<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/18/recycling-universal-symbol-chasing-arrows>
"The triangular loop of arrows that has been the universal symbol of recycling
for the past five decades could itself end up being binned in the US, with Joe
Biden’s administration mulling whether it is misleading to the public.
The “chasing arrows” logo, designed by a college student for the first Earth
Day in 1970, has become ubiquitous on everything from cartons of milk to
shampoo bottles as a way to nudge users to recycle packaging rather than
discard it.
But the widespread use of the symbol on products that are not routinely
accepted for recycling is helping stoke “consumer confusion about what is
recyclable and/or compostable” and is leading to “deceptive or misleading”
claims on packaging, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The EPA said it is regularly bombarded by public queries about what is able to
be recycled, and called for the recycling logo to be ditched from whole classes
of plastics, in official comments lodged with the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC). The FTC is currently updating its rulebook on the sorts of environmental
claims that companies can accurately make about their products.
At issue is the use of the logo along with the “resin number” of different
types of plastics. Resin one and two plastics, such as bottles and jugs, are
the most easily recycled products, but those marked with numbers three to
seven, categories that include plastic bags, styrofoam and plastic trays, are
typically not recycled and are instead sent to landfills or burned.
The placement of the chasing arrows symbol upon these hard-to-recycle
single-use plastics “does not accurately represent recyclability as many
plastics (especially 3-7) do not have end markets, and are not financially
viable to recycle,” the EPA said in its comments."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
