Column: What is the ‘Chasing Arrows’ logo, and what does it mean?

“The chasing arrows symbol, which is referred to as the ‘recycling symbol,’ was invented in 1970 by Gary Anderson, a 23-year-old college student who won a design contest sponsored by the Container Corporation of America.

The company asked contestants to come up with a symbol that would represent the paper recycling process. Anderson’s design won and he was awarded around $2,000 for what he said was ‘a day or two of work.’

The original theory or idea behind this new symbol was so consumers would know how much, if any, recycled content was in paper products. The paper industry took the original design and created two additional symbols, which are still in use today.

But the industry wasn’t able to get a patent on the original symbol and therefore it became public domain. The popularity of the design spread quickly and became a national symbol to represent recycling.”

Quote from spmetrowire.com