The On-Pack Recycling Label has celebrated its 10th birthday, as public readiness for radical action reaches tipping point.
Originally set up by leading British Retail Consortium and Food & Drink Federation members working with WRAP, the label quickly established itself as a recognised marque with consumers, as supermarkets, high street retailers, and leading brands applied it to packaging in their weekly shopping.
Karen Graley, Founding Director and Packaging & Reprographics Manager at Waitrose, said: “That early, relatively small collaboration of a few dozen retailers and brands was an important step in providing consistent, clear and simple recycling advice to consumers.”
“Ten years and over 300 additional members later, we have gained recognition with three in four people now acting on our labels, making us the most widely recognised and understood recycling label in the UK.”
Jane Bevis, Founding Director and now Chair of OPRL, said: “Our recent surveying shows more than four in five people check packaging often or periodically for advice on recycling, even when they’re pretty confident about what to recycle – they expect to see our labels there.”
“Over the last six years we’ve consistently scored as the best understood and acted on recycling labelling system. We’re the industry standard. No wonder brands, retailers, packaging designers and manufacturers, supply chain partners and compliance schemes are flocking to join OPRL.”