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She's not confused, the RIC literally is the recycling symbol by any useful definition of the word "symbol". The plastic industry intentionally adopted it in or

She's not confused, the RIC literally is the recycling symbol by any useful definition of the word "symbol". The plastic industry intentionally adopted it in order to lie to their customers. Another example of a symbol is a stop sign. When you see a stop sign with a slightly different color or font than you're used to, you (correctly) think "that's a stop sign, I should slow to a stop before proceeding". You don't think "that orange octagon that says STOP isn't the exact vector image that I saw in the textbook, so it could mean anything and I will just ignore it". It's like if I bought fat-free milk that actually had fat in it, and the company said "oh you must have been confused, Fat-Free™ is our line of products for those who feel liberated to consume as much fat as they want".

sokoloff 4y ago
It is a recycling symbol for sure. It doesn’t mean “so put this in your blue bin” because your blue bin processing is probably not set up to separate all the different resins.
- burkaman 4y ago
  I know, but I'm saying it does mean that. The plastic manufacturer is attempting to communicate "you can put this in the blue bin". You are understanding the message correctly, and it's not your fault that the message is a lie.
  - sokoloff 4y ago
    The plastics manufacturer can’t possibly control or even know the details of your local waste management system. They’re telling you what the item is made of. Whether your specific municipality has invested enough to recycle that material is not knowable to them.
    - disqard 4y ago
      You are correct. That RIC is a good way to know whether your local waste management system can accept the item. GP is also correct, in that this RIC could have been a number surrounded by (say) a circle, a square, or a pentagon -- but instead, the manufacturers of plastic deliberately chose a triangle, *because it looks very much like the official "this is recyclable" symbol* as a calculated tactic to rely on people being misled by this similarity. If most people understood how little of their plastic is actually recyclable, they might re-examine what they buy, and how often.
TeMPOraL 4y ago
I'm surprised municipal recycling programs, or national governments themselves, don't try to at least educate people about this. Where I live, the dumpster area usually has at least one information board or sticker describing what the colors of the bins mean, and what goes into which. It shouldn't be hard to also include an explanation like "Pay attention: ♲ - this is a recycling symbol; ♳ - this is a resin identification code".

sokoloff 4y ago

It is a recycling symbol for sure. It doesn’t mean “so put this in your blue bin” because your blue bin processing is probably not set up to separate all the different resins.

burkaman 4y ago
I know, but I'm saying it does mean that. The plastic manufacturer is attempting to communicate "you can put this in the blue bin". You are understanding the message correctly, and it's not your fault that the message is a lie.
- sokoloff 4y ago
  The plastics manufacturer can’t possibly control or even know the details of your local waste management system. They’re telling you what the item is made of. Whether your specific municipality has invested enough to recycle that material is not knowable to them.
  - disqard 4y ago
    You are correct. That RIC is a good way to know whether your local waste management system can accept the item. GP is also correct, in that this RIC could have been a number surrounded by (say) a circle, a square, or a pentagon -- but instead, the manufacturers of plastic deliberately chose a triangle, *because it looks very much like the official "this is recyclable" symbol* as a calculated tactic to rely on people being misled by this similarity. If most people understood how little of their plastic is actually recyclable, they might re-examine what they buy, and how often.

TeMPOraL 4y ago

I'm surprised municipal recycling programs, or national governments themselves, don't try to at least educate people about this. Where I live, the dumpster area usually has at least one information board or sticker describing what the colors of the bins mean, and what goes into which. It shouldn't be hard to also include an explanation like "Pay attention: ♲ - this is a recycling symbol; ♳ - this is a resin identification code".