Recycling symbol

The recycling symbol is a famous sign with three arrows chasing each other in a loop. It is used everywhere to show that something can be recycled. The symbol was made in 1970 by a student named Gary Anderson for the Container Corporation of America. It was first seen on the Earth Day to help people learn about recycling.

The symbol is easy to recognize and helps us remember to sort and reuse materials to protect our planet. It is connected to ideas like the [Green Dot](/wiki/Green_Dot_(symbol) and is different from the Resin identification code, which shows what kind of material something is made from. The recycling symbol is part of the Unicode set of symbols and looks like a Möbius strip. It encourages us to think about how we can take care of our Earth by recycling more.

History

People started paying more attention to taking care of the Earth in 1970, which led to the first Earth Day. A company that makes recycled paperboard, Container Corporation of America, asked students to design something to help people learn about the environment. Over 500 students entered the contest. The winner was Gary Anderson, a 23-year-old student at the University of Southern California. His design is the recycling symbol we use today. Anderson won a scholarship for his work. Even though some people wondered who really created the symbol, because so many people started using it, it became everyone's symbol. Some think the idea might have come from older symbols, like one used by Volkswagen in the early 1960s on some automobile parts they rebuilt.

Variants

The recycling symbol can be used by anyone for free because it is public. A company once tried to own it, but they stopped, so now everyone can use or change the symbol.

Many versions of the recycling symbol are used around the world. Some countries have rules about how it can be used. The original design had the arrows pointing down, but now they usually point forward. Most symbols today have the arrows looping over themselves.

The American Paper Institute 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 colors showing how much recycled material was 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 special 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.

The symbols have special codes called Unicode. These codes look like letters and symbols.

Other variants

♾, an infinity sign (∞) inside a circle, is used to show permanent paper symbol. This symbol is used in packaging and publishing. It means the paper used is acid-free paper. This paper is made to last a long time. It can still be recycled or composted.