Some packaging is recyclable and some isn’t, and the difference often comes down to what the packaging is made of, how it’s constructed, and what your local facility can actually process. The recycling symbol on a package doesn’t necessarily mean it’s recyclable in your community. In the United States, only about 8.7 percent of the more than 35 million tons of plastic generated in 2018 was recycled. Globally, the picture is similar: just 9 percent of all plastic waste gets recycled, while 49 percent goes to landfills and 22 percent is mismanaged entirely.
What Makes Packaging Recyclable
A package is recyclable when it can be collected, sorted, and reprocessed into new material at scale. That sounds simple, but three things have to line up for it to work. First, the material itself has to be something recycling facilities can handle. Second, the package has to be clean enough to process (food-contaminated items get rejected). Third, your local program has to accept that specific material, because not every facility has the same equipment.
Single-material packaging is the easiest to recycle. A cardboard box, an aluminum can, or a glass jar are each made of one substance that can be broken down and reformed. The trouble starts when manufacturers layer multiple materials together or use additives that make sorting difficult.
Plastic Packaging: The Resin Code Doesn’t Mean Recyclable
The numbered triangle stamped on the bottom of plastic containers is one of the most misunderstood symbols in recycling. Created by ASTM International, these resin identification codes (numbered 1 through 7) tell you what type of plastic the item is made from. They look nearly identical to the recycling symbol, but they do not mean the item is recyclable in your area.
Plastics labeled #1 (used for water bottles and many food containers) and #2 (milk jugs, detergent bottles) are the most widely accepted in curbside programs. Beyond those two, acceptance drops off sharply depending on your municipality. Plastic bottles and their caps can typically go in together, labels and all. But plastic utensils cannot be recycled, and containers with food debris on them will be rejected.
Polystyrene foam, commonly called Styrofoam, is accepted by very few curbside programs. Plastic bags, wraps, and films present a different problem: they’re technically recyclable, but they jam sorting equipment at recycling facilities, so they can’t go in your household bin. Many retail and grocery stores collect them separately for recycling through specialized programs.
Aluminum: The Most Recycled Packaging Material
Aluminum cans have the highest global recycling rate of any beverage container at nearly 75 percent, far outpacing PET plastic bottles (47 percent) and glass bottles (42 percent). The reason is straightforward: aluminum can be melted down and reformed indefinitely without losing quality, and the economics work out because recycling aluminum uses about 95 percent less energy than producing it from raw ore.
Regional performance varies enormously. East Asia and the Pacific recycle 94.6 percent of aluminum cans, and Latin America and the Caribbean hit 94 percent. North America lags behind at 45.3 percent. The gap isn’t about technology. It’s about collection infrastructure and deposit-return programs that give people a financial incentive to return cans.
Glass: Infinitely Recyclable but Inconsistently Collected
Glass jars and bottles can also be recycled endlessly without degrading in quality. But glass is heavy, breaks during transport, and the economics of recycling it are less favorable than aluminum. The global recycling rate for glass bottles sits at about 42 percent, though Europe and Central Asia do significantly better at 62.2 percent. North America recycles only 28.4 percent of its glass bottles.
Color matters for glass recycling. Facilities need to sort glass by color (clear, green, brown) because mixing colors produces a less useful end product. Some curbside programs have stopped accepting glass altogether because broken shards contaminate other recyclables like paper. If your program doesn’t take glass curbside, check for drop-off locations nearby.
Multi-Layer Packaging Is the Hardest to Recycle
Juice boxes, shelf-stable milk cartons, chip bags with foil linings, and single-serve coffee pods all share the same problem: they’re made of multiple materials bonded together. A typical beverage carton combines layers of paperboard, plastic film, and aluminum foil. Each material is individually recyclable, but separating them from each other is expensive and technically challenging.
The paper fiber can be recovered relatively easily through a pulping process, and many recycling programs now accept cartons for this reason. But the leftover plastic and aluminum laminate is another story. It’s mostly downcycled into lower-value products like laminated boards, or used for energy recovery (essentially burned for fuel). Specialized facilities exist that can fully separate these layers using heat or chemical processes, but they’re rare. For most of the world, the non-paper portion of a juice box ends up in a landfill.
Foil-lined chip bags, pouches, and sachets are even worse. They’re almost never accepted in curbside recycling. The layers are too thin and too tightly bonded to separate economically. Packaging like this accounts for a significant share of the 40 percent of global plastic waste that comes from packaging.
Compostable Packaging Is Not Recyclable
Packaging labeled “compostable” or made from plant-based plastics like PLA is designed to break down in industrial composting facilities, not in recycling plants. Putting compostable packaging in your recycling bin can contaminate the recycling stream. The EPA is clear on this point: compostable plastics are not intended for recycling and can disrupt the process if mixed with conventional plastics.
That said, the actual risk may be smaller than feared. Research from European Bioplastics found that modern sorting technologies, including near-infrared sensors, can efficiently separate compostable plastics from conventional ones. Studies showed that even contamination rates up to 10 percent (far higher than real-world scenarios) generally don’t interfere with the quality of recycled material. Current market volumes of compostable plastics are low enough that any contamination after sorting is negligible.
Still, the practical advice is simple: compostable packaging goes in the compost bin (if you have access to industrial composting) or the trash. Not the recycling.
How to Tell If Your Packaging Is Actually Recyclable
The most reliable step is checking your local recycling program’s website or app. What’s accepted varies by municipality, sometimes even by neighborhood. But some general rules hold across most programs:
- Usually accepted: Cardboard boxes (flattened), aluminum cans, steel/tin cans, paper, plastic bottles and jugs (#1 and #2), glass bottles and jars (in many areas)
- Sometimes accepted: Beverage cartons, rigid plastic containers (#5), mixed paper
- Rarely or never accepted curbside: Plastic bags and film, Styrofoam, foil-lined pouches, plastic utensils, compostable plastics, multi-layer flexible packaging
Clean your containers before recycling them. They don’t need to be spotless, but visible food residue will get items (and sometimes entire batches) rejected. Empty the container, give it a quick rinse, and don’t worry about removing labels.
When in doubt, throw it out. “Wish-cycling,” the habit of tossing questionable items in the recycling bin hoping they’ll get sorted, actually increases costs for recycling facilities and can contaminate entire loads of otherwise recyclable material.