In 1970, Gary Anderson created what would become one of the world’s most famous and enduring icons in the time it would take most of us to decide on a dinner menu.<\/p>\n
“It only took me a few days to come up with the recycling symbol. To be honest, it probably took more than a few minutes,” Anderson said with a laugh in a recent interview inside her Bolton Hill home.<\/p>\n
On a whim, the then 23-year-old University of Southern California graduate student entered and won a $2,500 design contest by drawing three arrows in a perpetual triangular motion.<\/p>\n
As the world celebrates Earth Day, the creator of the recycling symbol is now a 78-year-old retiree who has chosen to call Baltimore home. Anderson has been a nature lover since childhood, but the former architect is far from the stereotype of a baby boomer hippie determined to save our warming planet from human folly.<\/p>\n
In fact, his relationship with his omnipresent creation is complex. <\/p>\n
For years, Anderson refused to list that on his resume. The more prominent the symbol, the less interested he was in claiming credit. He was an architect, not a graphic designer.<\/p>\n
“If I’m recruiting and someone sends me something that isn’t core to the job requirements, I think they probably don’t really understand the job description,” he said.<\/p>\n
The origins of this symbol date back to a contest sponsored by the Container Corporation of America, which wanted to encourage the recycling of paper products. The rules were simple. The black and white logo had to be reproducible and legible at quarter-inch size, and freely available in the public domain. Only high school and university students can apply.<\/p>\n
When Anderson saw the call for entries posted on the message board, he was intrigued by the minimalist logos, such as AT&T’s globe and IBM’s striped Art Deco letters, which were “very simple but packed with meaning.”<\/p>\n
Inspired by the workings of printing presses and the dreamlike optical illusions of MC Escher, Anderson submitted his pencil drawings without any expectations.<\/p>\n
“I’ve never been an easy person to focus on things in my life, so I didn’t think, ‘I’m going to win by hook or crook,'” he said. “It was more like, ‘We can do this, maybe we can come up with something.'”<\/p>\n
Of course, that turned out to be quite an understatement.<\/p>\n
Creative director Nolen Stolarz, whose portfolio includes work for The New York Times and Taharka Brothers Ice Cream, called the recycling symbol “the pinnacle of design,” along with peace signs and religious symbols.<\/p>\n
“It’s not like anything else,” Strals said. “It reproduces well at any size. It always looks like itself and distills very complex concepts into something that anyone can understand.”<\/p>\n
Considering the recycling symbol’s widespread use and instant recognition today, Anderson’s prize money (worth just under $21,000 in 2026) was a huge bargain.<\/p>\n
Sitting across from Anderson, I had to ask. Would you allow yourself to fantasize about what your life would be like if you were compensated for even a fraction of the symbol’s potential monetary value?<\/p>\n
No, he said without hesitation. Rules are rules, and furthermore, “If you don’t pay for them, no one will use them, so they don’t really have any economic value.” <\/p>\n
And Anderson moved on with his life without thinking too much about the symbol’s life after the contest. <\/p>\n
But Anderson started noticing it coming up more and more. First in the corner of a bank statement envelope, then during a trip to Amsterdam, Anderson saw it “swelled to the size of a beach ball” on top of a recycling bin. <\/p>\n
“It was the first time I really thought, ‘Yeah, this seems to be trending,'” Anderson said. He later moved to Baltimore for a job with the architecture firm RTKL Associates.<\/p>\n
Harris Waltak, a graphic designer and teacher at the Baltimore School of Design, said the recycling symbol is an example of “very successful” design because of its scalability and its use around the world. It’s even <\/b>Emoji.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really crosses age groups,\u201d Waltak said. “brand [logo] That’s one thing. What we really need to use and trust, that’s another thing. \u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/picture>The symbol’s increased presence also strengthened Anderson’s beliefs. <\/b>As for excluding it from his resume, he said, “It just overwhelms everything else I have to show.”<\/p>\n
He finally came back when he heard that someone in the graphics department at Container Corporation of America claimed they had created the symbol. Anderson knew he needed to start taking ownership of his work.<\/p>\n
“I’m not trying to gloat about this, but I wouldn’t be happy if someone else took the credit,” he said.<\/p>\n
Anderson is currently scheduled to speak about the symbol in response to questions at events and conferences, which is something he does often these days. Those in attendance say he must feel “very proud and blessed.” And indeed, he is grateful that his work has made people more aware of recycling. <\/p>\n
But for Anderson, those adjectives miss the point.<\/p>\n
“It’s hard to explain,” Anderson said. “I’m not very proud, per se. And I hate it when people say, ‘Oh, I’m so humble.'” What does that mean? “<\/p>\n
With Earth Day upon us, it’s natural to wonder how Anderson feels about the state of the planet. Like millions of us, he is increasingly concerned about environmental degradation. he <\/b>I don’t understand why more progress isn’t being made to make recycling easier and more efficient.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the idea of \u200b\u200brecycling has been around for a long time,\u201d he said. “Why haven’t more technologies been developed to help recycle these things?”<\/p>\n
Anderson understands why some consumers find the process too time-consuming or have doubts about whether their products will be properly recycled.<\/p>\n
“But it’s still better to do it than not to do it,” he said. \u201cAnything is better than nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n