Recycling symbol

The recycling symbol is a well-known sign made of three arrows chasing each other in a loop. It is used all around the world to show that something can be recycled. This symbol was first made in 1970 by a young student named Gary Anderson for the Container Corporation of America. It appeared on the first Earth Day to help people understand the importance of recycling. Because it is not owned by anyone, anyone can use the recycling symbol freely, and many different versions of it have been created over the years.

The symbol is easily recognized and helps remind everyone to sort and reuse materials to protect our planet. It is linked to ideas like the Green Dot and is different from the Resin identification code, which tells us what kind of material something is made from. The recycling symbol is part of the Unicode set of symbols and is shaped like a Möbius strip. It encourages us to think about how we can take care of our Earth by recycling more.

History

Worldwide attention to environmental issues led to the first Earth Day in 1970. Container Corporation of America, a company that makes recycled paperboard, held a contest for students to create designs to raise awareness about the environment. Over 500 students entered, and the winner was Gary Anderson, a 23-year-old student at the University of Southern California. His design became the universal recycling symbol we use today. Anderson won a $2,500 scholarship for his work. Although some people questioned who created the symbol, its wide use made it officially belong to everyone. Some think the idea might have been inspired by older symbols, like one used by Volkswagen in the early 1960s on some automobile parts they rebuilt.

Variants

The recycling symbol is available for anyone to use without paying fees because its rights are public. Although a company once tried to own it, they stopped pursuing it, allowing everyone to use or change the symbol freely.

Many different versions of the recycling symbol are used around the world, even though some countries have rules about how it can be used. The original design showed the arrows pointing downward, but it was turned to point forward for most common uses today. Most versions of the symbol today have all the arrows looping over themselves.

The American Paper Institute once suggested four types of the symbol for different uses. A simple loop could show that a product can be recycled. A loop inside a circle was for products made from recycled materials, with different color choices depending on the amount of recycled material used.

Unicode includes several recycling symbols, such as:

• U+2672 ♲ UNIVERSAL RECYCLING SYMBOL
• U+267A ♺ RECYCLING SYMBOL FOR GENERIC MATERIALS
• U+267B ♻ BLACK UNIVERSAL RECYCLING SYMBOL
• U+267C ♼ RECYCLED PAPER SYMBOL (indicates product contains recycled paper)
• U+267D ♽ PARTIALLY-RECYCLED PAPER SYMBOL (indicates product contains partially recycled paper)
• U+267E ♾ PERMANENT PAPER SIGN (e.g. for acid-free paper)

Resin identification code

Main article: Recycling codes

In 1988, a group called the American Society of the Plastics Industry made a special set of symbols. These symbols help people sort different kinds of plastic when they recycle. The symbols look like simple arrows forming a triangle and are easy to put on plastic items. They are based on the recycling symbol but are flat and two-dimensional.

These symbols have special codes called Unicode that look like letters and symbols, such as U+2673 for type-1 plastics. The codes go up to U+2679 for type-7 plastics. There are also codes for other materials like metals, glass, paper, cardboard, and batteries.

Other variants

♾, an infinity sign (∞) inside a circle, is used to show permanent paper symbol. This symbol is used in packaging and publishing to show that the paper used is durable acid-free paper. Unlike the recycling symbol, this logo means the paper is made to last a long time, not to be recycled. However, acid-free paper is usually safe because it does not have toxic materials, and it can still be recycled or composted.