Recycling Information
Plastics Coding System
The Plastics Coding System is a series of symbols that identify the most common plastic material used in the manufacture of a product or packaging. The symbols are usually embossed on the bottom of plastic containers and bottles. Their purpose is to assist collectors with sorting the collected plastics by material type. They do not necessarily indicate that the product can be recycled or is made from recycled content.
Each symbol in the Plastics Coding System consists of a number from 1 to 7 inside a chasing arrows triangle. The letters underneath the symbols are optional.
| Plastics Coding System | |
|---|---|
| Number | Plastic Material |
| 1 | Polyethylene Terephalate (PET) |
| 2 | High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) |
| 3 | Unplasticised Polyvinyl Chloride (UPVC) or Plasticised polyvinyl chloride (PPVC) |
| 4 | Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) |
| 5 | Polypropylene (PP) |
| 6 | Polystyrene (PS) or Expandable Polystyrene (EPS) |
| 7 | Other, including Nylon and Acrylic |
The Mobius Loop: Widely Used and Often Misunderstood
Product Made from Recycled Material Symbol
This Mobius Loop means that the product is made from recycled material. Without a qualifying statement, the symbol will be interpreted to mean that the product is made from 100 percent post-consumer waste. The symbol may also appear with the percentage of recycled content, as long as this figure refers to the entire item.
Recyclable Product Symbol
This Mobius Loop means that the product is recyclable. Without a qualifying statement, the symbol means that the entire product is recyclable and that more than one-third of the population in the area where it is distributed has convenient access to collection and drop-off facilities. If the product does not meet this 33 percent requirement, no claim should be made.
Recycling Terms
- Recycled content
- Refers to the proportion by weight of an item that consists of recycled materials.
- Post-consumer content
- Materials or items generated by households, commercial and institutional facilities, which can no longer be used for their intended purpose.
- Pre-consumer content
- Material left over from a manufacturing process that is not capable of being used or reused within the same plant.
- Reusable
- An item which can be reused for the same or different purpose in its original form, and without processing except for specific requirements such as cleaning and washing.
