and Compliance that featured panelists Patrick Keenan, sustainable packaging research and development at General Mills, and Paul Nowak, executive director of GreenBlue, the parent nonprofit of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition and How2Recycle.

Huded used TRP data showing that while more than U.S. 9,000 recycling programs service more than 30,000 communities, so many regions in the country still have limited or no access to recycling. She asked, “When we think about how we label packages on a national or continental scale when the recycling system looks like this, how do we do that?”

What are dynamic labels?

Dynamic labels can provide up-to-date information, which is critical in an industry with more than 9,000 recycling programs—none of which is truly identical.

“Dynamic labels are not necessarily new; they keep evolving,” Nowak said. “Dynamic labels are something that can continually change without the print necessarily changing.”

Last May, the Washington-based TRP launched its version of a dynamic labeling system with the introduction of Recycle Check, a package-specific platform that allows consumers to enter a zip code or allow location permissions and receive a yes or no answer about whether a specific item is recyclable. Recycle Check can be featured on a company’s website or app but arguably is most effective when included as a QR code on a physical packaging label, she said.

Recycle Check was designed to complement existing labeling systems, and TRP collaborated with Charlottesville, Virginia-based GreenBlue to pilot the How2Recycle label and Recycle Check QR code together on product packaging. At the time of the launch, TRP also noted it was working closely with the Consumer Brands Association to offer Recycle Check through its SmartLabel program.

The QR code is being implemented more, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic, Nowak said, as the software in mobile devices makes it easier to scan the codes.

“Dynamic labels used to have a barrier so that when you scanned it on your phone to get information, you had to have a specific app, and there were businesses fighting over that space,” he said. “Now you can just scan it from any phone and go to it, so there’s been a technology barrier removed that’s going to help all this work.”

Keenan said General Mills is testing the Recycle Check label on some of its products, noting it’s one of the first brands to adopt the label. He added that General Mills also was an early adopter of the original How2Recycle label more than 10 years ago.

“What we see is that our consumers want to understand what to do with their packaging at the end of life, and we want to make it as easy as possible for them,” Keenan said.

By providing a dynamic label in partnership with the How2Recycle logo for packaging that requires users to "check locally" or is "on the cusp" of "widely recyclable" and "check locally," he says, "we feel the dynamic label is a really good opportunity to make it even easier for the consumer to find out if they can recycle their package at home.”

Putting it to the test

The Recycle Check QR codes typically are printed on a package next to the How2Recycle chasing arrows messaging. Keenan said brands first and foremost want to be able to understand to what extent consumers will look beyond the How2Recycle label and scan a QR code as well as how it makes them feel about their experience with a particular brand. General Mills also will be testing QR codes on packages that aren’t recyclable to see whether a consumer has a negative perspective on the brand after scanning that type of package.

“I think having some of those really early learnings will help us figure out how to best implement Recycle Check throughout our portfolio,” he said.

General Mills is rolling out QR codes on its Pillsbury Pie Crusts Deep Dish and Horizon Organic milk cartons. The milk carton has coated paper and plastic cap components, while the pie crust has plastic, coated paper and metal components in its package. The pie crust packaging, in particular, has components that are not accepted, components accepted at store drop-off locations and some that fall under the “check locally” umbrella, which Keenan said makes it a great fit to test Recycle Check QR codes among consumers.

“We’re going to get really great learnings on consumers' thoughts across all of them,” he said. “The reason we leaned on this deep-dish pie crust is because aluminum pie trays, believe it or not, what I think is a very valuable package—a heavy aluminum pie tray—doesn’t have widespread access [to recycling] in the United States.”

General Mills then hopes to learn more about behavior around scanning QR codes and whether the “check locally” status is enough to get consumers to participate.

“That’s what will be really interesting to see,” he said. “Do people react to ‘check locally’ and then use the QR code to figure out if it can be recycled.”

“What excites me about this is the mission of getting the right things in the right streams so we get the recycling system working,” Nowak added.

When consumers scan a Recycle Check QR code, they enter their zip codes to determine if the item is recyclable in their areas. After receiving a yes or no from the platform, there are two survey questions for consumers to provide feedback.

Huded said TRP will rotate two new survey questions every six months, and the answers are just as important to the organization as who is engaging in the survey, so TRP can build the “trust component” and the “confidence component,” she said.

Huded used the Horizon Organic milk cartons as an example. The cartons are listed as “widely accepted,” but for the areas of the population that don’t have access to carton recycling, the QR code creates transparency between the brand and consumers. “You might get a ‘no,’” she said of scanning the QR code. “But it’s increasing trust by consumers and it’s all supporting the recycling system.”

Buying in

How2Recycle and Recycle Check are partnering not only to make sure the labels are connected and provide additional instructions, Huded said, but in how the two entities think about what the future of labeling looks like and how the dynamic label can work in tandem with current labeling. They’re not competing systems, the panelists agreed, rather they are two labels that support the same consumer messaging.

“What I think happens sometimes is we compete or we look at things and say, ‘I’m going to try to be everything to everyone,’” Nowak said. “How2Recycle is on so many products already, why couldn’t these go together?”

“The other piece I get really excited about is behavior change. If you don’t have friction and you don’t make it easy, you have to have both components for a behavior to change.

“There’s friction coming,” he added, using extended producer responsibility legislation as an example, “but we’re looking at ways to make it really easy and dynamic, not only for consumers but [also] for brands. I think there’s a real elegant opportunity for us to do this the right way and make it easier for everyone.”

Huded emphasized the focus on consumer confidence, too, and said TRP not only researched how Recycle Check would work logistically but also how the information it provided would impact opinions or participation in recycling.

“All our data shows, to date, that people say, ‘Yeah, it would make me really believe that the recycling system works. It would give me confidence in recycling,’” she said. “But now we want to actually deploy it and put it on packages and see if that’s what people are answering in the moment as well.”

“That confidence for consumers will come through if we manage this pilot test, look at data, change, move forward—this is all stuff that groups and brands do all the time with [their] products because it’s not a new process,” Nowak added.

Based on the information collected, TRP will issue regular reports to brands on general geographic scan data as well as survey responses and where consumers want to go next in terms of recycling.

“The easier we make it not just for consumers but, frankly, for brands, the more they will put it on packaging [and] the more [material] we’ll get in the stream,” Nowak concluded.