Consuming with Intention:

Starting a Virtuous (Re)cycle


Have you ever taken apart a package, then realized you’re not sure which parts are recyclable?

When it comes to living sustainably, sometimes you just have to get your hands dirty. For Choice Organics, this means taking a good look at our trash, determining how we can use more recyclable materials, and keeping our packaging out of landfills.

Now, recycling takes two to tango. We are committed to using recyclable packaging, but we need YOU — our customers — to then recycle our materials properly, too.

Here’s the thing: improving recycling needs to go both ways. Yes, we’re asking you to put the right stuff in the right bins, but we’re trying our best to do the right thing as well. In fact, we diverted 57% of our waste from landfills in 2020. And in 2021, we’ve already diverted 61% of our waste to date!

From what we can tell, you’re also holding up your end of the bargain. A 2021 survey found that two out of three people go out of their way to recycle. If you’re already doing your part, then the rest of the world needs to get on your level. If you’re having a hard time recycling, we’d like to give you a hand.

To that end, we are partnering with How2Recycle, a recyclability labeling program that simplifies information for you and helps businesses get more recyclable materials into circulation.

What is How2Recycle, and how does it work?

We get it, recycling is complicated. Not only do materials need to be recycled after usage, but that recycled stuff also needs to be used in the creation of new things — otherwise it’s just trash with extra steps. How2Recycle says: “Packaging is recyclable if it can be collected, sorted, reprocessed, and ultimately reused in manufacturing or making another item.”

That’s a lot of steps, involving many participants. It takes an organization like How2Recycle to put all these pieces together, and we’re proud to be a part of their community.

For consumers, How2Recycle creates easy-to-read, standardized labels that identify when packaging is recyclable and explains how to recycle the packaging. This makes it easy for you to know what should be recycled (and what should go in the trash).

But that’s only part of the story. For its business partners like us, How2Recycle provides an individualized recyclability assessment, showing member companies ways to make their packaging as recyclable as possible. Their recommendations have directly led to over 2,200 changes in packaging design since 2017!

Let’s make change together.

Recycling isn’t just good for the environment. The EPA reports that in a single year, recycling and reuse activities in the US accounted for 681,000 jobs and $37.8 billion in wages. Clearly, this is work worth supporting — on top of conserving natural resources, preventing pollution, and saving energy.

Look for How2Recycle labels on all Choice Organics products in 2022, and on many other brands’ products too. Thanks for doing your part. We’re excited to see what more we can do together!

Consuming with Intension Blog Series


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