The Origin of the Recycling Symbol

Because the recycling symbol is so familiar and ubiquitous, we tend to take it for granted, but did you ever wonder where it came from? Here's the story behind the recycling symbol.

In April 1970, the very first Earth Day was held. Also that spring, Container Corporation of America (CCA), a paperboard company, sponsored a contest for environmentally concerned art and design students across the country to create a design that would symbolize the recycling process. CCA would use the new recycling symbol to identify packages made from recycled and recyclable fibers, and to call attention to paper recycling as an effective way to stretch our natural resources.

More than 500 students submitted entries, and the first place winner was Gary Dean Anderson, a graduate student at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Click here to read the complete story of how
Gary Anderson created the recycling symbol.

For more information, visit these websites:
Gary Anderson has been found! [reprinted from Resource Recycling, May 1999]
AF&PA's Paper Recycling Symbol Guidelines
Background information on recycling symbols [ISO Working Group Document]

Recycled Paper Beads

In Victorian times, women in England gathered in dining rooms to make beads by rolling scraps of wallpaper on knitting needles. They would then string the beads on long pieces of yarn to create curtains that separated rooms. Your class can make these beads from recycled scrap paper, and string them together to make jewelry!

What you'll need:

• scraps of wallpaper, magazine pictures, used wrapping paper, colored paper, etc.
• pencil, ruler, and scissors
• paste
• drinking straws
• thread or yarn

Before you begin, gather all of your supplies together and put them on your work surface. Read all of the directions from start to finish. Now you are ready to begin.

1. With your scissors, cut long triangles from your paper scraps that are about 1/2-inch wide and 2 1/2-inches long. Make a template to trace, if you wish.
2. Cover one side of a triangle with paste. Put the paste on the inside of the paper so that the colorful pattern will be on the outside of your bead.
3. Place the triangle's glued short side on a drinking straw.
4. Wrap the paper completely around itself on the straw.
5. Cut away the straw at both ends of the rolled paper.
6. To make beads with different shapes, vary the size and shape of the paper triangles that you cut.
7. Let your beads dry, and then string them together on your thread or yarn. Knot the ends of the thread together.

Adapted from Papercrafts Around the World, by Phyllis and Noel Fiarotta
(Sterlilng Publishing Co., Inc., New York)

Step 1 Step 3
Step 5 Step 6

For even more arts and crafts using paper,
be sure to check Paper U's Art Class

Celebrate America Recycles Day on November 15th

Mark your calendars for November 15th! America Recycles Day is an opportunity for all of us to renew our commitment to recycling and waste reduction. This annual event promotes the social, environmental, and economic benefits of recycling and buying recycled. Last year's observance counted 3.3 million participants nationwide in all 50 states and territories. There were nearly 16,000 online recycling pledges, and grocery stores distributed more than 4.2 million America Recycles Day grocery bags.

In celebration of America Recycles Day (according to the America Recycles Day web site), "everyone is invited to pledge to recycle and buy recycled more, or support an America Recycles Day recycling event on, or leading up to November 15." Prize packages will be awarded, and you can enter online. Visit the official America Recycles Day web site at www.americarecyclesday.org to learn more.

• Each American generates more that four pounds of trash a day. A lot of this paper could be recycled instead of being thrown away. Paper companies are doing their part to help make recycling happen, and they are asking Americans to recycle more of their old paper.
  
• Americans recover almost 270 million pounds of paper every day.
  
• More paper is recovered in America than is sent to landfills.
  
• Paper collected for recycling must be kept free of food, plastic, glass, and other materials that could otherwise make the paper unusable.
  

Answer: The discoloration of newsprint occurs because of a natural wood chemical called lignin that is present in wood. Lignin is the natural "glue" that holds wood fibers together.

Pulp used to make newsprint is mostly made using a process called mechanical pulping, in which wood chips are ground to separate the wood into individual fibers. Lignin remains in the pulp, and after even a very short exposure to light, the chemical color bodies contained in the lignin begin to discolor, thus causing the newsprint to yellow.

Other types of paper, such photocopy paper, are made using a different type of pulping that actually removes lignin from the wood, so these papers are not as prone to discoloration. This process would not be best for making newsprint, though, because the paper made from this process is more expensive and does not have the ink absorption properties needed for the high-speed printing presses used to get the news out each day.

• You can get a free recycling poster from Paper University, just by asking! Visit us at www.tappi.org/paperu, and click on the University Bookstore. Or call us at 1-866-201-1012.
  
  
• Weyerhaeuser, one of the country's largest producers of paper and other forest products, and a leading recycler, has a downloadable Power Point presentation that details the paper recycling process. www.weyerhaeuser.com/ourproducts/pulppaperpckging/recycling/education/productionprocess.asp
  
  
• The American Forest & Paper Association 's web site for kids is full of facts about paper recycling. You can also read about how your students can participate in the Earth Day Groceries Project. www.afandpa.org/kids_educators/index.html
  
  
• Keep America Beautiful offers educational resources for teachers and students that provide a balanced perspective of waste and waste management options. Their site also includes tips for how kids can help keep America beautiful, and a list of local KAB affiliates so you can keep abreast with what's happening in your community. www.kab.org