![recycle sign recycle sign](https://www.clipartguide.com/_small/0808-0711-0714-5556.jpg)
But recycling cannot be built on faith alone. People want to recycle and they want to believe that recycling works. Let’s be honest about plastics recycling. We need a better system, and it starts with removing the chasing arrows from the resin identification codes on all plastics. We can’t rebuild the trust in recycling by saying to the 330 million people in the U.S., “Hey, sorry, but you were wrong and you misunderstood what that symbol meant.” Trust comes from taking ownership and addressing the problem head on.Įven the American Chemistry Council admits that the label is confusing, stating that “ new and better ways to identify what packaging and products are recyclable have begun to shift focus away from the little symbol.” Agreed, then. The plastics industry fully knows that citizens think that symbol means that the product is recyclable, and that widespread public perception is all that matters. The ASTM website, the leading association for all sorts of industry standards, states clearly that the symbols are not “recycle codes” and that the symbol does not “imply that an article is recycled.” Yet whether or not the symbol legally means anything about recycling is irrelevant. What the symbol implies does more harm than good. As long as we are mislabeling all plastics as recyclable, the shroud of cynicism around the entire recycling system will persist and continue to be a headwind for the recycling industry. In truth, there are very few plastic products that are fully recyclable today, but the chasing arrows symbol on nearly every plastic product in distribution would have the public believe otherwise.
Recycle sign code#
Yet recycling cannot work effectively if people don’t trust it, and right now they see the chasing arrows symbol with the resin identification code (RIC) and ask, “Why can’t it be recycled-it has the symbol on there?” As recyclers, we have spent years explaining that there is a difference between what can be recycled in theory and what is actually recyclable today in practice. Recycling can and does work for some plastics, and it is an important part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce fossil fuel consumption. Recycling, including plastics recycling when done right, saves energy, reduces carbon emissions, and reduces air and water pollution, all of which helps protect public health. This new mistrust is downright dangerous to the progress we’ve worked hard to make -people are getting fed up with plastics, some to the point of abandoning all recycling all together. It was one thing when plastics recycling was just confusing. “Is it even worth it? Is recycling plastics actually enabling plastic pollution?” Prominent headlines challenging or disparaging the legitimacy of plastics recycling are eliciting concern, sometimes fury, even from some of our closest partners: “Are they actually being recycled? C’mon, tell me really,” they ask. Our organization has fielded more calls and emails in the past year about the validity of plastics recycling than we have for decades. But in the past two years, the tone of the comments has markedly shifted. We’ve all heard these complaints from the public about plastics recycling for years.