Universal resin types?

[emsees]

Greetings, 

   One thing that I've noticed is a potential problem that could probably be easily improved with a simple change is the application of some sort of international agreement or rule on resin type labeling. 

As but one example is this tray I keep getting in products from Korea. The resin type seems to be in what I think is Hangul characters, and I would think most people outside of Korea don't know whether this is recyclable or not in their local collections and I'm not sure how the local MRFs would handle this if there's a question.

--

MS

[Nancy Poh]

According to Wikimedia that is the recycling symbol used in Republic of Korea.  There are Korean character at this link for recycling that you can match to the one on your packaging.  See extracted: 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ROK_recycling_symbol.svg 

May be completed with inscriptions (Latin, Hangeul or Hanja), e.g.

• 2 (or other numbers)
• PP
• PET
• HDPE
• LDPE
• 페트 ("PET")
• 플라스틱 ("plastic")
• 비닐(류) ("Vinyl")
• 유리 ("yuri": glass)
• 종이 ("jong-i": paper)
• 종이팩 ("jong-i paek": paper pack)
• 캔(류) ("can" [=tin])
• ... 

You can also compare the characters shared in this article:

One Thing You Need To Keep In Mind When Recycling in Korea

https://uofhorang.com/one-thing-you-need-to-keep-in-mind-when-recycling-in-korea/#google_vignette 

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GreenYes" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to greenyes+u...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/greenyes/CAL6pS7SqnDAp8fUSk%3DEkuP%3DCDNFjoz1BfEzT7r2VQveBT4piVA%40mail.gmail.com.

[emsees]

Thanks, but I think you missed my point. 

It doesn't matter if you can look this stuff up. 

People won't do that.  

Even if they do or can take the time to look this stuff up, they still might not be sure, like, this symbol on this package is hard to read.. based on what you sent I think this *might* be PET, but I can't be sure because the imprint isn't that great. 

If millions of these and other containers are being shipped around the world, outside of countries where most people can read them, then people in those countries need to be able to EASILY read them.

People are not going to go on the web to research the symbols every time they get a container they don't recognize. 

a

If they're going to continue to produce and use this and other plastic packaging then there needs to be some sort of international agreement or standard practice to put resin types on these products that are easy to interpret by everybody in every country, and that is seemingly Arabic Numerals.