Know your plastic products on the symbols

There are no limits to the plastic products you can choose for storage. Big, small, and in between. Tall, flat, round, and square. For food, clothes, toys, shoes, hobby stuff, and much more. But whether you want storage under the bed, in the garden, outhouse or inside the closet, you will probably want to know what you can use the products for. Where are they suitable, and for what. Fortunately, it is easy to find out with the symbols that are embossed on the bottom of the products.

Three Sanshui clip-closed storage boxes in different sizes, two of them are stacked on top of each other and one is placed on the wooden chair, all are used as gardening items storage.

Turn the product upside down before buying

If you are looking at a plastic product for storage, for example, it is a good idea to turn it upside down before you buy. That way, you can make sure that it can be used for what you intend to. It’s a shame to find out that the product, for example, is not to be used in a microwave or dishwasher, if you often need just that.

There is a strong focus on the use of plastic products and on reducing overconsumption in the western world. Therefore, it is important to buy the right product that you can benefit from for a long time to come. The symbols embossed at the bottom can guide you to making the optimal, long-lasting choice.

A list of the most common symbols you will meet

To get a quick confirmation of the product properties and benefits, you will meet some of the symbols below. Here is what they document regarding the product:

  • Food approved – can be used for the content of food products
  • Approved for dishwasher use
  • Approved for use in the freezer
  • Approved for microwave oven use
  • Approved for microwave oven use. Note that the lid must be lifted and/or removed from the bottom of the box when being used in the microwave oven.
  • Not dishwasher proof – must be washed up by hand.
  • Can be used and stored in temperatures from -20 up to +100 degrees
  • Recyclable – can be placed in the “hard plastic” recycle bins
  • Can tolerate up to the kilogram in the symbol, here 52 kg.
  • Illustrates material type and that the product is recyclable and can be placed in the “hard plastic” recycle bins
  • Does not contain any Bisphenol A (BPA) compounds
  • Tolerates up to 60 degrees when washed in a washing machine
  • Cannot be washed in a washing machine.
  • Do not use fabric softener

Food approved

Recyclable

Approved for use in the freezer

Is everything accounted for in the symbols?

Not necessarily. There can be many recommendations regarding the specific use of the product, the things you can store in them, and how to store them, that are not covered by the symbols embossed on the bottom. It is therefore important that you pay attention to the product label of the product.

We strive to cover as much as possible in the symbols, but there are simply not symbols for everything. And in addition, a particular application may be so specific that it does not make sense to develop specific symbols for a very narrow form of use. Visit our “Understand symbols” page and check symbols we use!

The symbols on plastic are constantly changing

Due to changing laws and regulations in the various countries, there may be an ongoing replacement of the symbols that plastic products must be provided with. This does not necessarily mean that new symbols are always added but may just as well mean that symbols are removed from the range from time to time.

The symbol says the product is free of any Bisphenol A compounds.

A good example is the industrial chemical BPA (Bisphenol A), which was previously used for a number of commercial products for food storage. The chemical has now been banned and therefore there are simply no BPA-containing products in our assortment. For the same reason, it no longer makes sense to declare a product BPA-free. Naturally, it is not allowed to advertise avoidance of a substance that is forbidden to use.

Recycling plastic has its own symbols

The circle symbol with the two arrows tells you as a consumer that the plastic product can be easily recycled. With this symbol, we communicate that products are made in pure plastic, which makes it easy to separate and therefore possible to reuse once the product’s lifetime is over. This way, we can help reduce plastic pollution, conserve resources, and thereby eliminate waste.

The circle symbol with the three arrows illustrates how some of our products are made from regrind plastic. It shows the entire process from production, where some plastic material is left behind, after which it will be collected and used for reproduction.

Due to the sorting and regrinding process, the color of the products is black, but the products still come in the same high-quality.

The circle symbol with the four arrows is a post-consumer recycled plastic symbol. With this, we offer a sustainable solution that prevents tons of material from being left behind in nature. Once a product’s lifetime is over, it is collected, sorted, and then shredded, washed, and dried into plastic granulate. Finally, it will be reused in the production of high-quality products.

Get in touch if you want to know more

As a manufacturer, it is our job to make sure that you can make a qualified choice, get the right product, and enjoy this product for many years to come. Of course, we are also committed to society and the environment when it comes to producing sustainably and helping to reduce waste volumes.

Therefore, all our products are labeled so that you can be sure of the use and 100 percent confident that the manufacture, use, and later disposal comply with all applicable guidelines.

Do you have questions about the labeling of our products, the texts on our product labels or the terms we use on our other communication channels? Do not hesitate to contact our customer service who can help you with answers.

Contact us and get more info