Easy & FREE Philadelphia Recycling Guide © is HERE!

Not sure what goes into your blue Philadelphia single-stream* recycling bin?

Download a FREE printable Green Philly Recycling Guide ©

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How does single-stream recycling work? Let’s start at the beginning.

What is Single-Stream Recycling?

Philadelphia has two trucks that pick up waste on trash day: one for trash, the other for single-stream recycling.

Single-stream recycling works like this: Rather than asking residents to put separate bins for paper, plastic, cardboard, glass, etc. – everything can be placed in one single container. Once the recycling bin content is collected at curbside, the whole bunch are transported to the Material Recovery Facility (aka MRF), where everything is sorted by type. There are systems where the non-recyclables are sorted out, but wrong recyclables (like plastic bags) can get stuck in the MRF machines and cause problems.

Philadelphia even tries making it easy to recycle by giving residents FREE recycling bins. But so many of the wrong items end up in the recycling bin. (There’s even a new term for it: wishcycling.)

This brings us to the next dilemma – what goes INTO the recycling bin?

Download Your FREE Printable version of the Green Philly Philly Recycling Guide ©:

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You can use both guides for easy do’s & dont’s. For example, you can recycle plastics like food and beverage containers but not styrofoam. Definitely, keep those plastic bags OUT of the recycling bin.

Paper is pretty straight forward – you can recycle most printed paper. However, you can’t recycle paper once it’s soiled, if it’s soft (like tissues, paper towels, etc.) or waxed paper plates. The problem with waxed paper is that they’re often coated with plastic.

Cardboard is mostly universally recyclable. Don’t put your greasy pizza boxes into the recycling bin – it can taint the recycling stream at the MRF.

Glass is another (mostly) universal recycling product. However, if glass is broken (especially the tiny pieces), you cannot recycle it. Don’t toss your lightbulbs or porcelain in single-stream recycling either.

Metal is recyclable.

There’s also a lot of items that aren’t recyclable in single-stream, but you can often find other places to recycle. Food waste should be composted. There are local services like Circle Compost that pick it up for you in Philadelphia!

For other odd objects, search our popular Where Can I Wednesday column.

Is your recycling problem not listed? Ask us and we’ll answer in an upcoming column!