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• Items on the cart card
  • What to do if your cart was carded
• Why recycling right matters
• What makes recycling so hard?
• Common recycling mistakes
• Problem plastic items
• Other problem items

cart card items

Starting later this year, Streets Division staff will be inspecting recycling carts at the curb before we collect them.

There are five (or six) main problems we are looking for when doing these cart checks. 

Here are the categories and an explanation about why they are a problem and what you should do with them instead of putting them into the recycling cart at your home:

Bad Bags

Recycling should be loose in your cart. 

The only exception is shredded paper, which needs to be placed into clear bags.  The bags of shredded paper needs to be tied closed, and the bags must not be larger than a basketball.

If you absolutely must bag all of your recycling, the only acceptable way to do it is to use clear bags.

Black bags, gray bags, white bags, and any other bag you cannot see through is considered trash. 

Sorters at the recovery facility have to assume any bag they can't see into will contain trash, so they are pulled off the line and discarded.  They don't want to risk opening them up only to have something awful fall out. 

If you have used the wrong kind of bag, just empty out the good recyclables into the cart directly. Or, if you prefer to bag it, transfer them to a plastic bag you can see through.

 

Tanglers (ropes, hoses, plastic film, etc.)

This is a broad category of items that includes plastic wrap, grocery store bags, rope, hoses, belts, and many other similar items that are terrible for the sorting equipment at recovery facilities

They get tangled into the rollers and jam robotic vacuums.  This leads to costly down time and the facility has to shut down and unwind all of these knotted up messes created by tanglers.

What you should do with your tangler depends on the item.

Plastic bags and plastic wrap should go to a retailer for recycling and never in the green recycling cart at your home.

Other tanglers are probably trash if it cannot be donated, but you are welcome to contact us for assistance.

 

Clothes / Textiles

Clothes, bedding, and curtains also jam sorting equipment that separates the bottles, cans, cardboard and other good household recyclables that should be in your cart.  These are basically tanglers, too.

Never place clothes or textiles into the green recycling cart.

The good news is that there are a lot of local options on where you can take your textiles and clothes.

If you are worried that what you have may not be able to be sold again, check with the place where you would like to donate items about what happens to items they can't sell.  You may be surprised to learn that many of the clothes and textiles donated locally that cannot be sold do find other uses as industrial rags or filling to punching bags and other possible uses as well.   

 

Wood / Lumber

Lumber and other wood products do not belong in the recycling cart. 

This kind of material can damage the sorting equipment at the recovery facility.

If you want your lumber or wood products to be beneficially reused, you have to take it to a Streets Division drop-off site and place it into the wood bin. 

We do not recycle the wood products into paper or anything like that.  The wood products we receive ground up, and then used as road base at the landfill campus.

 

Styrofoam

Never put styrofoam in the green recycling cart. 

The sorting equipment will destroy these containers and fling the little plastic pellets all over other good recyclables, contaminating other materials.

If you want to recycle styrofoam, you must bring it to a drop-off site. Yes, it is only something that is a drop off only item for recycling.

Styrofoam is not mixed in with all of the other recyclables we collect.  We load giant bags of it onto a semi-truck and then haul it separately to Reynolds Urethane Recycling on the east side of Madison where it is processed.

If you do not want to bring styrofoam to a drop-off site, then it belongs in the trash.

 

Other Problems

Cart inspectors are also looking for any other obvious problems that should not be in the recycling cart. 

For example, televisions do not belong in the recycling cart.  You have to take them to a drop-off site.  On occasion, we will find one wedged into the cart believe it or not.  It's rare, but it happens along with any number of things where people mean well, but they just make a mistake.

The cart inspectors will be on the look out for any of these problems while checking the carts.  And, whatever this other problem item may be, we do need you to remove it from the cart. 

If you are unsure what to do with these items, please contact us for help and we will let you know what to do.

 

What to do if your recycling cart is flagged

You're not alone in this situation.  And the solution is easy.

Just remove the problem item or items from the recycling cart then contact the Streets Division for the next steps. 

We'll get it set up to come back to collect the fixed recycling cart as soon as we can. Most of the time we will be back the next work day after you call us to empty the corrected recycling cart. 

 

why recycling right matters

Per a 2023 sort of the recyclables, approximately 18.6% of the material that is put in Madison's green recycling carts should not be there.

This material is removed at the recycling plant and sent to the landfill. This misplaced trash costs Madison taxpayers thousands of dollars. 

And, in some cases, the wrong material can be dangerous and it can cause significant damage to the facilities that sort the materials.

Use the information available to be sure you, your roommates, your family, and coworkers are recycling right. 

Check out the video that shows how your recycling is sorted. That will help you better understand why some of these items below are not accepted and are a problem in the recycling system.

