Chris Sommer

RCL 137H
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Paper? Plastic? Glass? Compost? We are all faced with many decisions, easy and
difficult, on a daily basis. One of these decisions is choosing how we take responsibility for our
waste and dispose of it correctly. Consequently, in the midst of this global dilemma, we need all
the help we can get. This is where our good friends, the Mobius strip and the recycle triangle,
save the day and thereby our future. Through their use of symbolism and common ideologies, the
Mobius Strip and similarly-shaped recycle triangle play on a preexisting exigence to effectively
convince Penn State students and staff to do their civic duty and dispose of waste properly. We
all see the recycle triangle somewhere while going about our daily routine. Similarly, Penn State
Waste Managements Mobius strip symbol can be seen every day at Penn State. However similar
and common these two artifacts are, in order to understand their significance, we need to
understand the issue at hand first.
There are 7 billion people in this world (Mavropoulos, 2015). Each one of us uses a lot of
resources and thus disposes of a lot of waste (Mavropoulos, 2015). We all know this to be true.
Where do we put all of this waste? This is the issue at hand. Our lack of sustainability does not
support the longevous hopes that humanity has for itself (Mavropoulos, 2015). This is the same
spiel that we have all heard since day one of kindergarten. The facts and statistics are not
important nor very interesting. What is important, however, is that this issue has become
commonplace in our society. Everyone knows that global waste is a problem facing our world
and that it is scarcely getting better, even with recycling efforts. Reduce, reuse, recycle. It is the
same mantra we have repeated since we were five. Everybody knows it, yet it still seems like we
all have trouble, at times, with understanding its importance. While this is absolutely a global

Chris Sommer

RCL 137H

issue we can take steps, individually and at our university which we know and love, to change
the outcome.
Universities are some of the largest producers of waste out there. Penn State is no
exception (sustainability.psu.edu). Not only is it unsustainable and irresponsible for Penn State to
address its waste incorrectly, it is also expensive (on average, trash costs at least three times as
much to dispose of than recycling (Davitt)). Again, we all know this is an issue! Penn State goes
to incredible lengths to see to it that we dispose of our waste correctly. We can see this in every
hallway of every building at Penn State. You know what Im talking about; the Mobius waste
areas!
In a conscious effort to reduce our universitys negative environmental impact, Penn State
Waste Management is there. We can see evidence of Penn State Waste Management every time
we throw something away. Yes, they are responsible for the eight different blue containers that
we see on every dorm floor and every building hallway throughout Penn State. Each bin has a
little poster above it with the description of what exactly can be disposed of in them. And, on the
very last bin, the one labeled landfill, we can see a little face that asks, Are you sure?. This
little face, also known as a Mobius strip, is more powerful than you know.
August Mobius was a German Mathematician who discovered the anomaly of the Mobius
strip in 1858 (sustainability.psu.edu). It is a loop made of a single strip which has a twist in it
(sustainability.psu.edu). The Mobius Strip is significant because it consists of a single face and
has no beginning or end. If you were to follow one side of the loop, you would end up on the
other side without ever having gone over the edge. Penn State has adopted the Mobius strip as
its symbol for waste management (sustainability.psu.edu). As described on their website, Penn
State is committed to closing the loop on solid waste (sustainability.psu.edu). In this way, Penn

Chris Sommer

RCL 137H

State effectively uses symbolism to convince its audience, both students and staff, to make a
decision when disposing their waste. The Mobius strip shares many commonalities with a
symbol that we have all seen since we were very little.
Just as the Mobius strip consists of a closed loop with no beginning or end, the recycle
triangle plays on a similar type of symbolism to convey its message that the recycling process is
a never ending loop. This symbolism makes the audience feel very specific emotions when
deciding where to dispose of their waste. While the symbolic nature of the Mobius posters and
the recycling triangle effectively communicate the ideas of recycling, it is in each artifacts
formatting where we can see their rhetorical effectiveness.
Both the recycling triangle and the Mobius strip appeal to people through their clean
formatting and colors. The Mobius strip that can be seen everywhere around Penn State has been
transformed into a, some may say, cute little face which often asks the question: Are you sure?
(sustainability.psu.edu). It is most often printed in the Penn State color scheme (Blue and White)
and in font that is visually pleasing. The color scheme makes the depositor of trash feel a sudden
wave of pride for Penn State, the school they love. The nice font makes it easy to understand the
decisions at hand. The Mobius face and ultimate question, Are you sure? seal the deal. All of
these things combine, in small ways, to evoke a particular feeling of prideful responsibility in the
audience. This emotion, when instilled unknowingly, is a powerful tool of persuasion for the
Mobius posters.
Similarly, the recycle triangle relies on a clean look and meaningful colors to convey its
message and convince its audience. The color green is powerful when dealing with anything
involving sustainability. Green symbolizes plants, forests, ecology, and ultimately the wellbeing
of Mother Earth. This makes sense. Plants are green. We like plants. Recycling is good for

Chris Sommer

RCL 137H

plants. Therefore recycling is green! The recycle triangle also uses imagery very effectively. The
symbol, three arrows wrapped around to form a closed loop or triangle, like the Mobius strip,
conveys the message that recycling is a never ending loop. Again, like the Mobius strip, the
recycle triangle effectively uses color and imagery to make the audience feel a sense of
responsibility for the proper disposal of waste. Now that we know the big picture of our global
waste issue and how these artifacts make us feel, we can begin to understand why they carry
such persuasive weight.
As citizens of the World that we live in, it is assumed that we all want to see to it that our
World remains healthy for millennia to come. This is a common ideology that is outrightly or
subconsciously felt by nearly every human. It is something that we, the audience of the Mobius
strip or the recycle triangle, have in common. Therefore, we can all agree that it is our
responsibility, our civic duty in fact, to make the right decisions regarding how we dispose of our
waste. The recycling triangle and Mobius strip posters play on this common ideology and use a
combination of symbolism and clean imagery to evoke a feeling of pride and responsibility
within the audience, those depositing the waste. This evoked feeling and common ideology,
when combined in context, effectively persuades the audience, both Penn State Students and
people of the world, to do what the Mobius strip and recycling triangle want: dispose of waste in
a manner that is in accordance with our civic duty and recycle that goddamn styrofoam cup!
It has become the age-old exigence that our world has far too many waste-producing
people and far too much preexisting waste to continue without recycling (Mavropoulos, 2015).
Penn State, being that it is a very large producer of waste, has decided to do something about
this, but it needs the involvement of every student and staff member. Through their use of clean
imagery, selective colors, and symbolism, the Mobius strip and recycle triangle rely on

Chris Sommer

RCL 137H

commonly shared ideologies to effectively persuade their audience to make the civic decision
and dispose of waste properly. These two symbols, though seemingly insignificant, are changing
the World for the better on a daily basis.

Chris Sommer

RCL 137H
Work Cited

Penn State Sustainability. Pennsylvania State University, 2013. Web. October 14, 2015.
Mavropoulos, Antonis. "Waste Management 2030+." Waste Management World. Pennwell
Corporation, 2015. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.
Davitt, Nadine. "Recycling." Message to Chris Sommer. 25 Sept. 2015. E-mail.