DS Smith Survey: Consumers Support Recycling, But Bins Are Overflowing Consumers busy with online holiday shopping said they are committed to recycling packages but admit they re- sort to bad habits sometimes when their at-home recycling bins are full, according to a national survey by DS Smith, a provider of sustainable corrugated packaging. Nearly 70 percent of respondents said their recycling bins are mostly full, full or overflowing by the time collec- tion day comes around. When their cans are fully loaded before being picked up, 20 percent said they throw extra recyclable material into the regular trash, meaning it need- lessly could end up in a landfill. A few – four out of 10 – even stash it in a neighbor’s bin. The findings underscore the pressure on consumers, local governments responsible for trash collection and
product suppliers to follow practices that encourage recy- cling, help reduce waste and keep materials in use for as long as possible. The amount of material that needs to be recycled from homes has grown in part due to the rise in e-commerce that accelerated during the pandemic. Two-thirds of those surveyed reported an increase in the number of packages they are receiving now, compared to before the COVID-19 crisis. That trend is expected to grow, as about half of respon- dents said they anticipate shopping online more in the fu- ture. Signaling growing awareness of the importance of sus- tainability, more than 40 percent said they are recycling more today than two years ago, and 80 percent said the sustainability of packaging matters to them. Waste is seen as a problem, with two out of three respondents who said they are concerned with the amount of waste they pro- duce.
With the increased appetite for recycling, almost 60 percent of those polled said their recycling bins need to be bigger to fit their needs. About 40 percent said they are run- ning out of room in their recycling bin at least every two weeks. “It’s clear there is real appetite among consumers to recycle but any recycling sys- tem needs to be fit for purpose – e-com- merce has grown, and now we need to see investment in domestic recycling systems grow to match it,” said Keith Tornes, manag- ing director, Paper, Forestry and Recycling North America. While paper-based packaging solutions are easy to recycle by nature, DS Smith is using its Circular Design Metrics to help identify areas in packaging with potential for improvement. This focus on innovation means designing out packaging waste, re- placing plastics and ultimately reducing the amount of material that needs to be pro- cessed in a recycling plant. DS Smith has a circular business model focused on sustainable packaging in which designs are based on a circular economy approach. It is a model that is based on the principles of designing out waste and pollu- tion, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems. The poll was conducted October 14-18 with 1,000 respondents, a total that gener- ally has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points. DS Smith’s North American operations are based in Atlanta, Georgia with 15 man- ufacturing, paper and recycling facilities to- taling more than 2,000 employees.
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