Below are some of the mistakes folks make when putting things into their recycling.

 

Other Common recycling mistakes

Putting Full Boxes in the Cart

You must empty and flatten your cardboard boxes before putting them into the recycling.

A lot of packing material cannot be recycled.

You are also using up too much space within your recycling cart when you don't collapse your boxes and empty them out.  This makes it harder for you to fit other recyclables inside the cart.

 

Putting the Wrong Kind of Glass in the Cart

Drinking glasses, baking dishes, windows, light bulbs, and other glass items do not belong in your recycling cart.

Only bottles and jars can be placed into your recycling.

Why? Bottles & jars melt at different temperatures than other types of glass.  And you can't separate the other types of glass out from bottles & jar glass once it's all mixed together.  Here's a long video about glass bottle making from a bottle manufacturer if you're interested to learn more about the process.

 

Putting Items that are Too Small in the Cart

If the item is smaller than a standard sticky note, then it should go into the trash.

Small things like bottle caps, or loose shredded paper, fall in with the glass.

Why? It has to do with how the sorting equipment works.  Anything smaller than a sticky note is designed to fall into the glass sorting area.  And then the company that processes the glass has to clean it again.

 

Full Bottles & Cans

The recycling sorting system is designed to move empty containers through the system. If you put in things that are not empty, like a half-full pop bottle, you make are causing two problems. 

First, whatever is inside your container could burst out of the bottle or can and sling all over good clean recyclables. 

And second, since the system is meant to move empty containers, your full bottle weighs different.  This means it will bounce through the system in a way that it's not meant to, meaning it may get sorted in correctly - on top of it being being full of beans, pop, or whatever else that doesn't belong.

 

Having Your Cart Lids Open at the Curb is a Mistake

When you leave your cart lids open, it leaves the material inside exposed to rain and snow. 

This can ruin paper products. 

Please keep the lids on your cart closed.

 

 

PROBLEM PLASTICS

Not everything plastic belongs in your recycling cart.

Only put the right kind of plastic containers in your cart.

 

Plastic Buckets (Kitty Litter Buckets, Etc.)

They are too big for the recycling cart. An empty milk jug is about the largest plastic container you would want to put into the recycling cart.

If they are in good shape and you cannot reuse it, take them to the one of the drop-off sites. We reuse those buckets for our battery recycling program.  If they are broken, put them into the trash.

 

Flat Plastics

Flat items get sorted with paper and cardboard. If you put a flat plastic thing into your recycling cart (like a CD or a gift card) that gets mixed into the paper products where it does not belong. Do not place flat plastic items into your cart.

 

Rigid Plastics

Buckets, flower pots, toys, and other rigid plastic items do not belong in your cart.

Only put the correct plastic containers into the recycling.

 

Wrong Kind of Plastic Cups

Most common plastic cups, like the popular red ones Toby Keith sang about, are made from #6 plastic and do not belong in your recycling cart.  These brittle plastic cups shatter easily and the shards get mixed in with good recyclable glass.

Cups that are made from #1, #2, and #5 plastic are okay if they are empty, clean, and dry.

If reusable cups are not an option for you and your gathering, there are also aluminum options that are a little more expensive but are also perfectly recyclable.

 

Plastic 6-pack Rings

Do not put these into your recycling cart. The clip-on style six-pack rings are too flat to go into your recycling cart because they will act like paper. Some liquor stores or tap rooms (or possibly even home brewers) may accept them for recycling or reuse. Traditional six-pack rings also belong in the trash.

 

Plastic Insulation

Some meal preparation kit deliveries come with plastic insulation that goes into your trash.

This cannot go into your recycling cart.

Sure, the insulation may say to put it in your recycling cart, but that labeling is wrong for the City of Madison program.

 

Plastic Cutlery

These items are too flat for your cart.

 

Other Random Plastic Stuff

Just because it's plastic doesn't mean it's recyclable in the cart at your home.

Air mattresses, sleds, shower curtains, and all sorts of other plastic stuff exists in our homes but cannot go into the recycling cart.

We can accept plastic containers, like it has a lid, handle, or neck, with a "resin ID codes" 1 through 7. 

The "resin ID code" is that number inside the triangle that you can find on the bottom of some plastic items.

If it is not a container, or if you cannot find a code, then place it into the trash.

 

problematic and dangerous items

Batteries

Never place batteries or items that have batteries in the recycling. 

Batteries can be dangerous and they are common source of fires.

Follow these steps to recycle them.

 

Propane Tanks (all sizes)

Camp stove containers and all other propane tanks do not belong in the recycling cart.

The small ones can be taken to Dane County Clean Sweep. 

