Recycling Symbols: What They Actually Mean
At All About Waste, our waste audits reveal a major operational challenge in commercial facilities: "Wishcycling" based on the chasing arrows symbol. Many tenants and employees assume that if a plastic item features a recycling triangle, it can automatically be tossed into the single-stream bin.
However, the presence of a recycling symbol only identifies the plastic's resin code (what type of plastic it is)—it does not mean your local Material Recovery Facility (MRF) has the specialized equipment, buyer market, or capability to process that specific resin type. Toss unaccepted plastics into the bin, and entire loads risk getting rejected as contaminated.
Below, we’re sharing a visual breakdown from Carbon Fusion that illustrates the main polymer categories (PET, HDPE, PP, LDPE, and Multi-Layer).
Knowing Your Local Acceptance Rules
Resin Numbers Over Symbols: Train your team and tenants to look at the Resin Identification Number (1 through 7) inside the triangle rather than relying on the symbol itself. While #1 (PET) and #2 (HDPE) are almost universally accepted, items like #4 (LDPE film) or #7 (other/mixed) are frequently rejected by local commercial processors.
Facility-Specific Rules Win: It isn't always that certain plastics can't physically be recycled, but rather that your contracted waste hauler or local MRF doesn't accept them. Commercial waste programs must be built around the exact acceptance list of your local facilities, not general assumptions.
Preventing Contamination Penalties: When unaccepted resins are mixed into commercial recycling streams, haulers often issue contamination fines or downgrade the entire load to municipal solid waste. Setting up clear, resin-aware sorting signage at your loading docks is the easiest way to safeguard your diversion metric