Green dot and recyclability: A logo’s challenge.

How many times did you see this logo on a packaging and how many times did you find yourself asking: what does it mean? Is it recyclable? Is it recycled? I mean, where do I have to put it?

DiCOmo, always environmental-oriented, wants to support you to go through packaging’s logos and to help you to know better this area in order to preserve our planet.

irst of all, this symbol indicates only the institution that is in charge of collection and disposal of the packaging but doesn’t specify if the material is recycled or recyclable and for this reason France decided to get rid of this logo as it has caused a lot of waste management issues.
So what do I have to do if I find this logo on a packaging? Do I have to recycle it or not? It all depends on the type of material and the dispositions of your municipality. The green dot logo is printed by companies that have joined this association (PRO Europe) but does not give any indication on the final destination of the product.

How can we understand if a product can be recycled and where? Which logos do we have to look up?

DiCOmo comes to the aid and provides you a list of the most common logs to get you out of the maze of recycling:

This symbol indicates that the material is recyclable and it could consist of recycled material. It is mainly found on paper, cardboard e cellulose packaging. It can be discarded in paper recycling

This symbol can be found on plastic packages and is the “recycling” logo. It can indicate that the material is both recyclable and formed by recycled material. Inside this triangle, you could find numbers (from 1 to 6) that specify the type of plastic, so it can be discarded in plastic recycling.
Careful if you find number 7 as it means it is not recyclable!

Those logos are applied to paper, cardboard and cellulose packaging and certifies that the raw material, from which they are made, come from sustainably managed forests, recycled and from controlled sources. In this case, this logo is a “plus” that many companies decide to adopt to help saving the planet. This packaging must be disposed in paper recycling.

Last but not least, in this hexagon you will find the material from which liquid containers are made and it is always comes along with some letters. The most common are: PET, PE, PP, PS and PVC indicating different types of plastic and to be discarded in separate collection. If you read PI, this means that the container is made of polylaminate material, of different types and inseparable, e.g. wax paper and are mostly not recyclable. Inside you can also find symbols such as AL (aluminium), ACC (steel, e.g. spray paint), VE (glass) and CA, which means pasteboard, and it can be discarded in paper recycling.

With this small list of the most common logos that can be found on the popularly purchased products’ packaging, we hope to have given you a help in understanding the correct differentiation of waste products and, at the purchase stage, to buy products with a lower environmental impact and easy to insert into the recycling and/or recovery chain.