Use the 'Metal Recycles Forever' Logo to drive your turnover

The Metal Recycles Forever Logo is designed to be used on tin and aluminum packaging. It is a small logo created by the organization Metal Packaging Europe to promote the use of recyclable metal packaging. When used on packaging it certifies that the package is designed with recyclable and sustainable properties in mind. It provides consumers with a visual symbol to acknowledge that the product package they are purchasing can be recycled and hints that the company using the package is environmentally conscious [6].

The Metal Recycles Forever logo is one of the first ecolabels designed to specifically represent the positive environmental effects of using recyclable tin and aluminum packaging materials. That being said there is a trend of other ecolabels being used to represent different positive environmental or sustainable aspects of products. The Energy Star symbol represent energy-efficient properties, Fair Trade Certified represents products produced in positive ways for local farmers, and Green Seal is for products that are life-cycle sustainable [1]. These symbols have been successfully used for years to provide environmentally conscious messages to consumers.

These types of symbols not only represent a positive message, but have also successfully driven consumers towards using these products. One great example of this are products labelled as Fair Trade, which saw an 8%, $9.2 billion increase in sales in 2017 [2]. Other ecolabels have also shown similar trends in purchasing over recent years.  Most ecolabels have not been quantitatively studied, like Fair Trade, but there have been quite a few studies done on how consumers view eco-labelled products and their effects on buying behavior. Many studies have found that ecolables can be an effective marketing tool to reach a wide variety of consumers. Additionally, consumers generally view products using ecolabels in a positive light and are more likely to purchase products that display them [3,4,5].

There haven’t been any studies done directly on the effectiveness of the Metal Recycles Forever logo, as it is relatively new, but it is likely that it will follow the general trend of many other ecolabels. The positive environmental message conveyed by the Metal Recycles Forever logo can peak consumer interest and purchasing towards products that display the logo. The logo provides an incentive to consumers when they are choosing between similar products and will likely influence a percentage of consumers to choose products displaying the logo over alternative options that do not.

In the last few years consumers have begun showing interest in using renewable metal packaging over nonrenewable alternatives. It is predicted that between 2014 and 2024 there will be a 6.2% compound annual growth rate for sustainable metal packaging and 20% growth rate specifically for aluminum packaging [7,8]. This trend combined with ecolabeling will create a lot of room for product growth. It can be assumed that there will be improved customer turnover for products that use sustainable metal packaging .

The Metal Recycles Forever logo is one of the first ecolabels designed for sustainable tin and aluminum packaging. Even though it is relatively new the projected increase in overall use of metal packaging provides ample opportunity for it to become much more widespread. It represents one way for companies to capitalize on the increased demand for sustainable packaging.

References

[1] "Metal Packaging Europe gives Europe’s rigid metal packaging industry a unified voice" (retrieved May 2013),  by Matt Hickman.

[2] "Annual Report and Financial Statements (2016 – 2017)" (retrieved 2017),  by Fairtrade International.

[3] “Effectiveness of Eco-Label? (2010)” ,  by Lien Quynh Nguyen and Qian Du. 

[4] “Eco-Label Credibility and Retailer Effects on Green Product Purchasing Intentions(2017)",  by  Zhen Cai, Yi Xie ,Francisco Aguilar

[5] ”Why Eco-Labels Can Be Effective Marketing Tools: Evidence from a Study on Italian Consumers (2013)” , by Francesco Testa ,Fabio Iraldo ,A Vaccari, and E. Ferrari.

[6] ”Metal Packaging Europe” (retrieved 2017), by metalpackagingeurope.org .

[7] “Societal Factors Influencing Packaging (2016)”  ,by Claire Koelsch Sand.

[8] ”The Social Component of Sustainable Packaging (2009)”, R. Weber and E. Templelman.