What Plastic Numbers on Packaging Mean
Launch library · evergreen read
The small numbered triangle stamped on plastic packaging identifies the resin type used to make the item, a system originally developed to help sorting facilities and manufacturers identify material quickly, rather than to tell a household whether the item belongs in the recycling bin. That distinction trips people up more than almost any other recycling symbol.
Some resin codes, particularly for bottles and rigid containers, are widely accepted in kerbside recycling because established markets exist to reprocess them profitably. Others appear on the same style of triangle but are rarely collected in practice, simply because no viable market exists to turn that particular resin back into something useful at scale.
Because acceptance varies so much between areas and even between collection contracts within the same city, the number alone is not a reliable guide to what actually gets recycled. Checking local council guidance for accepted plastics remains a better approach than assuming every triangle symbol means the same thing everywhere it appears.