Recycling details are now considered more important than salt (80%), sugar (79%) and calorie content (70%).

 

David Bird, senior consumer analyst at MINTEL explained the trend: "The popularity of recycling is testament to the success of the green lobby in getting consumers to think about the packaging our food comes in. Initiatives like colour-coded bins from local councils and fortnightly waste collection have also raised awareness of recycling. With legislation such as 'Pay as you throw' being mooted for the future, it would seem that people's interest in recyclable packaging is only set increase.

 

"But one of the major issues here is that consumers are currently bombarded with a host of different recycling labels on food packaging. To encourage more consumers to recycle more often, it needs to be as simple as possible for everyone to sort out what packaging can be recycled and what can't.

 

"To give consumers everything they want, manufacturers need to look at some creative alternatives to standard food labels. They could consider  providing further details on websites or shoppers could be encouraged to scan labels on screens in store to pull up further nutritional, health and ethical information about the product."