Materials & Packaging

Plum Organics Joins GreenBlue's How2Recycle Label Program

GreenBlue’s Sustainable Packaging Coalition announced this week that Plum Organics is the latest company to join its How2Recycle Label program. Plum joins 30 other participating companies — including most recently, Kellogg and McDonald’s — committed to educating consumers on packaging recyclability by providing clear on-package instructions.

By Sustainable Brands | Published 11 years ago | About a 3 minute read

One of the fastest-growing organic food brands in the U.S., Plum offers over 100 premium, organic baby food, toddler and kids snack products. The How2Recycle Label will be found on a number of products across the Plum portfolio to help consumers understand how to recycle each component of packaging.

Some products will also carry the special message, “See Website for Cap,” to prompt consumers to go online to learn more about Plum’s take-back program. Due to their size, the plastic caps on Plum’s pouches cannot be recycled in curbside bins. However, the company offers a take-back program through Preserve’s Gimme 5 Program to give consumers the opportunity to recycle the caps. Both the How2Recycle and Plum Organics websites give consumers information on the take-back program.

“We’re excited to partner with How2Recycle to encourage consumers to recycle Plum products the right way,” said Neil Grimmer, Plum’s co-founder & CEO. “We all know the recycling process isn’t always intuitive, but GreenBlue’s labeling system makes things clear and simple. As a certified B Corporation, we’re constantly striving to improve sustainability across all aspects of our business, and implementing How2Recycle is one of the key steps we’re taking to improve our sustainable packaging efforts.”

The How2Recycle website is designed to help consumers find recycling opportunities including curbside access, local drop-off sites, and retail and grocery store plastic film drop-off locations. GreenBlue encourages municipalities and governments to include a link to how2recycle.info on their websites to help community members better understand recycling opportunities throughout the United States.

Consumer confusion about how and what to recycle has persisted even as recycling has become more prevalent. But now with the UK government setting challenging targets to boost the amount of plastic that gets recycled well above the current rate of 58 percent, there’s increased urgency around dispelling the confusion amongst Brits. So in September, Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) teamed up with Tesco (the UK’s largest supermarket retailer, and the world’s second-largest behind Walmart) on the Recycling Is the Answer campaign, aimed at educating and engaging their customers in aid of the plastic recycling effort. Activities include an educational game in which players sort a variety of packaging materials into the correct recycling bins, in a virtual representation of a home. While bringing an element of fun to the process, The aim is to educate consumers on which materials can and can’t be recycled (and where) — an issue that can often discourage consumers from recycling for fear of mixing the wrong materials.