The Recycle Logo & Symbol
The universally recognized recycle logo (or "symbol") was first developed by Gary Anderson as a 23 year old student at the University of Southern California.
This internationally recognized symbol is based on a möbius strip (or band) and is commonly used to identify a product or material which is suitable for recycling.
The recycling symbol is not a trademark, however, unsuccessful attempts have been made to claim the logo as a trademark.
As the recycling logo is not a trademark, it is available for use by anyone. Some restrictions may exists in your local area or country as to how you can use this logo. Examples of this may be on packaging, where licences may be needed to grant your product as an officially recyclable product.
Many different logos exist today, some with; different arrows,
different colors, different sizes, and included symbols.
The original recycle symbol is not to be confused with the recyclable plastics logo, as the plastics logo should adhere to "The Plastic Bottle Material Code System".
In the UK, the recycling symbol may contain a percentage inside of the loop. This is commonly used to identify a recycled product, and what percentage of the product contains recycled materials.
The plain logo is usually found on cardboard based packaging to identify that the packaging is recyclable. The symbol encourages us to participate in the recycling process, and is there to help us identify which products we can recycle.
There are many reasons why we should
recycle old products, and
the more we recycle, the better it is for the environment.
You will find lots of information on the internet regarding the recycling process, what you can do, and how to identify other recyclable products. Plastic has its own variation of the recycling logo, as the recycling of plastics is a sensitive area.
Related Links - External Websites
- Recycling Logo Information - Additional information from Wikipedia on the universally recognized recycling symbol.
- Möbius Strip Information - More information from Wikipedia on the möbius strip design, including geometry and topology information.