Package Design - November 2013 - 29

Looking for labels

78% of U.S. consumers are now
buying green products and
services, up from 69% in 2012.
-The 5th Annual Tork Sustainability Survey
tinues. "I know that Georgia-Pacific sometimes has to
refuse 80% of the bales delivered to them because it's
highly contaminated. They don't have access to good
quality recycled paper at volumes that they need to get
the price where it needs to be.
"Not a big deal for my tiny organization, but a huge
deal for a company that is dealing with a lot of paper,"
Hedlund continues. "If you can imagine now, the
manufacturer as a consumer.
"Best Buy, Target, 3M, Sony or just about every
other manufacturer can't commit to paying twice as
much for materials to make their packaging and still
be competitive in the marketplace because consumers
won't pay it," she remarks. "But consumers still are
putting a lot of pressure on these companies to use
these materials."
Hedlund says the predicament is complicated by
the problem of many facility managers seeing trash
entering the recycling stream. "When I met with organizations and they start talking about their recycling
programs in their buildings -whether they belonged
to a university or a major corporation, small business,
etc.-I kept hearing the exact same thing: 'I keep finding trash in my recycling bins,'" she explains. "They
usually would then show me their bins, and I noticed
that each bin had a different label and different
messaging.
"My own experience resonated with this," Hedlund
adds. "I've had those personal awkward recycling bin
moments where you walk up to the recycling bin holding
your can or your bottle, or your newspaper or your packaging, or whatever it is and you're not quite sure if you
should be throwing it in that bin or not. And you end up
looking in the bin just to see what the contents are so you
can decide if you should throw your package in there."

"It was just a huge awakening for me that labeling
needs to be addressed," Ahern recalls. "One company,
school, university or government office can't try to fix
this with their population or within their building. It
needs to be a universal fix and there needs to be universal messaging around that fix."
So Hedlund proposed a standardized label-at-thebin initiative during her keynote speech at The Solid
Waste Association of North America's (swana.org)
recycling conference that eventually grew to become
Recycle across America.
The individuals, companies and organizations that
have joined in this collaborative initiative use standardized labels for recycling bins, to remedy consumer
confusion and help expedite environmental progress
by creating an economical viable material for product
and packaging manufacturers.
Hedlund expressed hope that as the initiative grows
to be able to work with packaging trade organizations,
such as the Sustainable Package Coalition (www.sustainablepackaging.org) on the HOW2recycle label
project. (To learn more about the HOW2recycle initiative, listen to the 2013 Sustainable Packaging webinar
available at www.packagedesignmag.com/sustain.
During this event, Derrick Lawrence of Seventh Generation explains the HOW2recycle project and how to
incorporate the label in your package designs.)

Don't need to bury that treasure
"The general public are kind of the miners of this commodity," Hedlund explains. "So what they do at that
particular moment [discarding used packaging] dictates everything that happens after that.
"It dictates whether manufacturers can commit to
using these materials," she remarks. "Ultimately, it
dictates how quickly we are depleting our natural
resources." This is especially important as natural
resources, such as petroleum for plastic resin, are getting increasingly expensive.
More effective end-of-life communication could
score a triple for packaging by relieving confusion at
the bin, making recycling a more economically viable
endeavor, and providing brands with high-quality
packaging materials. CPGs then might be able to slide
this into a home run for consumers with better products in more protective and effective packaging. PD
For articles on similar topics, visit the Sustainability
channel on PackageDesignMag.com.
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Package Design - November 2013

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