Recycle
What You CAN’T Recycle in Philadelphia (on the Streets)
One of the most popular questions we are asked is “Can I recycle this?”
Now that we’ve gone over what you can recycle for curbside efforts in Philadelphia – plastics and beyond – here’s a list of what you can’t recycle:
- Metal: Aluminum foil, pots/pans, paper clips
- Glass: Light bulbs, window glass
- Mixed Paper: Hard back books, tissues, paper,towels, napkins, wax-coated cups or containers, food-soiled paper, fi le folders
- Plastic: Styrofoam, plastic bags, PVC pipe, packing inserts or “peanuts.”
- Other: Styrofoam, chemicals, rubber, wood, and ceramic or porcelain plates or cups containers
Posted by Julie
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Julie Hancher is Editor-in-Chief of Green Philly, sharing her expertise of all things sustainable in the city of brotherly love. She enjoys long walks in the park with local beer and greening her travels, cooking & cat, Sir Floofus Drake.
View all posts by Julie Hancher
Does food soiled paper include pizza boxes? I’m always on the fence about the pizza boxes.
What about plastics #1 – 7 that aren’t bottles? Blueberry containers, etc…
Good question Clay! The grease & cheese from those Lorenzo’s pies will contaminate the recycling process… so if you tear the ‘soiled’ portions and recycle the rest, you’re good to go. (The boxes made of cardboard are recyclable.) As a reminder, you should typically rinse food containers/etc to prevent contamination.
Carol, luckily Philadelphia just allowed us to start recycling ANY plastic 1-7! Check out this recent post about plastics for more info: http://tiny.cc/vkntq
dont recycle its bad very very very very very very very very bad
en español no reciclar esta mal muy muy muy muy muy muy muy muy mal
Hi Santi – why are you saying that recycling is bad? It actually saves space in landfills and reuses materials for new products.
I dont know if you still maintain this page, but why cant we recycle pots and pans? I have a teflon pan that i was planning to put in the bin…..thanks!