Recycling symbols (New Zealand)

FOR A DETAILED EXPLANATION OF THE ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT AND PRESENT UNDERSTANDING OF THE VARIOUS RECYCLING SYMBOLS UTILIZED IN THE UNITED STATES GO TO: http://www.earthodyssey.com/symbols.html.

New Zealand has developed an outstanding and comprehensive system of symbols to identify all waste products, both recyclable and non-recyclable, with the intent of motivating and facilitating their citizens to recycle as much material as possible. In New Zealand, it is important to identify materials that can't be recycled as well as those that can with the ultimate goal of separating materials for collection. The recycling trade organization RONZ developed the symbols with the support of the New Zealand Ministry for the Environment. The primary purpose of the symbols is to identify the bins, containers and collection facilities that are used to accumulate recyclable materials of a given type, as identified by the symbol. In contrast, New Zealand has also developed a style guide consisting of a standard system of colors, font sizes, and graphic sizes that must be followed for use of the published symbols and for the eventual implementation of new symbols as they may be proposed.

While a formal system of identifying recyclable materials initiated with plastic resin identification in the United States, from that point various manufacturer's associations, trade groups, and companies modified the symbols or utilized different symbols that diverged away from the original three-chasing-arrow mobius triangle. Therefore, at least in the United States, the consumer is presented with a varying array of recycling symbols depending on the product and raw material. In contrast, New Zealand has promulgated a unified system that allows standardized deviations from the basic recycling symbol. The plastic resin identification codes (1-7) have been incorporated within that system to identify particular plastics, demonstrating the wide support of the resin codes by the New Zealand recycling industry.

The basic symbol images can be presented in portrait or landscape orientation as well as in variations that reverse foreground and background colors, as shown below.



Please note: The graphics provided below are not necessarily an identical match with the official (and precisely detailed) style guide for the symbols, particularly with regard to color.