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Monday 9 September 2013

Symbols On Packaging. Do You Know What They Mean?

I was looking at different packaging from products on my bathroom shelf and noticed that they are covered in symbols. A symbol is defined as: Something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention. The main point I'm looking to make in this blog post is that for some of these common symbols, I wasn't actually sure what they represented. Therefore, after spending some time researching them I have created this guide which offers some interesting revelations about what these symbols mean.


Product Durability
Often found on cosmetic products, this tells you the number of months of recommended use once the product has been opened. Once you realise this then the rest is pretty self-explanatory with the 'M' representing months next to the number of'. The interesting thing about this is that cosmetics do not require a sell by date if their shelf life is more than 30 months, they have this instead.



The Green Dot
You would be correct to think this denotes recycling, but what aspect of it? This symbol does not necessarily mean the packaging can be recycled but is actually an indicator that the producer has made a contribution towards the recycling of the packaging. 

How do they make this contribution? Put simply - they pay for the right to use the symbol and this payment is used to fund the cost of recovery and recycling - for example household waste collection or containers outside supermarkets. The more packaging they use that's not recyclable - the more they have to pay. Thus promoting the use of more recyclable materials in their packaging in order to save money. Pretty clever.


Estimated sign
You will usually find this next to a measure of weight or volume and it means that the amount specified is not exact. Interestingly, the average quantity (per batch) cannot be under the amount per product, only over.

CE Marking
If you bought the product in Europe it will most likely bare this symbol. The (curved) CE stands for Conformité Européenne, meaning "European Conformity" and  is required for many products. It states that the product is assessed before being placed on the market and meets EU safety, health and environmental protection requirements.

How many did you know?

Sources:
http://www.thinknoodle.com/period-after-opening-pao-symbolhttp://www.recyclenow.com/why_recycling_matters/recycling_symbols.htmlhttp://s3.media.squarespace.com/production/320009/7391668/blog/images/2008/09/17/estimated_5658.png
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/symbol
http://checkcosmetic.net/
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/single-market-goods/cemarking/index_en.htm
http://www.gmkfreelogos.com/logos/G/img/green_dot_sign.gif

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