Last week I was chatting with a local authority recycling officer, checking exactly what I could put in my recycling bin (and if I’m not 100% sure…). We got on to the Lucozade Sport problem, then he mentioned his bugbear was Heinz, who, he said, don’t even label their plastic bottles with recycling codes.

So, in an idle moment I thought I’d try the power of social media and tweeted to Heinz UK to ask why not. They promptly and politely replied that the bottles do have recycling codes, but they’re hidden under the cap. I checked and they were right.

But.

But, but, but.

What’s the point of hiding away your code? Everybody else puts it on the bottom of the bottle, and those members of the public, like me, who know that code 1 or 2 on a bottle means it can be recycled, will look for it there. Recycling plant operatives will certainly look for it there. And if a guy with decades of experience in household recycling doesn’t know where it is, what chance do the rest of us have?

One of my Green Jujitsu principles is that Sustainability information must be placed where people expect to find the information they need. I often quote the example of a client who labelled all the machines in their production lines which should be switched off when idle, but didn’t include any guidance in the formal manufacturing instructions which are held as gospel by operatives and their line management. The labels got ignored because, even though they were in plain sight, the information wasn’t in the right place.

I’ve asked Heinz why the stamp isn’t on the bottom of the bottle, but they haven’t got back to me yet.