PLASTIC RESIN CODES

the seven codes on the bottom of an article per ASTM D7611: which resin each number names and what it means for sorting

Built as a memo rather than a table: the thing worth hanging it up for reads across the room, with the full reference in smaller type below it.

Three sizes in one archive — from a sheet on the fridge to a poster on the wall.

Formats: A4 · A3 · A2
What you get: Print-ready PDFs, one per size, with every letterform converted to outlines — nothing to install, nothing to shift.
Subject: science · everyone · reference · kitchen

Codes, letters and the solid triangle follow ASTM D7611 (Standard Practice for Coding Plastic Manufactured Articles for Resin Identification). SPI introduced the system in 1988; ASTM has administered it since 2008, with the solid triangle since 2013. Checked 2026-08-13.

THE TRIANGLE IS NOT A RECYCLING MARK

The triangle on the bottom is not a recycling mark. The code names the resin the article is made of and says nothing about whether it will be recycled: the industry association SPI created the system in 1988 precisely for sorting by material.

The resemblance to the recycling arrows confused people so badly that in 2013 the ASTM D7611 standard replaced the arrows with a solid triangle: the same mark, less of a promise.

On the sheet

Codes, letters and the solid triangle follow ASTM D7611 (Standard Practice for Coding Plastic Manufactured Articles for Resin Identification). SPI introduced the system in 1988; ASTM has administered it since 2008, with the solid triangle since 2013. Checked 2026-08-13.
Colour carries meaning, but meaning never rests on colour alone — the sheet reads in black and white.
Nothing about how it was made: the sheet carries only what the reader needs.

Printing

Three sizes in the archive: A4 — 210×297 mm, A3 — 297×420 mm, A2 — 420×594 mm.
All text is converted to outlines. No fonts to install, and nothing shifts on another machine.
White background and sparing fills — it prints on a home printer without draining the cartridge.
Margins of at least 10 mm: a home printer cannot print to the edge.
No stroke thinner than 0.3 mm, so nothing disappears in print.

Why the numbers can be trusted. Every countable number here is computed from data rather than typed in, and the sheet must pass 6 independent checks before it is allowed to build — how many items there are, the order they come in, and the claim in the highlighted box itself. If one fails, there is no file.

PLASTIC RESIN CODES

THE TRIANGLE IS NOT A RECYCLING MARK

On the sheet

Printing

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