Danone Silk Cartons Feature How2Recycle Plus Label
How2Recycle Plus is available for brand adoption now and will appear on packaging across the U.S. in 2025, starting with Danone. The CPG giant is the first company to adopt the new How2Recycle Plus label on select new Silk brand products by the end of the year, hitting store shelves soon. Both General Mills’ Pillsbury brand and Horizon Organics had piloted earlier iterations of the H2R and The Recycling Partnership’s (TRP) Recycle Check, but Danone’s Silk is the first adopter of the official How2Recycle Plus under the new How2Recycle Forward program.
“Reducing packaging waste and promoting sustainability are at the heart of our packaging innovations,” says Kory Nook, VP of research & innovation packaging at Danone North America. “Our sustainability journey always starts with the consumer at the center. With Recycle Check [and How2Recycle Plus], we aim to simplify recycling and help consumers make informed choices across the U.S. in real-time, that benefit the environment and promote a circular economy.”
Paul Nowak, executive director, GreenBlue, and Katherine Huded, VP of recyclability solutions at TRP, say the Danone rollout has gone well. Potential problems they anticipated didn’t come to pass. Most big brands already have a H2R label, so there was already an assessment done on Silk cartons from How2Recycle that could then be fed through TRP. That part, which you’d think would be the hard part, wasn’t a problem. Timing and printing, however, always are tricky.
“An issue for the brands with labeling is always their inventory levels of existing packaging, and when they print new packaging,” Nowak says. “That doesn’t sound like the most exciting part of this discussion, but if you understand the friction that presents for the brand, considering and how many different plants they’re printing in and distributing out of, it’s problematic.”
Adds Huded, “another challenge with the brands that are eager to get started with this new label is looking across their portfolio and deciding where to start. Like Paul [Nowak] says, you’re looking at timelines and artwork changes, but you’re also looking at the various material types and formats. You’re even looking at consumer demographics for a particular brand’s target audience. Who is this right for? Just picking where to start can be a challenge, and our teams can help folks with that.”
GreenBlue's How2Recycle platform refresh
In a bid to future proof the familiar How2Recycle (H2R) label system that it operates, nonprofit GreenBlue unveiled to its 800-plus members How2Recycle Forward, which includes a family of refreshed label symbols and icons called How2Recycle Pro. Stakeholders say the move updates the How2Recycle labels’ appearance to better communicate clearer disposal instructions that reflect the current recycling landscape. The refresh also strengthens the data that underpins and informs the labels, optimizes the program’s operations, and improves consumer education around recycling and disposal, they say.
How2Recycle Forward’s new designs arrive amid a host of changes to recycling infrastructure and policy, including EPR legislation potentially driving greater investment, improvements in what and how material recovery facilities (MRFs) can sort and recycle, and so-called “truth in labelling” laws. This set of circumstances pushed How2Recycle to pursue an adaptable label program that would replace existing labels to keep up with the pace of change.
The resulting How2Recycle Forward programs contains a suite of redesigns in different flavors, from static to a dynamic version called How2Recycle Plus, to accurately inform consumers of what to do with packaging waste at the point of disposal. The design updates aim to fortify the label system against any potential eventuality, accounting for policy, infrastructure, and consumer behavior variables that remain in flux today.
‘Truth in labeling’ triggers research, research informs refresh
Most immediately pressing among those variables are truth in labeling laws. These emerging regulations seek to prevent consumer deception on packaging and ensure that products are labeled accurately. But adherence to stricter versions of these laws would be a difficult task for brands given the regional, fragmented nature of recycling infrastructure. How2Recycle member companies, mostly composed of brands plus some converters and other supply chain stakeholders, had been worried that truth in labeling laws, especially ones from California, threatened the venerable chasing arrows, standing to chase the chasing arrows off of packaging entirely.
“It would’ve been easy to just say remove the arrows,” says Nowak. “We could keep it simple, skip any research, and save a bunch of money. That doesn’t mean that it would be the right answer. It might’ve been short-sighted.”
Instead, GreenBlue and H2R commissioned consumer research studies meant to take stock of the existing label’s performance.
“Do we have the brand equity we think we have? We studied that and found out that we do. It’s not just pride in ownership, brand equity exists,” Nowak says. “And second, if you’re going to do a consumer research study, let’s not just look at the chasing arrows and the other iconography. Let’s make sure we’re using language that meets the consumer of today, versus the consumer of 10 years ago, based on the challenges that recycling has recently faced.”
Notably, these studies weren’t conducted in an echo chamber. To agnostically evaluate the iconography, Nowak engaged the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), a 500-member multi-stakeholder organization that GreenBlue also operates. Member companies’ marketing and consumer research teams were asked to analyze and scrutinize the existing messaging, and if necessary, implement improvements informed by those findings. Brandi Parker of Parker Brands headed up SPC’s efforts within its Design Collaborative, the working group that executed the request.
“Essentially, SPC became the agency, and How2Recyle became the client. And then SPC presented How2Recycle with what they think of as the best-case scenario, and we [GreenBlue, who operates H2R] funded the research through our membership,” Nowak says. “Not only are SPC members talented and willing to give us what we need there from their marketing teams, but it also gives them a place at the table. The new labels are something SPC members are likely going to need adapt to, and implement as these changes unfold, so membership needed to have a voice in the room.”
Under the How2Recycle Forward umbrella, a refreshed symbology and iconography called How2Recycle Pro replaces outgoing icons, now termed How2Recycle Legacy. The Legacy iconography wasn’t entirely static—it had gradually evolved over 12 years, accounting for both material innovation and changing policy. But the messaging hierarchy had remained fixed—until now.
Iconography matters
The research concluded that iconography makes a big impact in recyclability messaging. It exerts an almost magnetic pull on consumers’ eyes. For consumers actively seeking recycling information, familiar icons simplify finding that information in goal-driven (top-down) processing. Even consumers who aren’t seeking recycling information can be made to pay attention to it in a process called first attention, or stimulus-driven (bottom-up) processing. Also, how long a consumer views an icon impacts how much consumers understand and take away from it.
“We were fully ready to say, ‘if the chasing arrows don’t matter, let’s get rid of them.’ Frankly, it would have been an easier path,” Nowak says. “It turns out they do matter. But the research shows they have the most recognition when used to denote a package is recyclable. We were also using a slash through them to indicate a package was non-recyclable. We found that that wasn’t as useful, and a different icon could work better. You’ll see we now use a trash can symbol.”
