Separate collection, 6 out of 10 labels do not tell the truth

It’s easy to say: “Pay attention to the label“. But if this does not tell the truth, how do you do it? EconomiaCircolare.com e l’app Junker they did an experiment to check how clear the composition and recyclability information found on product labels is. It turns out that there is still a lot of confusion and that it is not always easy to understand if a material goes into plastic, paper or is undifferentiated. According to the research in 6 out of 10 cases what the labels say is incorrect.

This is the result on 90 labels examined according to what we read on EconomiaCircolare.com: «10 were found to be incorrect, 37 incomplete, 7 did not report any indication and 36 were correct. Only 40% of the indications, therefore, can be considered fully effective and easily understood by users “.

The labels are confusing: there are several for the same product, for example paper, there are some with graphics that are not clear. Junker technicians have detected this on several of the products analyzed. There is not not even color uniformity indicated by the EU for the different products. Not everywhere the card is blue and the plastic yellow in the differentiation coding.

For many consumers, the code that identifies the material is not clear. For the card it is easy to include a drawing with the inscription. Much less simple to identify the triangle composed of three arrows with curved corners, a number and an abbreviation. Not always a code that indicates the paper has a way of recycling like all the others: the parchment paper, for example, is not recyclable like the newspaper.

Too generic, according to those who did the survey, the request that is on many packaging, the one that says to contact your municipality for disposal method. The forms of differentiation often change from region to region: in some municipalities the toothpaste tube does not go into the plastic because it has residues, in others it does. There is a legislative decree of 2020 that transposes the European directives on waste. For now it is mandatory to indicate the type of materials with the codes that identify them. The obligation to report information for the final consumer is suspended until 2022, but will come from January.