NO organic material, like food, can be recycled in your recycling cart at home. Leftover or unused food in containers is contamination and impacts the recyclability of quality materials. Recycling haulers cannot process, ship, or sell materials that are covered in food. Peanut butter, leftover sauce, fruit juice, and other organics contaminate TONS of materials! Contaminated material goes to the landfill instead of being reused to make new materials. Empty and rinse containers before recycling, or put the container in the garbage.

Paper towels, napkins, and other single-use paper items harbor germs and contaminants that we do not want to be recycled. Even if they are clean, these paper products are made with very short fibers and have reached their end of life.

Foil-like packaging and crinkly plastic packages are very flimsy and have no recyclable value. Putting wrappers in your recycling is contamination that the recycling facility has to sort out and throw away. Put them in the garbage.

Both metal and paper are recyclable on their own, but not when they are combined together. It is very difficult to separate materials on paper canisters with metal rims, so it is best to throw them in the trash.