You can leave tape, staples, and labels on. Most pizza boxes are recyclable. If it’s too wet or food soaked, then compost or landfill.

The plastic screen in the mailers is okay. Food-related or soiled paper, such as napkins, paper towels, or tissues should be composted or landfill.

Here’s the litmus test: food residue & liquid is fine, as long as there’s not enough to bite or drink from. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but cleaner materials = more recyclability.

Focus on aluminum & tin food containers. Food & liquid residue okay, just don’t want to be able to take a bite or drink from leftovers.

Plastics are by far the most confusing category. Some are easily recyclable, but some are not. Use the next slides to understand the basics.

Not all plastics are recyclable. Typically the ones you can recycle have the #1, 2, 3, or 5 on them. But since many plastics don’t list a number, go by “hard & rigid” as the indicator of recyclability.

Some liquid residue is okay, just nothing you can take a gulp of. Leave the lid on if you can. Otherwise EnergyBag lid or landfill it.

If it’s not hard & rigid, and could be considered soft & flimsy, then don’t put these items directly into your recycling bin. They either go in an EnergyBag, or in the landfill.

Unless it’s an EnergyBag, do not put plastic bags in the dumpster or carts that we empty. If recyclables are bagged, assume they will be landfilled

While this may sound counterintuitive, it’s actually better to recycle less if it’s more of the right things than recycle more things if less of them are right. Another way to say that: if you don’t know, it’s better to landfill than “wish cycle.”

If you’re still trying to figure out if you should recycle a particular item, keep in mind that real human beings are handling your materials on the other end. If it’s not safe enough for them to handle, then you probably shouldn’t recycle it.