HR2009-10 Is "how to dump" label useful? Food package

Background

It has been a while since trash separation and recycle are being considered important, and it seems that the conscious mind has been stayed in the public to a considerable degree. With that, we have been seeing ingenuity on packages of products that will be separated or recycled after use. For example, the mark that indicates material of the package, or perforated line that makes easy to peel the labels off can be some of those ingenuities.

This time, what we look at is labels, which illustrate the procedure of how to throw away the waste, in figure. I myself, have realized the presence of this type of "how to dump" label, once, all of the sudden. Since then I have been aware of them, and try to follow the instruction, but it does not always go well.

Generally, how many people notice this kind of "how to dump" label? And are they able to do the task as it explains? In this report, I have looked into these types of questions.

Implementation of questionnaire survey

We have conducted a questionnaire survey with people who have registered to us as participants. The target packages of food products we have used this time are the following "milk carton" and "bottle of seasoning".


"Milk carton" indicates this type of package, and it is used for milk, juice and tea etc.	"Bottle of seasoning" indicates this type of container with a cap, and is usually used for soy sauce, seasoning soy sauce, vinegar and other liquid seasoning

We have asked the following questions about those packages:

How do you usually throw those packages away?
Have you noticed "how to dump" label?
Have you read carefully read the label then?
How have you throw the package away then (have you followed the instruction on the "how to dump" label)?
Do you think "how to dump" label is necessary?

97 respondents (40 males and 45 females, age 20 to 72) have responded to our questionnaires.

How to dump regularly

(1)Milk carton

We had male and female of 19 to 77 years old, total of 79 respondents for this study.

We have asked the respondents to describe in detail the procedure of how they dump the milk carton, and by perceiving the contents, the evaluator has categorized them roughly.

51 respondents out of all 97 have responded that they wash, dry and open the carton before throw it away. This procedure is exactly the procedure written on the "how to dump" label. That is, about half of the people are throwing the package away as the designer expect them to do.

It is also unexpected to find that 21 people fold the carton without open it up. Some of them have answered that they dump the carton as burnable, rather than as recyclable, however, we assume it includes several cases such as, they are following the local government rule, do not know about open the carton or they do know about open the carton, but not do so.

As an interesting case, 7 respondents (7%) have responded that they will reuse the carton before dump it as a garbage. The followings are the breakdown:

Use it as a cutting board (5 respondents)
Cut in half and use the bottom part as a container to make ice (1 respondent).
Use it as a kitchen garbage container (1 respondent)
Use it as a pallet for oil painting (1 respondent)
* Inside of ( ) shows respondent-number

After reuse the carton and cut it open, there is a case of throwing it away as a recyclable by open the carton, and a case of throwing away as a burnable, after all. However, here, we see them as one group who reuse the carton.

(2)Bottle of seasoning

We have also asked how they usually throw bottle of seasoning away. They have written detailed description of how they wash the bottle and peel off the label, but we have focused on how they handle the cap, and categorized it roughly.

49 respondents (51%) remove the cap and throw it away. They have not described particularly about how they remove the cap.

While on the other hand, 6 respondents use tool to remove the cap (6%). The tools they use are forks, stick, dedicated utensil, scissors, bottle opener and cutter knife. 4 out of those have never noticed "how to dump" label. This means, they may have been using the tools, not knowing that they can remove the cap by hand if they follow the instruction on the label.

9 respondents will remove the cap if it is removable. Surly, some bottles have caps that are difficult to remove. In that case, those respondents will dump the bottle without removing the cap.

Did they notice"How to dump" label?

(1)Milk carton

In the questionnaire, we have shown the label as below, and asked whether they have noticed it or not. The result is set out below.

Carton
Wash, open and recycle
* When you dump the garbage, please follow the division of municipal government
(1) Wash -> (2) Open -> (3) Dry

The result is that 80 respondents have "noticed" the label, which means recognition of "how to dump" label on milk carton is considerably high. Since many people, regardless of age and gender, have a chance to get hold of milk carton, it seems that they see the label.

Also, since the designs are comparatively unified, it seems that people will see the similar label repeatedly regardless of the type of drinks or manufacturer, which makes it easier to stick out in ones' mind (we have not been able to check whether "how to dump" label is standardized or not).

(2)Bottle of seasoning

Just like milk carton, when we have asked whether they have noticed "how to dump" label like those we find occasionally on recent bottles of seasonings, we have gotten the following result.

(1) Pull the upper label down to the bottom of the cap.
(2)Next, putt it up and remove if from the container

How to segregate the cap after use
(1) Hold the upper lead, pull straight down and rip.
(2) Then, pull it directly upward and remove it from the bottle (it will come off easier when warm it in hot water.

51 respondents have "noticed", which shows that the recognition of the label on seasoning bottle is considerably lower than that of milk carton.

When we look at the bottles of seasonings at a supermarket, there are bottles without those "how to dump" label. Therefore, within those who have answered, "not notice", there may be people who have truly never seen the label.

Since the designs of labels are not unified, the graphic and explanation are different by the products, and the expressions are all different. Therefore, it may be difficult to have it stick in ones’ mind just by seeing it once.

