History of Recycling

There really isn't very much history to recycling in Delaware, but recycling in general has an extremely interesting history. You might find yourself wondering how the idea of recycling came about, and not knowing the answer. Perhaps you were pondering where the recycling symbol comes from, and again now knowing the answer. Not very many people care about recycling today, much less do they know the history of how it all started. So here we go, time to inform!

First, lets learn a bit about the history of the recycling symbol. The origins of the three arrows of recycling are rooted in the very first Earth Day in April 1970. At this time in American history, there was a growing awareness of environmental conservation that coincided with an already active counter-culture of activists and concerned citizens. The Container Corporation of America, a paperboard company, was beginning to realize a growing environmental movement. With an existing recycling track record and knowing that paper product recycling was an effective method of conserving natural resources, the CCA planned to spread the word and promote awareness. They sponsored a nationwide art contest for a design that would help identify the company's products that were manufactured using content that was recycled or recyclable. The winning symbol would represent the process of recycling paper. More than 500 young students and activists entered designs into the contest held in the spring of 1970 in Aspen, Colorado. After being evaluated by a panel of judges, a winner was declared. A 23-year-old student from the University of Southern California at Los Angeles named Gary Dean Anderson took home the first place prize of a $2500 tuition scholarship. During Gary Dean Anderson's design process of what eventually became the recycling symbol, he drew heavily on influences from the Mobius Strip made famous by artist, M.C. Escher. The Mobius strip can be described as a continuous loop having only one side and one edge. It is both finite and infinite simultaneously. Anderson created his design completely by hand before the prevalence of computer graphics programs. Thus, he created the triangular symbol