The large ones more appropriate for gas grills can be recycled at the drop-off sites if they are empty and the valve is open.

 

Water Filters

They are plastic on the outside, but full of charcoal or some other media on the inside to filter the water.  Do not put them in your recycling. Check with the manufacturer to see if a mailback program is available.

 

Ice Cream Tubs, Oyster Pails, and Similiar Food Takeout Boxes

These kind of containers are still not acceptable in our system, so they should go into the trash.

Takeout paper cups are now recyclable if they are clean and dry.  Cartons are recyclable, too. However, we still can't take these ice cream / oyster pail style containers in the recycling recycling yet.

 

K-Cups or Other Coffee Pods

These small pods can clog the screens used to sort glass. 

Place these into  the trash.

 

Diapers

They contain human waste, and it's a mix of plastic and paper projects.

Put these in the trash (and choose ones you can wash out and reuse if you can).

 

Flexible Packaging (metallic pouches, squeeze pouches, etc.)

They belong in the trash.

 

Porcelain & Dishes

Do not put your broken dishes, or anything like porcelain or enamel or whatever your hard dinner plates and bowls are made out of into your recycling cart. 

Donate them if they are usable, or place them into the trash if they are not.

Why? When your recyclables are sorted, this kind of material will fall in with the good recyclable bottle & jar glass.  And this stuff cannot be recycled with glass.  The companies that process recycled glass into cullet so it can be made back into bottles or other materials have to remove all of these broken bits of dishes or other porcelain / enamel items.  This adds a lot of cost, labor, and time to the process.

 

Light Bulbs

Do not place light bulbs in the recycling cart.  This is the wrong kind of glass, and they all contain other items besides glass that are problematic.

There are a wide variety of types of light bulbs out there, and the correct way to dispose of them safely varies.

Use this website for help on how to correctly dispose of your bulbs.

 

Bear Paws

Yeah, that happened one time. Should go without saying that animal parts should not go into the recycling.

 

why is recycling so hard?

You're not alone in thinking this. And the funny thing is - recycling is actually pretty easy.

It hasn't really changed all that much over the years.

So - what gives?

Why are there so many bad articles?  And why are so many things I want to recycle not actually recyclable here?  Why is the packaging so confusing?  And if it's "so easy" why does it feel stressful? 

Let's dive in. 

The TL;DR of the following essay is this:

Recycling is regional and the stuff in our lives is complicated & ever-changing (and plastic alone is complicated and everywhere). As consumers, the work has been put on you to figure all of this out. It all boils down to this: trust your local guidelines so you can recycle right, and in general, making less waste is always the best choice.

 

Recycling laws are regional

You can't trust everything you read online about recycling. Recycling rules and opportunities are not the same everywhere.  This is a nuance often missed in national stories and definitely not captured in just a headline.

You have to trust your local sources because online hubs may not have the local information right.

All 50 states have different recycling laws. There are no blanket rules that govern recycling across the entire county.  It feels like something that should be the same everywhere, but it's not.  (There is a national strategy to improve it across the country, but laws and opportunities still vary.)

Wisconsin has very strong and specific mandates about what you must recycle and what is banned from the landfills. Most of what you put in your recycling cart in Madison is required to be there by state law.

The fact that each state is different, and recycling opportunities vary, does lead to some confusion, no doubt about it. 

What this really means is that your best source of information is your local recycling provider. 

Searching for help online or posting questions to your preferred social media platform may not return the answers that are true for where you live because who knows where these online answers got their information.

You have to go to the source for who serves your home.

This does mean you have to know who handles your recyclables, and how to contact them.  And here is how to contact the Streets Division.

 

The packaging says its recyclable - so why can't I do it here?

One of the downsides of the regional recycling system in our country is that major companies will put on their packaging that something is recyclable but then it turns out that it isn't recyclable where you live. 

You see it on pizza boxes, toothpaste tubes, and probably other products where your first instinct is probably, "Really? This is recyclable?"

Now, these items very likely are recyclable some places  But, not necessarily everywhere.

(As an aside - can you recycle toothpaste tubes here in Madison?  No.  Whole greasy pizza boxes?  No.  You can recycle the clean cardboard parts, but not the parts covered in cheese or grease.)

Since recycling is regional, it is difficult for big brands to know what each individual recycling rules are in every community around the country, and there are a few hundred different facilities around the US that sorts residential recyclables, all of them with slightly different capabilities.

Of course brands want their products to be recyclable.  And it's great that they made the effort to improve their products, too.  This work must be commended. 

But it can also confusing since it can't be accepted universally.

The "Check Locally" label is an example of something you see sometimes on packaging that tries to address the regional nature of recycling - but again, you then have to check locally instead of online national or international sources.