Also, because seasonings are often used in the middle of cooking, people who do not do the cooking at home will not have much opportunity to get hold of the bottle, therefore it may be difficult for those people to notice.

Follow "how to dump" instruction?

For both milk carton and bottle of seasoning, approximately half of the respondents have responded that they have followed the instruction on the label when dump them.

Since 92% have noticed the label on milk carton, by simply looking at the number, we can say that 30% of all have noticed the label, but not follow the instruction.

The followings are examples of reasons why they have noticed the label, but not follow the instruction.

It is troublesome (no time to do so)
I’ve been doing the same things as it says in the label, so I do not need to follow.
I am doing it in my way.

On the contrary, because the result is similar to whether they notice the label or not, it is likely that if they notice the label, they will follow the instruction.

In addition, 3 respondents have responded that they have tried to follow the instruction, but they have had difficult time. Will this mean they cannot understand even by reading the instruction on the label? Or they do understand, but not able to do well when actually manipulating the cap? Nevertheless, we can see there are some sorts of usability issues.

Is "how to dump" label necessary?

For milk carton, 70 respondents (72%), and for bottle of seasonings, 82 respondents (72%) have answered that "how to dump" label is necessary. The reason why the percentage for the bottle is higher than the carton is that, since more people have not noticed the label on the bottle, it is likely that they have more expectation on the label, and also they feel that it actually is difficult to remove the cap without the instruction.

As reasons people feel the label is necessary, besides the primary purpose, which is to instruct how to dump, the expectations such as, it may be effective to get consciousness of segregation and recycle, also noticeable.

When try in real

We have asked 2 staffs from our office to perform the task in real to dump by using milk carton and bottle of seasoning. In the scene where they notice the existence of “how to dump” label, and follow the instruction, will they meet any factor that makes difficult for them to do the work?

You can view the work in video by clicking "Play".

This is Windows Media Video format (please note that we will not provide any support for how to play the video).
Be aware for the sound volume.
The sound is in Japanese only.

Participants	A	B
Participants	She usually open the milk carton with dedicated scissors. She usually does not remove the cap from the bottle.	She usually does not open the milk carton She usually does not remove the cap from the bottle.
Milk carton	Carton Wash, open and recycle * When you dump the garbage, please follow the division of municipal government (1) Wash -> (2) Open -> (3) Dry	Carton (1) Wash -> (2) Open -> (3) Dry
Bottle of seasoning 1	(1) Pull the upper label down to the bottom of the cap. (2)Next, putt it up and remove if from the container	How to segregate the cap after use (1) Hold the upper lead, pull straight down and rip. (2) Then, pull it directly upward and remove it from the bottle (it will come off easier when warm it in hot water.
Bottle of seasoning 2	How to segregate the cap after useSet the bottle, so it does not fall, open the upper lid wide, and hold the root, pull to your right, but do not twist As shown in the figure, pull out the remaining part.	How to segregate the cap after useSet the bottle, so it does not fall, open the upper lid wide, and hold the root, pull to your right, but do not twist As shown in the figure, pull out the remaining part.

By observing both participants performing the task, we have found that they eventually have handled correctly in either case, but the following hesitancy or difficulties have been observed along the way.
Especially, both the content of "how to dump" label and the actual operation on the bottle of seasonings may bear improvements.

[Milk carton]

It is difficult to cut the first corner of bottom face with regular scissors (booth A and B).
Because there is no instruction about open to opening part on "how to dump" label, I hesitate whether I should do it or not (B)
Because the instruction is concrete, I feel that I need to do exactly as it says (location of where to leave the bottom face) (B)

[Bottle of seasonings 1]

Need strength to pull down the cap (A and B).
Not know how much strength is needed when pull out the cap (A and B).
It is difficult to know how much I need to pull down (do I have to tear it off or not) (A)

[Bottle of seasonings 2]

Not know what kind of state is “open the upper lid wide” in the instruction (B)
It is not predictable of strip the surrounding by neither the instruction, “pull to your right, but do not twist” nor the direction of arrow (A and B).
The figure in the instruction cannot tell why the upper lid is displaced from the bottle(think the lid will come off) (B)

It is subtle of strength when pull out the cap (A and B)

Impression

From this questionnaire survey, we have found people who dump the cartons and bottles without taking any action, but this time, the purpose of this study is not to discuss whether that is good or bad. Because local rule of autonomous community or apartment for how to dump exists originally, there are not one but several correct ways of dumping the garbage. However, the fact the rule of autonomous community for dump the garbage is repugnant to the instruction written on the package is likely to create confusion to users. Is it too difficult to standardize the rule for how to dump, nationally?

The duty to dump the garbage is necessary as morale, but the truth is it is a burden to the users. If we can do it without much effort, that will be much better. We will have more and more packages that are easy to be dumped away.

In that way, the idea to be able to remove the cap of bottle sounds wonderful, but we can find room for improvement in recognition of “how to dump” label, the understandability, as well as assuredness of actual operation. Also, we hope for one more effort on ingenuity.