This may sound like a weird question, but the other night I was about to throw away a plastic package which didn't have any recycling information on it, and I hesitated before throwing it in the waste bin and thought to myself "Should I chuck it in the recycling bin and hope for the best or destine this little package for the landfill?"
What has a bigger environmental impact?
It may depend on your local rules, but here it's certainly better to put a recyclable thing in the bin than a non-recyclable thing in the recycling. That is, if your council doesn't have any sorting facilities: if they deem the recycling to be 'contaminated', they'll send the whole load to the incinerator - whereas if you put it in the normal rubbish, it's just that one item that's wasted.
This will vary in areas where the recycable materials are sorted: there the 'unwanted' items are picked out (often by humans) and discarded. You then assume that they will know what you are unsure about.
Most recycling symbols are protected and not used by the producers of packaging due to the licensing fees to be paid or other conditions to be followed. In Germany the "Green Point" was used to finance separation and recycling facilities. Since 2009 packages from companies participating do no longer need to carry the symbol to participate in the system. Since then all plastic and recyclable goods, even when they are not marked with a recycling symbol, can be put into the recycling bins. I guess that after having built they now need more input so that I would not hesitate to practice that in other countries likewise.
Some places, like Roseville, California, handle their own sorting. Everything gets put into one bin and a huge machine separates stuff out using magnets and shredders and stuff.
