Resin identification code

"♹" redirects here; not to be confused with Recycling symbol.

Resin Identification Code
Standard Practice for Coding Plastic Manufactured Articles for Resin Identification
The symbol "01 PET" indicating polyethylene terephthalate, commonly used in plastic water and soda bottles.
Year started	1988
Latest version	ASTM D7611/D7611M-26 24 July 2026
Organization	Society of the Plastics Industry (1988–2008) ASTM International (since 2008)
Website	D7611/D7611M-26

A resin identification code (RIC) is a symbol embedded on plastic products, used to sort plastic waste for recycling. They consist of a triangle with a number inside indicating the product's resin content. 01 for PET, 02 for HDPE, 03 for PVC, 04 for LDPE, 05 for polypropylene, 06 for polystyrene, or 07 for other.

These symbols were originally created in 1988 by the Plastics Industry Association in the United States, amid growing concerns about plastic pollution. Since 2008, they are administrated by the ASTM and comprise the technical standard D7611/D7611M-26 "Standard Practice for Coding Plastic Manufactured Articles for Resin Identification". The European Commission Decision 97/129/EC "Identification System For Packaging Materials" extends this system with recycling codes for other materials like batteries, paper, and glass.

Despite their similarity to the recycling symbol, resin codes do not indicate whether a product is recyclable. They are frequently misinterpreted by consumers, and contribute to wishcycling (the contamination of recycling bins with unrecyclable goods). At the US Environmental Protection Agency's recommendation, a 2013 revision to the ASTM standard replaced the "chasing arrows" with a solid equilateral triangle, but the old symbols are still widely used among manufacturers.

History

A plastic tray made from recycled polyethylene terephthalate, bearing the resin identification code 1 on its base

The Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) first introduced the system in 1988 as the "Voluntary Plastic Container Coding System". The SPI stated that one purpose of the original SPI code was to "Provide a consistent national system to facilitate recycling of post-consumer plastics." The system has been adopted by a growing number of communities implementing recycling programs, as a tool to assist in sorting plastics. In order to deal with the concerns of recyclers across the U.S., the RIC system was designed to make it easier for workers in materials recovery and recycling facilities to sort and separate items according to their resin type. Plastics must be recycled separately, with other like materials, in order to preserve the value of the recycled material, and enable its reuse in other products after being recycled.

When a number is omitted, the arrows arranged in a triangle resemble the universal recycling symbol, a generic indicator of recyclability. Subsequent revisions to the RIC have replaced the arrows with a solid triangle, in order to address consumer confusion about the meaning of the RIC, and the fact that the presence of a RIC symbol on an item does not necessarily indicate that it is recyclable any more than its absence means the plastic object is necessarily unrecyclable.

In 2008, ASTM International took over the administration of the RIC system and issued ASTM D7611—Standard Practice for Coding Plastic Manufactured Articles for Resin Identification. In 2013, this standard was revised to change the graphic marking symbol of the RIC from the "chasing arrows" of the Recycling Symbol to a solid triangle instead.

Possible new codes

Modifications to the RIC are being discussed and developed by ASTM's D20.95 subcommittee on recycled plastics.

In the U.S. the Sustainable Packaging Coalition has also created a "How2Recycle" label in an effort to replace the RIC with a label that aligns more closely with how the public uses the RIC. Rather than indicating what type of plastic resin a product is made out of, the four "How2Recycle" labels indicate whether a plastic product is

• Widely Recycled (meaning greater than 60 percent of the U.S. can recycle the item through a curbside recycling program or municipal drop-off location).
• Limited (meaning only 20–60 percent of the U.S. can recycle the item through a curbside recycling program or municipal drop-off location).
• Not Yet Recycled (meaning less than 20 percent of the U.S. can recycle the item through a curbside recycling program or municipal drop-off location).
• Store Drop-Off (meaning the item can be recycled if brought to participating store drop-off locations, typically at grocery stores).

The "How2Recycle" labels also encourage consumers to check with local facilities to see what plastics each municipal recycling facility can accept.

Unicode

The different resin identification codes are part of the Unicode block called Miscellaneous Symbols and have the following codes: ♳ (U+2673), ♴ (U+2674), ♵ (U+2675), ♶ (U+2676), ♷ (U+2677), ♸ (U+2678), and ♹ (U+2679). ♺ (U+267A).

Criticism

In the United States, use of the RIC in the coding of plastics has led to consumer confusion about which plastic products are accepted for recycling. When many plastics recycling programs were first being implemented in communities across the United States, only plastics with RICs "1" and "2" (polyethylene terephthalate and high-density polyethylene, respectively) were accepted. The list of acceptable plastic items has grown since then. Some communities also instruct residents to consider the form of packaging (i.e. "bottles", "tubs", "lids", etc.) when determining what to include in a curbside recycling bin, rather than relying on the RIC. To further alleviate consumer confusion, the American Chemistry Council launched the "Recycling Terms & Tools" program to promote standardized language that can be used to educate consumers about how to recycle plastic products.

However, although it can be technically possible to recycle a particular type of plastic, it is often not economically feasible to do so, and that can mislead consumers into thinking that more plastic is recycled than really is. In the U.S. in 2018, only 8.5% of plastic waste was recycled.

See also

• List of symbols
• Recycling codes
• Plastic recycling
• Thermoplastic—softens with heat
• Thermosetting polymer—does not soften with heat

External links

• Official website
• Official website (SPI) at the Wayback Machine (archived 2002-04-21)