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Some labels show you that an item is made from recycled material or that it can be recycled when you have finished with it. Recycling your waste and buying recycled products helps to preserve resources and save energy.
The On-Pack Recycling Label tells you what different parts of a product are made of and whether you can recycle them.
The label lists three possibilities for recycling:
Recycling facilities means the recycling collection service from your home, recycling banks you find in supermarket car parks or waste and recycling centres.
Recycling schemes are different across the country. To find out what you can recycle in your area, use the postcode locator on the RecycleNow website or contact your local council.
Glass, aluminium and steel can all be recycled where facilities are available. Look out for these labels on your packaging, showing you can recycle an item:
Recyclable glass
Recyclable aluminium
Recyclable steel
There are seven different plastics labels, all made up of a triangle symbol with a number inside from 1 to 7.
The majority of local authorities recycle symbols 1 and 2, which are shown here. You can find out about the other types of plastics (symbols 3 to 7) on WRAP's website.
Polyethylene terepthalate (PET or PETE)
The Mobius Loop shows that a product – or part of it – can be recycled where facilities are available.
Recycling schemes are different across the country, so sometimes you won't be able to recycle a product with the Mobius Loop. RecycleNow or your local council can tell you what to recycle in your area – use the links in the 'On-Pack Recycling Label' paragraph on this page.
A percentage number inside a Mobius Loop tells you a product contains that percentage of recycled material.
Use of the Mobius Loop symbols is voluntary, so you may come across products without the symbol that contain recycled materials.
The National Association of Paper Merchants (NAPM) recycled mark is used on paper and cardboard. It shows that a product contains at least 50 per cent recycled material.
While the Green Dot is sometimes mistaken for a recycling symbol, it is actually a trademark. It doesn’t tell you how to recycle a product or mean a product is better for the environment
It is used by European companies to show they’ve paid into a scheme to recycle their packaging. UK companies also pay towards recycling their packaging, but not using the Green Dot system.
You may see the Green Dot on products that are sold in Europe and have been imported into the UK.
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