Recycling symbol for generic materials

It means recycling in general, with no material named. The three arrows chasing each other round a triangle form a Möbius loop, a twisted band with only one side, standing for material going round and being used again. You may meet ♺ on labels, product listings, signs and eco-minded posts, meaning "recyclable", "made from recycled material" or simply "please recycle"; nearby text usually says which material is meant. It is a plain text symbol, not an emoji, so it takes your font's style and colour.

The design dates from 1970, when student Gary Anderson won a contest run by the Container Corporation of America, a US paperboard maker, to mark recycled paper. The company left the design free for anyone to use, which helped the arrows spread onto packaging all over the world.

Does the symbol mean I can recycle it?

Not by itself: check your local collection rules. The arrows say the item is recyclable, contains recycled material, or both; whether your bin or collection point takes it depends on the material and where you live. A percentage in or beside the loop usually tells you how much recycled material the item contains.

Arrows with a number inside (♳ to ♹) are a different system. These plastic type codes, introduced in 1988, name the kind of plastic; they don't promise it gets recycled either.