Recycling

a loop, and what was done to it

Unicode: U+267B black universal recycling symbol
Meaning: Three chasing arrows forming a Möbius strip: collect, process, remanufacture, without an end.
History: Designed in 1970 by Gary Anderson, then a student at the University of Southern California, as the winning entry in a contest run by the Container Corporation of America around the first Earth Day. The Möbius form was the point — a loop with no exit.
Variants: Outline and solid forms; the arrows sometimes redrawn against the original geometry. The consequential variant is the resin identification code: the same chasing arrows wrapped around a number, 1 to 7, introduced by the plastics industry in 1988 to identify polymer type. It says nothing about whether an item can be recycled, and it is read by almost everyone as though it does.
Related: ∞ Infinity — the other endless loop, with a happier career.
Appears: Packaging, bins, municipal signage, and product marketing worldwide.
Evolution: Student contest entry → public-domain emblem → a mark whose commonest form misleads the people relying on it.

Sources · 3

documented The 1970 Container Corporation of America design competition, and Gary Anderson as the winning entrant.
documented The resin identification coding system, introduced by the Society of the Plastics Industry in 1988 — polymer identification, not a recyclability claim.
traditional That CCA attempted to trademark the mark and released it to the public domain after challenge. Consistently reported, and the Institute has not traced it to a primary filing.