Preparing your recyclables

Preparing your recyclables

Preparing your recyclables the right way will ensure your blue cart materials can be safely collected, sorted and turned into new products. 

Empty and clean

Recyclables must be empty and clean before going in the blue cart. This makes sure they can be sorted properly at the recycling facility, prevents other recyclables from getting wet and dirty, and allows manufacturers to use the material to create new products.

Empty your recyclables

Pour out excess liquids.

Scrape out food bits into your kitchen compost pail.

Clean your recyclables

Rinse out all food containers.

Shake excess water out before putting in recycling.

Labels can be left on the containers.

Tips for cleaning your recyclables

General cleaning and scraping

  • Take a used paper towel or napkin and wipe out any food residue from the container (then you can compost the food-soiled napkin).
  • Add a few centimeters of water to a container, cover with your hand or the lid, shake and drain to clean. Repeat if needed.
  • Some containers might be a little harder to clean, like peanut butter jars. Use a rubber spatula to scrape out the remaining food to eat or compost.
  • Store near-empty containers upside down to get the last amounts out to use.
  • Turn stretchy bags inside out to shake out contents.

Water-saving tips

  • Use gray water to clean recyclables (e.g., plug the sink while you rinse off fruits and veggies, then use this water to clean out recyclables).
  • Add dirty containers to any empty spaces in your dishwasher.
  • Add water when the container feels empty. Shake and use the diluted solution (e.g., soap, shampoo) until it runs out.

Special preparation items

Some items need to be bagged because they are manually sorted by workers to prevent equipment jams at the sorting facility. The rest of your recyclables must be loose so the machines can sort them properly. Learn how the sorting facility works.

Bundle your stretchy bags together

Hang a bag off a hook or door handle and fill up with stretchy plastic bags and plastic film as you finish using them. Once full, double-knot bag closed for recycling.

Stretchy bags examples

Bag your shredded paper

Put shredded paper into a see-through bag for recycling.

Keep the rest of your recyclables loose (unbagged)

Put the rest of your recycling loose into your blue cart and close the lid.

All recyclables must be inside the blue cart for pickup.

Why can't I bag recyclables?

  • Don't put recyclables in black garbage or blue recycling bags. 
  • Recyclables need to be loose (unbagged) to be sorted by the machines.
  • For the safety of the workers, garbage bags are marked as garbage and are not opened.

Other recycling tips

Don’t jam recyclables inside the bin or they won’t fall out during pickup.

Put carts out only on pickup day; otherwise, keep them on your property or against the fence.

Related pages

Don't know where to put an item?

What Goes Where

Use our online search tool to look up recycling, compost, and safe disposal options for hundreds of items.

Look up items for disposal

Preparing your other carts

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