Dive Brief:

• The Carton Council of Canada has released results of a survey that found 62% of respondents would be more likely to recycle food and beverage cartons if they had more easily identifiable recycling information, as reported by Resource Recycling.
• The top three barriers to carton recycling were that 50% of residents "forgot," 54% didn't know they could or 49% didn't know how to do it. 
• This survey was conducted among 2,000 residents in Ontario and Quebec. Older respondents were most likely to not know how to recycle the cartons.

Dive Insight:

Since passage of the Waste-Free Ontario Act earlier this year, solutions to increase diversion rates have become a higher priority in the province. While some industry representatives, including the Carton Council of Canada, have questioned how certain extended producer responsibility provisions will be implemented, they have expressed excitement for the act's potential.

Cartons remain a high priority in the U.S. as well, where the Carton Council of North America says 57% of households had access to some recycling option for the material in 2015. Another survey from the organization found that the vast majority of U.S. respondents also felt it was the manufacturers' responsibility to promote recycling of their products.

This idea of ensuring that products are more recyclable has continued to gain traction within the industry. The Association of Plastic Recyclers is working on a system for manufacturers to notify recovery facilities about packaging changes which could help. Diverting the material is still a challenge, though the Canadian survey backs up similar findings which have shown participation may increase when people are given more information about the process and encouraged to do so by their communities.