Bradford supermarket giant Morrisons is introducing smiley faces on its own-brand products to encourage people to recycle.

The firm is encouraging people to be more green, by introducing the new labelling scheme for its own brand packaging.

The labels, pictured above and right, will have big smiley faces if the products are 100 per cent recyclable or home compostable, a small smile if goods can be partly recycled and an unhappy face if it cannot be recycled.

Each face symbol will have a speech bubble, which gives information about what can be recycled and how to find out where. Called Recyclopedia the scheme aims to help increase awareness of what can be recycled. And it has been supported by the national recycling campaign, Recycle Now, and is being launched during Recycle Now Week, which is held until Saturday.

One of the first products to feature Recyclopedia is Morrisons' The Best Tarte au Citron', where the smiling symbol shows that the packaging is partly recyclable. A Morrisons spokesman said if every carton bought in a year was recycled, more than six tonnes of packaging would be saved from going to landfill.

A Telegraph & Argus strawpoll at Morrisons store at Five Lane Ends found that customers thought it was a good idea as it would make people stop and think about whether the product they were buying could be recycled.

Mark Lee, packing technologist for Morrisons, said: "We all want to do our bit to reduce waste and recycle more."

He added that the company was also working to reduce packaging and was looking for more sustainable sources and recyclable materials to avoid packaging waste being sent to landfill, wherever they could.

"We're not claiming to have all of the answers yet, but we can share what we do know with our customers and together help the environment," he said.

Amanda Barry Hirst, of Recycle Now, said: "Recycling is one of the simplest and most effective things we can do to protect the environment. We welcome initiatives like Recyclopedia as a good way to raise public awareness and help people to recycle more."

Michelle Hudson, waste forum co-ordinator for Bradford Environment Action Trust, said: "I think this clearly is a move in the right direction, though I hope there will be few frowns displayed, as they should endeavour to have as little packaging as possible and what they have should be recyclable."

To support the launch of Recyclopedia during Recycle Now Week, Morrisons will be conducting a recycling quiz in all its Bradford stores on Friday, which aims to find out about awareness of recycling. The results will be used by Morrisons to help inform future decisions about packaging.

e-mail: ali.davies @bradford.newsquest.co.uk