Common Recyclable Materials: Your No-Nonsense Guide to What’s Really Recyclable

📅 Last updated: July 1, 2026 — We review and update our recommendations regularly.

The Five Core Material Categories That Most Curbside Programs Accept

Every curbside recycling program in the United States is essentially built around five material categories. Everything else is either special handling or trash. Master these five and you’ve mastered 90% of home recycling.

1. Paper and Cardboard

Paper is the original recyclable material. It’s been commercially recycled since the 1800s. The infrastructure for processing it is mature, the demand is real, and the process is well-understood.

How it works: Recovered paper goes to a paper mill, where it’s mixed with water and turned into a slurry called pulp. The pulp is cleaned, screened, and reformed into new paper products. Each time paper is recycled, the fibers get shorter — which is why recycled paper can only go through the process about 5-7 times before the fibers are too short to be useful.

What’s accepted:

• Newspaper and newsprint
• Office paper and printer paper
• Mail and envelopes (remove plastic windows if possible, though most facilities handle them)
• Magazines and catalogs (the glossy coating is clay, not plastic — fully recyclable)
• Paper bags
• Cardboard shipping boxes (flatten them)
• Cereal boxes, cracker boxes, pasta boxes, and other food-grade paperboard
• Paper towel and toilet paper rolls
• Egg cartons (cardboard variety only)
• Books and paperback covers (hardcovers — remove the binding if possible)

What’s not accepted:

• Greasy or food-soaked paper — the grease prevents proper pulping and ruins batches
• Paper towels and napkins — too short-fibered, usually food-contaminated
• Tissue paper (gift wrapping kind) — too lightweight and short-fibered
• Wax-coated paper/cardboard — the wax prevents pulping
• Frozen food boxes — coated with plastic to resist moisture
• Coffee cups — polyethylene liner bonds to the paper
• Shredded paper — tiny flakes jam sorting equipment (bag it separately if your facility accepts it)
• Metallic or glitter-coated paper and wrapping paper

The contamination rule: Paper is especially sensitive to food contamination. Grease from food doesn’t just dirty the paper — it chemically interferes with the pulping process. Even small amounts of grease can cause oil to float to the surface during pulping, creating a contaminated batch that can’t be used. If paper is food-soiled, it belongs in trash or compost, not recycling.

2. Glass

Glass is theoretically one of the most recyclable materials on earth — it can be melted and reformed indefinitely without any degradation in quality. Unlike paper (which loses fiber length with each cycle) or plastic (which loses polymer strength), glass bottles made from recycled glass are chemically identical to bottles made from virgin sand.

How it works: Recovered glass is crushed into a material called cullet. Cullet melts at a lower temperature than raw materials, reducing energy requirements. It’s then combined with other materials and formed into new glass containers.

What’s accepted:

• Clear (flint) glass bottles and jars
• Green glass bottles
• Amber (brown) glass bottles
• All common food and beverage glass containers

What’s not accepted — and why it matters:

• Drinking glasses and window glass — different chemical composition with different melting points; even small amounts mixed into container glass batches can cause defects
• Pyrex and other borosilicate glass — higher melting point, ruins batches of soda-lime container glass
• Mirrors — coated glass, incompatible with container glass processing
• Light bulbs — different composition; fluorescent bulbs also contain mercury and require HHW handling
• Ceramics and pottery — not glass, will contaminate glass batches

The color issue: Glass facilities sort by color because mixing colors affects the appearance of the recycled glass. Some programs have single-stream glass recycling where colors are mixed; others require separation. Clear (flint) glass is the most valuable because it can be used for any color application. If you’re dropping off at a glass-specific facility, separate by color when possible.

Important note on curbside acceptance: Glass is heavy, expensive to transport, and tends to shatter during collection, creating shards that contaminate other recyclable materials. Because of these logistics challenges, some municipalities have removed glass from curbside programs. Check your local program — you may need to drop glass at a dedicated glass recycling location even if other materials are collected curbside.

3. Metals — Aluminum and Steel/Tin

Metal recycling is where the environmental math gets really compelling.

