How2Recycle™ Launches Dynamic Label Utilizing Data from The Recycling Partnership’s National Database to Simplify Recycling
CHICAGO — Onstage at the How2Recycle Summit, How2Recycle unveiled its new dynamic label offering, How2Recycle Plus, which features The Recycling Partnership’s (The Partnership) Recycle Check QR code. The announcement, which was made by GreenBlue Executive Director, Paul Nowak, and The Recycling Partnership Vice President of Recyclability Solutions, Katherine Huded, will pave the way for trusted, real-time local recycling and disposal instructions beginning in 2025.
The announcement follows How2Recycle’s unveiling of How2Recycle Pro, a refreshed version of its Legacy Label designed to be actionable, clear, and compliant with new regulations. The label design refresh marks a new chapter for North America’s most recognizable on-pack label—and now, How2Recycle’s more than 800 members will be able to adopt the dynamic How2Recycle Plus featuring Recycle Check label, bringing the newly integrated label to packages nationwide.
“How2Recycle has the consumer recognition—8 in 10 Americans recognize our labels—and the brand reach to make it an obvious choice and a simple solution in the evolving world of recycling policy and consumer education,” said GreenBlue Executive Director Paul Nowak. “Now for the first time, we have the data and technology to link national brand packaging with local recycling program acceptance.”
“With a How2Recycle label already inside nearly every home in America, the new label, featuring Recycle Check, delivers real-time information on what is accepted for recycling locally to people across the country,” said Katherine Huded, Vice President of Recyclability Solutions. “Reducing confusion on what can be recycled is essential to improving the U.S. recycling rate. Real-time, location-specific education is a critical tool for recovering the 76% of what could be recycled but is instead sent to landfills or incinerators.”
This new label offering comes after a year-long pilot that paired the widely recognized How2Recycle Legacy Label with The Recycling Partnership’s Recycle Check QR code.
Now, when How2Recycle members opt to adopt the How2Recycle Plus label featuring Recycle Check, the label lets consumers scan the QR code, enter a zip code or allow location permissions and receive a clear, yes-no answer on whether a material is accepted for recycling in their community. How2Recycle Plus featuring Recycle Check draws from The Partnership’s National Recycling Database (Database). The Database includes acceptance data across more than 9,000 unique community recycling programs, representing 99% of the U.S. population. On September 23, the Database released, for the very first time, Community Recycling Program Acceptance Data, which provides critical insights that power digital tools and empowers companies, local governments, policymakers, and the public to navigate recycling acceptance.
In recent years, the fragmented recycling system, changes to material recyclability, and issues with access to recycling have contributed to the erosion of trust in the recycling system. The recycling system is faced with new changes as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation spreads, states seek to advance “label laws” to regulate recycling chasing arrows, and consumers demand transparency around recycling. To meet the moment, How2Recycle Plus featuring Recycle Check can help clear confusion around recycling and empower individuals to make informed disposal decisions.
The power of the How2Recycle Plus label featuring Recycle Check stems in part from the reach of How2Recycle’s members, the widespread recognition of the How2Recycle labels—nearly 84% of Americans recognize the label—and The Recycling Partnership’s robust program-level acceptance data.
Starting today, the How2Recycle Plus featuring the Recycle Check label is available for brand adoption and application to their packaging. Individuals will begin to find packages featuring this label in 2025. Anyone seeking disposal information today can continue looking for the How2Recycle label for instruction. For local recycling information, The Partnership’s Recycle Check chatbot provides a clear yes-no answer on what is accepted for recycling today in their community at recyclecheck.org.
About How2Recycle Plus Featuring Recycle Check
How2Recycle is the leading disposal instruction label across the U.S. and Canada with more than 800 members, thousands of SKUs, and thousands of labels issued. The Partnership’s Recycle Check platform covers all residential recyclables, such as paper, plastics, metals, and glass. Together, How2Recycle Plus featuring Recycle Check will deliver localized, real-time information to further ease changes in material recyclability, educate and activate everyday people, and get waste into the right streams, and improve the recycling rate. Integrating the labels also helps ensure that the instructions are inclusive to individuals without cell phones, service, or the necessary tech savvy.
About How2Recycle
Launched in 2012, the How2Recycle program issues the most recognizable on-pack disposal instruction across the U.S. and Canada. With more than 800 members and labels issued for hundreds of thousands of packaging products, How2Recycle is the leading on-pack label. To determine a material’s recyclability, How2Recycle uses national data, assessing: applicable law, access to collection, sortation, technical reprocessability, and end markets. How2Recycle is a project of the environmental nonprofit, GreenBlue. The How2Recycle mission is to simplify the recycling process and take the guesswork out of disposal to get more materials into the recycling bin.
About The Recycling Partnership
The Recycling Partnership is a purpose-driven organization committed to building a better recycling system, one that delivers the economic and environmental benefits our communities and the hundreds of thousands of people who work throughout the recycling industry deserve. The Recycling Partnership’s team of experts, practitioners, and thought leaders with real-world experience works with its partners to insist on meaningful change across the recycling system and assist communities, companies, and policymakers in enacting such change. The Recycling Partnership uses its one-of-a-kind National Recycling Database that encompasses more than 9,000 U.S. recycling programs and develops practical and innovative solutions to address critical gaps in the recycling system. Learn more at recyclingpartnership.org.
