Recycling Labels and Box Packaging

Over the past fifteen years or so, product packaging has undergone a revolution, with environment concerns slowly integrated into both aspects of the marketing process. The packaging material itself has become either less bulky or in some instances discarded altogether.

Advertisers integrating environment concerns into their strategies often attempt to sell their products as eco-friendly. Package eco-labeling, especially with box packages, represents the most common industry approach for integrating their dual strategies.

Pick up any couple or three boxed products and you'll probably see at least one with some type of recycling label. Consider the following three examples.

Label one says 100% Recycled Paperboard and nothing more. In comparative terms, the label represents the least recycled package from the traditional consumer's perspective. There is no guarantee that any of the materials used to produce the package came from a recycling process other than as scrap of new material from a factory floor.

Label two says "80% recycled paper with 65% post-consumer content" and it means the box manufacture probably does not adhere to strict efficiency production standards, but at the same time does incorporate 65% recycled material into the product.

Label three says "100% recycled paperboard, 35% post-consumer content" and it applies a slightly different variation on the general theme. It states that the box manufacturer strictly adheres to efficiency production standards and also uses at least 35% recycled materials as understood in the traditional consumer sense.

Which practice is better? The answer partly depends on which end of the consumer-industry perspective you stand.

From an industry perspective, increased efficiency means increased competitiveness. The American Forest & Paper Association reports that, "during the past ten years, recovered paper accounted for three quarters of the industry's incremental fiber consumption". It also notes that the greatest percentage (44.8%) of the recovered paper was used for container board, the type used in packaging. (Paper Recovery Progress Report). The practice is not only industry efficient, it also translates into less waste finding its way to some landfill.

Consumer and environment groups, on the other hand, while not opposed to increased efficiency, also discuss the semantic problems associated with recycling labels on boxes. Their position is that consumers who wish to promote more recycling, and at the same time are unaware of the different labeling systems, might be lulled into a false sense of security with respect to current recycling efforts. Consumer awareness programs calling for the purchase of packaged products with the highest post-consumer recycling content fit as nice solutions to these types of concerns.

© 2001. Patricia A. Michaels