Dispose of Plastic - What the Symbols Mean

Although we all have to dispose of household waste, and we are all mostly aware of plastic recycling, if you do recycle your plastics, you may have a vague awareness that there are different types of plastic and that they should be treated in different ways. You might even know that you can tell something about a plastic container by the code that’s somewhere on it. I always really struggle to find these symbols, and even when I do find them, to actually read them.

These symbols indicate the type of plastic resin that the item has been made from and come from The Resin Coding System, introduced in 1988 by the American Society of Plastics Industry. They are a variant on the ‘mobius loop’ (the three arrows encircling the number). So these numbers do not necessarily mean that the plastic is recyclable; whether or not it is depends on your local recycling facilities.

There are seven numbers and some will show you that the plastics you are using are healthier or more environmentally friendly than others.

1: This is polyethylene terephtalate, also known as PETE or PET. Most disposable soda and water bottles are made of clear PET, and it’s usually considered safe. However, it does have a porous surface that allows bacteria and flavours to pass through the plastic – do not keep re-using these bottles without rigorous cleaning, and watch out for where they are stored. These are mostly happily picked up or dealt with by your council.

2: High density polyethylene, or HDPE. This is what milk containers, washing-up liquid bottles, juice containers, butter and mararines tubs and toiletry bottles are made from. Again, your local council will normally collect these. This plastic is considered safe and has low risk of leaching.

3: Polyvinyl chloride, or PVC – makes up food wrappers, cooking oil bottles, plumbing pipes, and clothese for some of the more exotic among us. It is a very tough but not considered safe – it contains phthalates, which can be associated with interference with hormonal development. Some consider that even if the food wrap is indicated microwave-safe, you should still avoid letting it touch your food.

4: Low density polyethylene (LDPE). Grocery bags, some food wrap, squeezy bottles, and bread bags – this is considered to be a safe plastic – but unfortunately a lot of councils do not have the means to re-cycle LDPE.

5: Polypropylene – can be used to make yoghurt containers, and other wide-necked food containers, as well as cloudy plastic water containers, medicine bottles, ketchup bottles, and straws. This is felt to be safe, and can normally be recycled by your council.

6: Polystyrene, or Styrofoam, is difficult to recycle and there is some evidence that it can leach potentially toxic chemicals. It’s used to make disposable containers and packaging. from which disposable containers, plates, cups and packaging are made.

7: “”Anything else.” Includes plastics invented after 1987, and polycarbonate, including BPA, iPods, computer cases, some baby bottles and stain-resistant food containers. It is difficult to recycle and most curbside recycling programs won’t accept it. Better not to use this stuff for food and drink – you do not really know what might be in it.

If in doubt, and wanting to get rid of large quantities of plastic, among other items, that you know are not recyclable by your council, do phone our skip hire company or email SkipsForYou to ask their advice. If you are ordering a skip, you can ask the sales team any question about recycling and they will do their best to answer and also to let you know what will happen to the waste that can’t be recycled.

Waste Management Concepts

SkipsForYou are very familiar with some of the legislation and regulation behind waste-management and skip hire. We thought it might be useful to discuss some of the more common waste management terms, although these can vary world-wide and may have different ethical, political and social implications from country to country.

Here, SkipsForYou talks briefly about the Waste Hierarchy, Polluter Pays Principle and Extended Producer Responsiblity.

Waste hierarchy - The waste hierarchy refers to the "3 Rs," otherwise known (especially to Bob The Builder afficionados) as 'Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.'

This classifies waste management strategies in a hierarchy of desirability. It's best to reduce rubbish, after that, it's desirable to re-use items that might otherwise be thrown away, and following those two, then recycling also helps, in terms of processing waste in some way so it's either regenerated, or gets converted to some other item which is useful. For example by taking bottles to the bottle bank, they will then be melted down and re-used as glass, whereas recycled plastic packaging does not tend to be made into more of the same sort of plastic packaging.
According to www.britglass.co.uk, glass can be recycled over and over without any reduction in quality or appearance, and since the UK has more than 50,000 bottle banks, this is being done quite sucessfully.
The waste hierarchy is the foundation of most waste minimization strategies, focussing on extracting the most benefits from products, and creating the minimum amount of waste.


The Polluter Pays Principle aims to make people focus on the amount of waste they are creating, by making them pay for appropriate disposal of the waste. There are obviously pros and cons with this approach, such as the fact that while our economy might be dependent on small businesses being able to operate, this sort of a system is going to be far more punitive for small companies than for large industries who can easily afford waste levies, and in fact even afford fines for incorrect waste disposal.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)is a system where producers take responsibility for their products throughout the life cycle, including end-of-life disposal costs. This means that firms which manufacture, import and/or sell products are required to be responsible for the products after their useful life as well as during manufacture. This is taking away the costs associated with disposal from governments and tax-payers, upstream to the manufacturers.