The universal recycling symbol is an internationally recognized symbol used to designate recyclable
materials. It is composed of three mutually chasing arrows that form a Möbius strip.
In 1969 and early 1970, worldwide attention to environmental issues culminated in the
first Earth Day. In response, then Chicago-based Container Corporation of America, a large
producer of recycled paperboard which is now part of Smurfit-Stone Container, sponsored
a contest for art and design students at high schools and colleges across the country to
raise awareness of environmental issues. It was won by Gary Anderson, a 23-year-old college
student at the University of Southern California, whose entry was the image now known as the
universal recycling symbol.
Variants
The recycling symbol is in the public domain, and is not a trademark. The Container Corporation
of America originally applied for a trademark on the design, but the application was challenged,
and the corporation decided to abandon the claim. As such, any one may use or modify
the recycling symbol, royalty free. Though use of the symbol is regulated by law
in some countries, countless variants of it exist worldwide. Anderson's original proposal
had the arrows form a triangle standing on its tip — upside down compared with the
versions most commonly seen today — but the CCA, in adopting Anderson's design, rotated
it 60° to stand on its base instead. Both Anderson's proposal and CCA's designs
form a Möbius strip with one half-twist by having two of the arrows fold over each other,
and one fold under, thereby canceling out one of the other folds. However, most variants
of the symbol used today have all the arrows folding over themselves, producing a Möbius
strip with three half-twists. Existing single half-twist variants of the logo do not generally
agree on which of the arrows is the one to fold underneath. The logo is usually displayed
with the arrows circulating clockwise, but the underlying Möbius strip exists in two
topologically distinct mirror-image forms of opposite handedness.
The American Paper Institute originally promoted four different variants of the recycling symbol
for different purposes. The plain Möbius loop, either white with an outline or solid
black, was to be used to indicate that a product was recyclable. The other two variants had
the Möbius loop inside a circle — either white on black or black on white — and were
meant for products made of recycled materials, with the white-on-black version to be used
for 100% recycled fiber, and the black-on-white version for products containing both recycled
and unrecycled fiber. For example, a paper envelope might have both the first and last
of these four symbols, to indicate that it was recyclable, and made from both recycled
and unrecycled fibers. In addition to the resin identification codes
1-7 in the triangular recycling symbol, Unicode lists the following recycling symbols:
U+2672 ♲ universal recycling symbol U+267A ♺ recycling symbol for generic materials
U+267B ♻ black universal recycling symbol U+267C ♼ recycled paper symbol
U+267D ♽ partially-recycled paper symbol U+267E ♾ permanent paper sign
An ISO/IEC working group has researched and documented some of the variations of the recycling
logo currently in use, and has made recommendations for adding some more of them to the Unicode
standard. Resin identification code
In 1988, the American Society of the Plastics Industry developed the resin identification
code which is used to indicate the predominant plastic material used in the manufacture of
the product or packaging. Their purpose is to assist recyclers with sorting the collected
materials, but they do not necessarily mean that the product/packaging can be recycled
either through domestic curbside collection or industrial collections. The SPI symbols
are loosely based on the Möbius loop symbol, but feature simpler bent arrows that can be
embossed on plastic surfaces without loss of detail. The arrows are formed into a flat,
two-dimensional triangle rather than the pseudo-three-dimensional triangle used in the original recycling logo.
The different resin identification codes can be represented by Unicode icons ♳, ♴, ♵, ♶, ♷, ♸, ♹, and
♺.
Other variants
♾, an infinity sign inside a circle represents the permanent paper symbol, used in packaging
and publishing to signify the use of durable acid-free paper. In some ways, this logo expresses
the opposite intention from the recycle logo, in that the acid-free paper is intended to
last indefinitely, rather than being recycled. Nevertheless, acid-free paper does not usually
contain toxic materials, so it is easily recycled or composted.
A satirical version of the classic recycling logo also exists, in which the three arrows
are twisted from a circular pattern to pointing radially outward, thus symbolizing wasteful
one-time usage rather than environmentally friendly recycling. This message is reinforced
by the circular inscription, "THIS PROJECT WAS ENVIRONMENTALLY UNFRIENDLY", surrounding
the modified logo. The satirical logo appears in the 1998 catalog of an installation art
work in Bayonne, New Jersey, in which the artist Steven Pippin modified a row of glass-doored
washing machines in a laundromat to operate as giant cameras. The cameras were used to
take sequential photographs in the manner of pioneering stop motion photographer Eadweard
Muybridge. The front-loading washing machines were then used to develop and process the
24 inch diameter circular film negatives. For technical reasons, the processing of the
film was very inefficient in its use of photographic chemicals, perhaps prompting the use of the
ironic logo. It is not known whether this particular variant of the recycling logo was
used prior to or subsequently to its appearance in the art catalog.
Notes
See also Green Dot symbol
List of international common standards Recycling codes
Japanese recycling symbols Resin identification code – SPI resin identification
coding system for classifying different recyclable plastics.
References Jones, Penny; Powell, Jerry. "Gary Anderson
has been found!". Resource Recycling: North America's Recycling and Composting Journal,
May 1999. Everson, Michael; Freytag, Asmus. "Background
information on Recycling Symbols", ISO/IEC Working Group Document N2342
44 Recycle Logos and Symbols External links
Media related to Recycling symbols at Wikimedia Commons