100th company signs up to on pack recycling label

The British Retail Consortiums’ (BRC) on pack recycling label now covers more than 90% of grocery sales in the UK and appears on more than 60,000 product lines.

Its label, which the BRC says is a world first, informs shoppers what packaging can be recycled and what cannot.

So far companies including Birdseye, Innocent, GlaxoSmithKline and WH Smith have taken up the label.

After getting 100 firms onboard the BRC’s head of environment, Bob Gordon, says the plans is to shift focus toward raising public awareness of the label and encouraging consumers to recycle as much as possible.

edie+ subscribers can click here to listen to a presentation from the BRC’s Bob Gordon about the scheme at our Sustainability Leaders Forum.

Mr Gordon said: “Signing up our one hundredth company is a tipping point moment.

“Up to now, we’ve just been trying to get buy-in from retailers and manufacturers, but the label now appears on enough products for us to refocus our energies toward raising public awareness and changing consumer behaviour.

“We need to make sure that more of what can be recycled actually goes into recycling.

“In the next few months we’ll be announcing plans to work with Local Authorities and community groups, such as the Womens’ Institute, to raise awareness of the label.

“Currently too much recyclable packaging makes its way to landfill. This label gives consumers the information they need to make the right choices, we just need to make them aware of it.”

Luke Walsh