QR Codes Set to Replace Confusing Recycling Symbols

What you can recycle depends on where you live, making the labels on paper, glass, metal, and plastic confusing. The Consumer Brand's Association (CBA) aims to remedy that using pretty simple technology. Axios reports that the group is working with brands to add QR codes to their packaging that people scan. When someone types in their zip code, they'll receive the red or green light on whether the container is recyclable in their location. "Consumers want recycling instructions. Consumers want to recycle, and they want recycling to be easy," John Hewitt of the CBA tells Food Business News. Axios notes that 60% of consumers are unsure whether or not something is fit for the "blue bin."

While most packaging contains some information about recycling, there are different types of glass, plastic, and paper, and some materials are mixed together (think a paper mailer with plastic bubble wrap lining the inside). On top of that, what's accepted at some recycling facilities cannot be processed at others, so even if a package can be recycled, it won't always be. The EPA has called to sunset the traditional Mobius strip (depicting three chasing arrows) as a recycling symbol since it can be misleading. "There's about 9,000 different recycling districts across the US, and we have them all in a database," says Sarah Dearman of the Recycling Partnership, who notes that providing more localized instructions "takes the guesswork out of recycling."

To pull this off, CBA will combine technology from the SmartLabel program (which is used to show ingredients and nutritional information on packaging) with existing data from the Recycling Partnership's product, Recycle Check. Brands already on Recycle Check include General Mills and Horizon Organics. Though the need to reduce waste is key to reducing pollution and fighting climate change, per Axios, the recycling rate in the US is about 32% (plastics alone are worse, at 6%). But the onus isn't just on consumers. "If we make it easier for the consumer to recycle, then we reduce contamination," Hewitt says. "If we reduce contamination, it gets less expensive, and the feedstock (or raw material) is more readily available." (More recycling stories).