Don't Believe the 'Store Drop-Off' Label When It Comes to Plastic Packaging
By Katherine Martinko | 6/15/21 | Treehugger
Several years ago, a new label started to appear on plastic packaging. It said "store drop-off" and it directed shoppers to return their packaging to special in-store collection bins that would ensure it got recycled. Soon more than 10,000 items carried the label and an associated website said there were over 18,000 drop-off bins across the United States. All that waste would be turned into wonderful things like park benches.
Too bad it wasn't true. Worse yet, "the great store drop-off charade," as it's called, continues to expand while misleading customers into thinking that their waste is somehow serving a useful purpose, rather than contributing to a horrific buildup of garbage around the world.
The Problem
Jan Dell, a chemical engineer and founder of The Last Beach Cleanup, has become an outspoken critic of this charade. She spoke to Treehugger about her ongoing campaign to put this issue of mislabeled packaging on people's radars and to hold companies accountable for their unsubstantiated claims.
"I am trying to raise awareness and expose the fact that these labels that companies are putting on products just aren't legitimate," Dell says. "There is no store drop-off system."
Dell, who lives in Laguna Beach, California, downloaded a list of supposed drop-off locations throughout southern Orange County in 2019. There were 52 listed, but she only found 18 when she went looking for each one in pre-COVID times. There wasn't a single one in any Walmart store, despite the company using the label on thousands of products. The ones she did find were full of contamination, as well.