Aluminum: Creating aluminum from raw bauxite ore is an extraordinarily energy-intensive process. Recycling aluminum uses approximately 95% less energy. That’s not a rounding error — it’s a near-elimination of the energy required. Aluminum is also endlessly recyclable without any degradation in quality. The aluminum in a can you recycle today could be back on a store shelf as a new can within 60 days.

Steel/tin: Steel recycling uses about 60-74% less energy than production from iron ore. Steel is magnetic, which makes it easy for sorting equipment to separate from other materials. Because of this, even steel accidentally mixed into other recycling streams can often be recovered.

What’s accepted:

• Aluminum beverage cans (soda, beer, sparkling water, energy drinks)
• Steel and tin cans (soup, vegetable, coffee, pet food, tomato paste)
• Aluminum foil — if clean. Ball it up into a piece at least golf-ball sized so it doesn’t fall through sorting screens
• Aluminum foil baking trays and roasting pans — clean or lightly soiled
• Metal jar lids and can lids — put loose lids inside a steel can and crimp the top to contain them
• Empty aerosol cans — metal shell is recyclable once fully emptied (no remaining pressure)
• Aluminum and steel baking pans

What’s not accepted or requires special handling:

• Aerosol cans with remaining pressure — fire and explosion risk; use them up first
• Paint cans with wet or liquid paint — HHW
• Scrap metal that’s too large for a residential bin — take to a scrap metal dealer or metal recycler
• Metal with significant food or chemical contamination — rinse first

The magnet test: Hold a magnet to a can. Sticks? It’s steel. Doesn’t stick? It’s aluminum. This is exactly how sorting facilities separate them — the sorting facilities use magnets to pull steel off conveyor belts; eddy current separators (which create repelling electromagnetic fields) eject aluminum.

4. Plastics — The Complicated One

Plastic is where recycling gets genuinely complicated, and where public confusion is highest. Part of the problem is that the resin identification code system (the triangular chasing-arrows symbol with a number 1-7) was never intended to indicate recyclability. It identifies the polymer type — which does affect recyclability, but is not the same thing as a guarantee that the item will be accepted in your curbside program.

#1 PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) Clear plastic bottles — water bottles, soda bottles, juice bottles, cooking oil bottles, salad dressing, mouthwash. Also some clear clamshell packaging. Recycling status: Widely accepted.

#2 HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene) Opaque plastic — milk jugs, juice bottles, laundry detergent, dish soap, shampoo, motor oil containers. Recycling status: Widely accepted.

#5 PP (Polypropylene) Yogurt containers, deli containers, bottle caps, medicine bottles. Recycling status: Acceptance is growing — check locally.

#4 LDPE (Low-Density Polyethylene) Plastic film — grocery bags, bread bags, produce bags. NOT accepted curbside — take to grocery store drop-off.

#6 PS (Polystyrene) Styrofoam — Not accepted in most programs.

#7 (Other) Generally not accepted curbside.

The practical rule: Rigid bottles/containers of #1 or #2 — recycle. Flexible film or foam — not in the curbside bin.

5. Organic Materials (Compostables)

Composting is a separate process from recycling but a core part of waste diversion. Organic material that goes to compost doesn’t end up in a landfill.

Compostable materials: fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags, eggshells, paper napkins, cardboard, yard waste.

Bioplastics (PLA): NOT the same as regular plastic recycling — only compostable in industrial composting facilities.

Special Material Categories That Require Non-Curbside Recycling

E-Waste: Computers, phones, TVs, printers, game consoles, cables — take to Best Buy or municipal e-waste events.

Batteries: Alkaline — many retailers accept. Rechargeable — Call2Recycle drop-off. Car batteries — auto parts stores.

Plastic Film: Grocery store drop-off.

Textiles: Donation or textile recycling bins.

HHW: Motor oil, paint, pesticides — municipal HHW program.

Material-Specific Quick Reference

The Bottom Line

When you pick up a container: what material is it primarily made of? Is it paper, glass, metal, or rigid plastic? If clean — it likely belongs in your bin. Film, foam, or wrapper? Special handling. Hazardous? HHW. Electronic? E-waste.

For more detail on specific materials, see our guides on plastic recycling codes explained and what ruins a recycling batch.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.