If you’ve ever looked at the bottom of a plastic item, you may have seen a number surrounded by three arrows around it. Today we take a look into the meaning behind the numbers, and how they actually relate to recycling.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
If you’ve ever looked at the bottom of a plastic product, you’ve probably seen a number surrounded by three arrows. We started to wonder, what do these numbers mean?
We had Emma Mejia and Isha Thakkar from our Possibly team take a closer look.
Emma Mejia: Hey, Megan!
Isha Thakkar: Hi!
Megan Hall: So what’s the deal with the numbers on the bottom of plastic?
Emma Mejia: To get to that answer let’s start with understanding how plastics are made.
Isha Thakkar: We decided to talk to George Huber, a professor of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Emma Mejia: He says plastics are usually made out of one of three main ingredients
George Huber: Oil, natural gas or coal
Megan Hall: How are these things turned into plastic?
Emma Mejia: First, manufacturers break down natural gas and oil into more simple building blocks. Then they’re strung together like beads on a string to form long chains.
Isha Thakkar: These eventually become different kinds of plastic
George Huber: You can think about plastics as a kind of spaghetti. If you take a plate of spaghetti, some of them are stuck together really well uniform. Others are kind of spread out, and that gives you a different structure.
Emma Mejia: The type and structure of that “spaghetti” leads to the kind of plastic you get.
Isha Thakkar: For example, a shampoo bottle is very different from styrofoam!
Megan Hall: So what does that have to do with the number on the bottom of the plastic?
Emma Mejia: The number is part of what’s called the plastic’s resin identification code, which represents the kind of plastic the product is made out of. You can also read the name of the plastic underneath.
Megan Hall: So, it tells us something about the spaghetti?
Isha Thakkar: Exactly.
Megan Hall: What kinds of plastics would fall under these different categories?
Isha Thakkar: Let’s investigate!
Emma Mejia: I have a plastic water bottle, a milk jug, and my credit card
Isha Thakkar: the plastic bottle says. Number one PET.
Emma Mejia: It looks like the milk jug is number two HDPEcard doesn’t have a number on it, but I just looked it up and it is made out of number three PVC.
Megan Hall: What do these numbers mean?
Emma Mejia: Single-use food and drink containers, like peanut butter jars and water bottles usually have a number one on them.
Isha Thakker: More heavy-duty items like milk jugs and detergent bottles typically have a number two on them.
Emma Mejia: Number three plastics are used for things like plumbing pipes and medical equipment like IV bags.
Megan Hall: Interesting. So do all the numbers get recycled the same way?
Isha Thakkar: No. Type ones and twos are the easiest to recycle, while the plastics in the other categories aren’t always accepted at recycling centers.
Emma Mejia: This means they may be sent straight to a landfill.
Megan: Wait a minute? Those plastics aren’t recyclable?
Emma: In many cases, no.
Megan Hall: Why not?
Emma Mejia: Recycling these plastics comes with different challenges.
Emma Mejia: For example, Number 3 plastics, which are PVC, contain toxic materials that are released during the recycling process, making recycling difficult.”
Megan Hall: So, why do all of my plastics have that recycling symbol on them? You know, the one with the three arrows in a triangle?
Emma Mejia: That’s actually called the chasing arrow symbol and believe it or not, it doesn’t really mean anything. It’s just part of the process for labeling each type of plastic.
Megan Hall: That’s really confusing.
Isha Thakkar: It is. In fact, California recently passed a law to outlaw using the “chasing arrow” symbol on any plastics that can’t really be recycled.
Megan Hall: So, what’s the take-away here?
Emma Mejia: It’s not the chasing arrows symbol, but the number on your plastics that really matters.
Isha Thakkar: And unless you see a 1 or a 2, plastics might not be recyclable.
Emma Mejia: To remember this, many states suggest a rule of thumb that only hard plastic containers can be recycled. So that’s bottles, jugs, and tubs! But you can check your state’s guidelines to be sure.
Megan Hall: Got it. Thanks Emma and Isha.
That’s it for today. You can find more information, or ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, at askpossibly.org. You can also subscribe to Possibly wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or X at “askpossibly”
Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.
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