Recycle symbol (Mobius loop)
Three folded arrows chasing each other around a triangle. It says an item can be recycled, or, with a percentage in the middle, how much recycled material it contains.
How to read it
According to Recycle Now, the UK recycling campaign run by the charity WRAP, the loop means an object is capable of being recycled. It does not mean every recycling collection will accept the item, or that it has already been recycled. When a percentage is printed in the middle, it gives the share of recycled material in the packaging.
Also searched as: chasing arrows, recycle symbol, recycling symbol.
Look-alikes
From 1988 the plastics industry printed a similar arrowed triangle around the numbered resin codes on plastics. As Aspen Journalism reports, products with a resin code often are not made from recycled material, and whether they can be recycled depends on where they are thrown away.
Differences by country or standard
California restricts the symbol by law. Under Senate Bill 343, a product or package showing the chasing arrows is treated as making a deceptive or misleading claim unless it meets the state’s criteria for recyclability.
More recycling symbols
Sources
- The recycling symbol’s Aspen roots, Andrew Travers, 12 March 2024, Aspen Journalism
- Understanding recycling symbols, Recycle Now (WRAP), via the Internet Archive
- SB-343 Environmental advertising: recycling symbol: recyclability: products and packaging, California Senate Bill 343 (2021), California Legislative Information, Legislative Counsel’s Digest; § 17580.5(f)
Last reviewed September 25, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research