Since its launch in January, the Plastic Film Recycling Directory, published by the Flexible Film Recycling Alliance (FFRA), has surpassed 150,000 unique users—a new milestone in efforts to educate consumers about their options for recycling flexible packaging and films.
The site has seen about 15,000 new organic users month over month, says Kurt Kurzawa, senior director of sustainability and packaging at the Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS). The number of unique visitors first surpassed 100,000 this summer, according to FFRA, which is an initiative of PLASTICS.
As the numbers have been growing, the engagement time has been hovering around a minute, Kurzawa adds. That means visitors to the online directory are not only looking up places to recycle flexibles in their communities but also reading about why recycling flexible films is important and how to do it, Kurzawa says.
User Friendly
The directory allows users to enter their city or ZIP code to find drop-off locations for plastic grocery bags, plastic wrap, shipping mailers, and other flexibles. The nationwide directory includes more than 20,000 locations and more than 60 retailers, as well as some municipal drop-off sites.
Dani Diehlmann, vice president of communications for the Flexible Packaging Association (FPA), notes that FPA helped FFRA create the directory, and the organizations later teamed up to hire ERM Shelton to do an in-depth survey of consumer recycling habits.
Diehlmann and Kurzawa say that the ERM Shelton study—called the FFRA/FPA Flexible Film Recycling Survey—will lead to a marketing campaign that initially will target consumers in several states that have adopted extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws. EPR states require companies that produce packaging waste to increase recycling rates to reduce waste going into landfills. Consumer education and participation will be crucial to meeting the EPR goals.
The marketing campaigns developed from the survey eventually should drive substantially more traffic to the site, Diehlman and Kurzawa add.
Gaining Consumers’ Confidence
Meanwhile, FFRA has been developing several initiatives to increase consumers’ confidence in recycling systems.
For example, it is working on a third-party verification process to validate the volume of materials collected and recycled, so that consumers can build trust that their flexibles are being processed, Kurzawa says. Potentially, QR codes might be placed at drop-off sites to allow consumers to access instructions and other information easily.
“As we continue to expand the directory and add new features, we hope to empower even more individuals to recycle responsibly,” Patrick Krieger, senior vice president of sustainability and policy at PLASTICS, said in a statement. “Together, we can all work to increase recycling rates.”
Retailers, recycling depots, and service providers interested in joining the directory can contact Kurzawa at kkurzawa@plasticsindustry.org.
Thomas A. Barstow is senior editor of FlexPack VOICE®.