Change the symbol, change the system: Two°Creative’s open brief to reimagine The Green Dot

For 30 years we have regularly seen The Green Dot symbol, however very few of us know its true meaning. Rather than indicating that the product or material it is on is recyclable, it, in fact, means something else entirely. Created in 1990, The Green Dot symbol merely means the company or brand has joined The Green Dot Scheme – indicating a financial contribution made towards a recycling system or causes, but does not mean their product is recyclable or recycled. Despite the good intentions of the symbol, which appears on more than 450 billion packages every year, it plays a significant role in the contamination of recycling on a global scale. An unclear symbol that contributes greatly to the greenwashing and misinformation spread by financially-led corporations, The Green Dot truly shows the power a symbol can have – in this case for the worse. In simplest terms, it is a brand pay-off for producing products that cannot be recycled. The knock-on effect for contaminated recycling can be disastrous, with recycling companies having to reject and therefore waste large quantities of goods due to the inclusion of non-recyclable materials. The graphic failure of the symbol is consequently encouraging the opposite of its original ethical objective. It is time for this to change. Change the symbol, change the system.