 

Its our stuff, not recycling

The stuff in our lives is complicated and constantly changing. 

Recycling has been around in Madison for a long time. And it really grew into what we use today in the 1990s.  The paper, cardboard, plastic bottles & jugs, glass bottles & jars, and metal cans we could recycle back then are still the recyclables of today. 

That hasn't changed.

But, do you think the things in our lives have changed in the last thirty plus years?  That's a pretty safe you betcha.

And change isn't a bad thing.  As packaging changes, things get lighter, which can reduce the overall carbon footprint of some packaging. 

But new items are not always designed with the ability for recycling systems to actually reclaim them.

New packaging may be made from material that could be recycled, but the mechanisms available to actually pluck these items out from all of the other recyclables just can't get it effectively.

Recycling produces the raw materials for the circular economy

That's a different way of saying that recycling is a business.

In order for recycling to work, really work, someone has to want to buy the collected material, probably make something new out of it, and then sell this new thing at a profit.  That's the basic business model.

When new packaging designs get made, it takes a lot of investment in people, equipment, or even robots equipped with artificial intelligence, to be able to gather these things. Once you gather them up, you need some other company willing to buy them at a price that makes all that previous investment worthwhile. 

It's difficult to make expensive investments if you don't have a place to go with the material once you collect it, so that final link in the chain needs to be there. 

As our stuff changes, it's hard for an entire industry built on regional systems to keep adapting to each new innovation since new ways to package tuna or coffee beans or toothpaste whatever will probably keep coming.  And if change comes faster than equipment can gather it, and faster than producers who want to make new things out of it, then it's hard to reclaim that particular type of item or packaging.

Trouble with plastics

We've all seen the headlines about the troubles with plastics and recycling. 

And if you are reading these articles and thinking, "I need to quit making so much plastic waste!" You are doing it right. Making less waste is always the right answer.  But let's dig into this plastic issue a bit more.

Plastic is a multi-faceted, complicated, chemical achievement that allowed us to have all sorts of modern conveniences and it is understatement to say there are challenges and a lot of it to manage.

When it comes to recycling plastic containers, as noted above, recycling laws vary by state.

In Wisconsin certain plastic containers must be recycled, and that includes Madison, and they are recycled.

But have you ever paused and considered just how much plastic and how many different kinds of plastic there really are in your life?

We tend to think of plastic as just the pop bottles and milk jugs, but it is way, way more than that. 

It's car parts. It's picture frames. It's bags. It's keyboards. It's air mattresses. It's in your phone. It's in our clothes. It's wrapped around most of the food at the grocery store. It's the lids on our reusable water bottles.  It's the lacquer on tabletops. It's medical devices. It's everywhere.  It's in so many different parts of our lives it's hard to quantify all of it or avoid it.

Plastic isn't just one type of thing. 

Saying "plastic" is like saying "fruit." 

Sure, a blueberry and a pineapple are both fruit, but you would never say they are the same thing. 

You know those numbers on plastic containers?  Those tell you what kind of plastic it is made from.  That doesn't automatically mean the plastic thing is recyclable.

And those numbers barely scratch the surface on just how varied plastic really is.  Nylon. Acrylic sheets. The hard shell covers in the back of truck beds. All of it plastic - none of it the same.

Have you ever noticed how some plastic feels different in your hand?  How some of it kind of crinkles and some of it is stiffer or has more bounce to it when you press it? It feels different because it is different.

Not all plastic can be reclaimed through the recycling at your home; this is true.

There's just so much plastic out there, and the machinery that sorts the material from your home is designed to get containers like bottles and jugs - it's not for everything.

When you talk about "plastic recycling" what kind of plastic is being talked about?  Plastic such a wide, wide chemical fruit salad of different stuff. 

Plus, with rules and opportunities being regional, and materials being varied, a headline can't capture all that complexity.

Reading these articles and questioning your relationship with plastic is understandable.  And, yes, absolutely, make less plastic waste.  Please.  All of us should.

Less waste is always best.

First, pause to evaluate your consumption to really see what you're doing, and then address some behaviors.

Maybe you stop buying certain single-use plastic items from the store.  Maybe you start questioning all those online orders that come with so many plastic pillows or wrapped in so many layers of plastic sheets.  Or you start looking for other ways to reduce your plastic consumption, like avoiding items that are always individually wrapped.  You can skip using plastic bags. Maybe you swap out your single use coffee pods for refillable options. Or dozens of other small ways that can add up. 

And in conclusion...

For recycling, it pretty simple, really follow your local recycling rules. That's really all there is to it.  The local rules will always be freely available, and if you have questions please ask.

And, of course, less waste is best.