What actually gets recycled (and what does not)

The chasing-arrows symbol on plastic is a resin identification code, not a recycling guarantee. The number tells you what polymer it is — not whether your local facility can process it. In most of Europe and North America, only types 1 (PET) and 2 (HDPE) recycle reliably. Everything else is a coin toss.

The reliable list

• PET (1) — clear drink bottles. Around half of bottles sold are collected globally; only about 9% become new bottles.
• HDPE (2) — milk jugs, shampoo bottles. Collected kerbside almost everywhere and genuinely reprocessed, though mostly into non-bottle uses.
• Aluminium cans — near-infinite loop, recycled at 70%+.
• Clear glass — recycled at 70%+ in countries with deposit systems.

The unreliable list

• PVC (3), LDPE (4), PP (5), PS (6), 'Other' (7) — rarely reprocessed; US data puts recycling of plastics outside PET and HDPE bottles in the low single digits.
• Black plastic — invisible to most optical sorters. Lands in residue.
• Multi-layer pouches (crisps, baby food) — not recyclable anywhere mainstream.
• Anything smaller than a credit card — falls through sorting screens.

The takeaway

Recycling is the last lever, not the first. The hierarchy is refuse → reduce → reuse → recycle, in that order, and the first three do more than the last. If a product is sold in PET or HDPE, that is your best supermarket-shelf bet. If it is in a pouch, treat it as landfill no matter what the label says.