---
title: "Recyclable steel — what it means"
description: "The item is steel — usually tinplate — and is separated magnetically for recycling. What the symbol looks like, what happens if you ignore it, and where its meaning "
url: https://atoneplace.net/symbol/packaging-steel/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Recyclable steel

**Recyclable steel: The item is steel — usually tinplate — and is separated magnetically for recycling.**

## What it looks like

A horseshoe magnet with an arrow curving around it, sometimes with the word STEEL.

## What it means

Food tins, aerosol cans and jar lids are mostly steel with a thin tin coating. The magnet in the symbol is literal: steel is the easiest material in the whole waste stream to recover, because an overband magnet lifts it out of mixed rubbish without any sorting decision at all. That is also the practical test at home — if a magnet sticks, it is steel; if it does not, the can is aluminium.

> Defined by National packaging labelling schemes. Where a symbol differs between standards, the difference is described above rather than resolved — both versions are in circulation on real labels.

## Other packaging and recycling symbols

| Symbol | Means |
| --- | --- |
| Mobius loop (chasing arrows) | The producer claims the item can be recycled — not that it will be, and not that your council collects it. |
| Mobius loop with a percentage | The pack contains that percentage of recycled material. |
| Green Dot (Der Grüne Punkt) | The producer paid into a national packaging recovery scheme. It does not mean the pack is recyclable, recycled, or made of recycled material. |
| Tidyman | Dispose of this thoughtfully. It has nothing to do with recycling. |
| Glass recycling (bottle bank) symbol | Take this glass to a bottle bank or glass collection. |
| Aluminium recycling (alu) | The item is aluminium and can be recycled as aluminium. |
| Compostable seedling (EN 13432) | Certified to break down in an industrial composting facility — not in a home heap, a bin or the environment. |
| Home compostable | Certified to break down in an ordinary garden compost heap at ambient temperature. |
| FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) | The wood or paper comes from forests audited against the Forest Stewardship Council standard. |
| PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) | The wood or paper is certified under a national forestry scheme that PEFC endorses. |
| OPRL — Recycle / Don't Recycle (UK) | Whether this specific component is collected by most UK councils. |
| Triman (France) | In France, this product or packaging is subject to sorting rules and must not go in the general waste. |
| Estimated sign (℮) | The quantity is an average across the batch, checked under the EU average-quantity system. |

## Common questions

### What does the recyclable steel symbol mean?

The item is steel — usually tinplate — and is separated magnetically for recycling.

### What does it look like?

A horseshoe magnet with an arrow curving around it, sometimes with the word STEEL.

## Related pages

- [Aluminium recycling (alu)](https://atoneplace.net/symbol/packaging-aluminium/)
- [OPRL — Recycle / Don't Recycle (UK)](https://atoneplace.net/symbol/packaging-oprl/)
- [Mobius loop (chasing arrows)](https://atoneplace.net/symbol/packaging-mobius-loop/)
- [Mobius loop with a percentage](https://atoneplace.net/symbol/packaging-mobius-percentage/)
- [Green Dot (Der Grüne Punkt)](https://atoneplace.net/symbol/packaging-green-dot/)
- [Tidyman](https://atoneplace.net/symbol/packaging-tidyman/)
- [Glass recycling (bottle bank) symbol](https://atoneplace.net/symbol/packaging-glass-recycling/)
- [Aluminium recycling (alu)](https://atoneplace.net/symbol/packaging-aluminium/)
- [Compostable seedling (EN 13432)](https://atoneplace.net/symbol/packaging-compostable-seedling/)
- [Home compostable](https://atoneplace.net/symbol/packaging-home-compostable/)
- [FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)](https://atoneplace.net/symbol/packaging-fsc/)
- [PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification)](https://atoneplace.net/symbol/packaging-pefc/)

## Sources

- US Environmental Protection Agency — EPA (https://www.epa.gov/) [Public domain (US Government)]