Recycle This Pittsburgh

Metal Food Cans

About These Items

Metal food cans are a form of metal packaging made of tin-plated steel or aluminum. The City of Pittsburgh accepts these cans in curbside recycling. However, detached can lids should not be put into curbside recycling as these items, often small and thin, may not make it through recycling sorting process.

It’s important not to contaminate curbside recyclables with food and liquids, so be sure to rinse out these cans.

These Cans are Very Recyclable.

Steel cans are highly recyclable and are also one of the most recycled items in the world. In the U.S., over 60% of steel cans are recycled. Aluminum cans are similarly highly recyclable, although only about 16% of these cans are recycled here in the United States, leaving hundreds of millions of dollars worth of aluminum in our landfills.

These metal cans can be successfully recycled over and over without the degradation problems seen in plastic, making cans a relatively sustainable form of packaging- as long as they make it into the recycling stream.

What about the lids?

Often when opening one of these cans, the lid is completely detached. These loose lids can be problematic for the recycling sorting process and they are not accepted in Pittsburgh curbside recycling. If a can’s lid is not fully detached, it can stay on the can when you put it into curbside recycling- the issue is loose lids.

You can drop off loose can lids at a scrap metal drop-off location:

Should the Labels Be Removed?

You do not have to remove the labels on cans when putting them into curbside recycling.

But if you are dropping off your paper recyclables separately or if you are dropping off your cans to a metal scrap yard instead of putting them out for curbside recycling, then you could remove the paper labels and put them into your paper recycling to give the paper a better chance of being recycled.