You will no doubt have seen recycling symbols on many of the products you buy on a day-to-day basis, although you may or may not know what all the different ones mean. There is a wide range of recycling symbols in the UK alone, in addition to the many which can be found on products from other countries.
Recycling symbols are usually there for one of a number of reasons. It may be that the symbol on a product denotes that it or its packaging is made partially or totally from recycled materials. Alternatively the recycling symbols may provide more information on the materials within the product and whether they can be recycled. In addition, some symbols are simply there to encourage the recycling of the product once used. For example, glass bottles sometimes show an image denoting a person placing a bottle into a container. This particular symbol is encouraging us to place the used bottle into a bottle bank.
Other recycling symbols include the commonly seen triangles on plastic bottles which have a variety of letters and numbers inside and below them. These show the type of plastic the product is made from in order to assist in the correct recycling of the product.
Unfortunately with so many recycling symbols it can often be difficult to remember which is which. To assist you in deciphering them, below are some links to pages of the Recycle More website showing many of the recycling symbols you will see everyday.
Material Specific Labels
General Labels
International Labels
For further information on Recycling click on the links below
