Symbols on cardboard packages

Symbols about the origin of the materials
The Der Blauer Engel quality mark
This mark comes from Germany. Products bearing this symbol are more environmentally friendly than other products in the same use. If a product has the Der bleuer Engel quality mark, it scores well on five points.
These are:

• Home and living
• Paper and printing
• Electrical devices
• Construction and heating
• Business and municipality

At De Jong Verpakking we naturally fall under paper and printing. This means that the cardboard must be produced in an environmentally friendly way. This means that the paper must be FSC® certified. In addition, the other production processes must also be as environmentally friendly as possible.

FSC
De Jong Packaging is FSC® certified with its cardboard production. Forest Stewardship Council, or FSC for short, is an international quality mark for paper, cardboard and wood. To obtain this certificate, all wood fibers of the packaging material must come from certified or recycled wood.
There are three gradations within the FSC certificates. FSC-100%, FSC-mix and FSC-Recycled.

• FSC 100%
  FSC-100% is stated on packaging materials whose wood fibers only come from FSC-certified forests.

• FSC mix
  With the mixed grade of the FSC labels, the packaging material consists of a combination of wood fibers from certified FSC forests and recycled material.

• FSC Recycled
  The last gradation of the three labels is for packaging material which consists of at least 85% post-consumer recycled material and 15% pre-consumer recycled material.

Symbols about waste
The hand basket or litter symbol
These two symbols are used to point out to the consumer that the packaging should not be thrown away on the street but in the trash. These symbols are mainly found on packaging that often ends up in the environment as litter.
Manufacturers are not obliged to add these symbols to their packaging. As a result, there are also different versions of this symbol in order to encourage consumers more to dispose of the residual waste in the right place.

Möbius loop
This symbol is one of the most well-known symbols and stands for that the packaging contains recyclable material. This symbol is therefore on many cardboard packaging, because it is fully recyclable. In the Netherlands we use a different version of this symbol. This symbol is accompanied by “paper cardboard recycling”. This indicates that the packaging can be disposed of with the old paper.
This symbol does not indicate anything about the production of the cardboard packaging and whether the packaging is produced with recycled paper. This logo is voluntarily added to packaging and its use is not controlled.

Other symbols
The Packaging Identification Codes
These triangular identification codes indicate which material the packaging is made of. For example, each material has a different code. There are three different codes for cardboard and paper. These are number 20, 21 and 22 with the letters PAP below the symbol. Adding this symbol to cardboard packaging is not mandatory in almost all countries within Europe. Italy will be an exception from December 31, 2022. Italy would like to have this logo added to all new cardboard boxes sold within their borders.

As you can see there are many different symbols with different meanings. In addition to these symbols, there are also a lot of symbols made specifically for certain products. These may differ per box. If you have any questions about a special logo on a box, you can always contact us for clarification