Recycling Will Soon Be Considerably Simpler Thanks to QR Codes

According to The Recycling Partnership, a national profit, 60% of consumers are unsure about what and how to recycle, which lowers the already low percentage of recycling law compliance.

Because of this, your milk cartons, ice cream tubs, and other items will soon have QR codes on them that provide hyperlocal recycling guidelines.

It implies that you will be able to scan an item, enter your ZIP code, and determine if it qualifies for the blue bin.

Recycling is about to get much easier with QR codes

Launched earlier this year, The Recycling Partnership's new initiative Recycle Check is actively enrolling consumer companies to use QR codes to provide local recycling information to their packaging.

General Mills and the dairy company Horizon Organics are two examples of early adopters.

According to Sarah Dearman, chief innovation officer of The Recycling Partnership, products from those businesses that have provided local recycling information will soon be found on store shelves.

"There are about 9,000 different recycling districts across the US, and we have them all in a database," Dearman stated.

"It takes the guesswork out of recycling."

When a facility begins to accept a kind of material that it had previously turned away, that change will be reported in real-time since the recycling information will be dynamic.

Customers now have two options: they may actively look for more detailed information if it is available, or they can accept at face value the recycling information written on product packaging, which may not be accurate for certain regions.

Read more: A System of Unseen QR Codes May Be Used to Track Items