Most household recycling falls into five main categories: paper and cardboard, certain plastics, metals, glass containers, and electronics. But the details matter. Tossing the wrong item into your bin can contaminate an entire load, and some materials that seem recyclable actually need special handling. Here’s a practical breakdown of what belongs where.
Paper and Cardboard
Paper is one of the most widely recycled materials, and recycling facilities sort it into five basic grades. Corrugated cardboard (the thick, wavy kind used for shipping boxes) gets turned back into new boxes and paperboard packaging like cereal boxes and shoe boxes. Mixed paper covers things like junk mail, phone books, magazines, and catalogs. Newspapers are recycled into new newsprint and tissue products. High-grade paper, such as printer paper, copier paper, letterhead, and envelopes, commands the highest value at recovery facilities.
Shredded paper can be recycled, but only if the pieces aren’t too small and are free of plastic contaminants. Check with your local hauler on acceptable shred sizes. The biggest thing that ruins paper recycling is contamination from food grease or moisture. A pizza box with oil stains, for example, typically belongs in the trash or compost rather than the recycling bin.
Which Plastics Are Actually Accepted
The number stamped inside the triangle on plastic packaging tells you what type of resin it’s made from, and that number determines whether your local program will take it.
- #1 (PET or PETE): Water bottles, soda bottles, and many food containers. Accepted by most municipal recycling programs.
- #2 (HDPE): Milk jugs, detergent bottles, and shampoo containers. Also widely accepted curbside.
- #3 (PVC): Pipes, some cling wraps, and blister packaging. Difficult to recycle and rarely accepted curbside.
- #4 (LDPE): Squeeze bottles, some food wraps, and shopping bags. Often not accepted curbside because it can jam sorting machines.
- #5 (PP): Yogurt cups, bottle caps, and takeout containers. Increasingly accepted, but check your local program.
- #6 (PS/Polystyrene): Styrofoam cups, packing peanuts, and disposable plates. Generally not accepted in recycling programs.
The safe bet for curbside recycling is #1 and #2 plastics. Everything else depends on your municipality.
Plastic Bags and Films Need Store Drop-Off
Plastic bags, wraps, and films are not accepted in most curbside programs. They tangle in sorting equipment and shut down processing lines. However, many of these items can be returned to retail store drop-off bins. Eligible items include grocery bags, bread bags, newspaper sleeves, plastic mailers, cereal box liners, and the stretch wrap around paper towel packs. Look for the How2Recycle “Store Drop-off” label on packaging to confirm.
Metals: Aluminum and Steel
Both aluminum and steel cans are recyclable, and aluminum in particular can be recycled indefinitely without losing quality. In 2018, the U.S. generated 3.9 million tons of aluminum waste, but only about 35 percent of it was actually recycled. Aluminum foil is also recyclable as long as you clean off food residue first. Balled-up foil works better than flat sheets in the sorting process.
Steel and iron (ferrous metals) from food cans and other household items are recyclable too, though the recycling rate for these sits around 28 percent. A quick test: if a magnet sticks to it, it’s ferrous metal. If it doesn’t, it’s likely aluminum or another nonferrous metal. Nonferrous metals actually have a higher recycling rate, around 68 percent, partly because they hold more scrap value.
Glass Containers Only
Glass recycling comes with a rule that trips people up: only bottles and jars belong in the recycling bin. That means food jars, beverage bottles, and condiment containers are fair game regardless of color (clear, green, brown).
Everything else made of glass should stay out. Drinking glasses, coffee mugs, flower vases, mirrors, window panes, light bulbs, and baking dishes like Pyrex all have different chemical compositions and melting points than container glass. Mixing them in contaminates the batch. Broken glass of any kind should also stay out of the bin, both for safety reasons and because small shards can’t be sorted properly.
Electronics and E-Waste
Televisions, computer monitors, laptops, tablets, and other devices with screens contain hazardous materials that make them unsafe for landfills and impossible to process in standard recycling. These items need to go through dedicated e-waste collection programs. Many municipalities run periodic collection events, and retailers like Best Buy and Staples offer year-round drop-off.
The category of covered electronic waste includes CRT televisions and monitors, LCD and LED screens, plasma TVs, OLED devices, and portable DVD players. Batteries are handled separately from electronics and should never go in your curbside bin. Many hardware stores and battery retailers accept used batteries for recycling.
Textiles and Clothing
Clothing and household fabrics like sheets and towels can be recycled, but they require separate collection from regular waste. Textiles made from a single fiber type, whether cotton, wool, or polyester, are the easiest to process. Cotton and viscose can be broken down into cellulose for new fibers or even converted into biofuels. Wool, being almost entirely protein-based, biodegrades relatively easily.
The challenge is blended fabrics. Polycotton, one of the most common blends in sheets and towels, is significantly harder to recycle because separating the cotton from the polyester requires specialized chemical processes. Worn or stained clothing that can’t be resold still has recycling value and can be turned into industrial rags, insulation, or even paper. Donation bins and textile-specific drop-offs are the right channel for these items, not the curbside bin.
Items That Don’t Belong in the Bin
Putting the wrong things in your recycling bin, sometimes called “wish-cycling,” causes real problems at processing facilities. Common offenders include plastic bags (as noted above), garden hoses, electrical cords, batteries, diapers, and foil-lined chip or snack bags. These items jam machinery, contaminate otherwise good material, or pose safety hazards to workers.
Household hazardous waste is another category that requires special handling. Paints, cleaners, motor oil, pesticides, and certain batteries contain chemicals that can’t go in regular recycling or trash. Most communities run collection programs for these materials. Some local garages accept used motor oil for recycling, and many paint stores take back leftover paint.
How to Check What Your Area Accepts
Recycling programs vary significantly by municipality. A material that’s recyclable in one city might go to landfill in another simply because the local facility lacks the right equipment. Your city or county waste management website will list exactly what goes in the bin. The EPA’s Earth911 database lets you search by zip code and material type to find drop-off locations for items like electronics, batteries, and hazardous waste. The national goal is to reach a 50 percent recycling rate by 2030, up from current levels, and part of getting there is making sure recyclable materials actually end up in the right stream.