Recycle This Pittsburgh

Some Surprising DON’Ts of Pittsburgh Curbside Recycling

The top surprising things not to do when using Pittsburgh’s curbside recycling program to best help your items and the rest of the recycling stream here in the city.

#1 – Don’t put your recyclables in a plastic bag (and don’t put plastic bags in with other recyclables)

In the past the city told residents to use blue plastic bags to gather up items for curbside recycling, and they still do say this is ok. However, this practice is being phased out because it causes issues with the recycling processing machinery. While using these bags may still technically accepted with curbside recycling, the city “highly discourages” introducing additional plastic bags into the recycling stream. The best way to put your recyclables out for curbside pickup is with a blue recycling bin which can typically be purchased at home improvement stores.

The City has a 3 year plan to distribute blue recycling bins to all residents, although details of the distribution have not been released yet. You can sign up to be notified on updates to the City’s distribution here: https://pittsburghpa.gov/blue-bin-info/. If you happen to live in North Side, you can request a bin now through PRC (Pennsylvania Resource Council): https://prc.org/pittsburghbins/. You can wait for a free bin from the city, but if you can afford to purchase your own bin now, it will be a big help to the city’s recycling. Every household that switches away from the blue bags increases the overall success and value of the City’s curbside recycling.

If you must use blue plastic bags, keep extra plastic bags out of your recyclables and tie the bags holding your items very loosely. If your bags don’t open up easily they may end up in the pile of rejected materials along with the contents.

Find out more about plastic bags and where you can drop them off for recycling.

#2 – No plastic or metal pieces less than 2 inches

These small items can cause issues with machinery – that includes all plastic caps, most plastic lids, metal lids, bottle caps, tiny plastic bottles, etc. Remove these items. Metal lids and other scraps can be dropped off at a scrap metal recycling location which include Construction Junction, as well as the city’s East End, West End, and Hazelwood drop-off centers. Plastic lids and some other plastic items can be mailed into the Preserve Gimme 5 program.

#3 – No shredded paper

While paper is generally OK to include, the city no longer accepts shredded paper with curbside recycling. Shredded paper must be dropped off at one of the city’s drop-off locations and contained in a bag. If you put out at curb it will be landfilled.

#4 – No Plastic “clamshells”

The common thin-plastic clamshell often used for grocery produce items or restaurant take-out is not accepted with the city’s curbside recycling. There is at least one location, Michael Bros. Hauling, outside the city, that is collecting these items for recycling. See more on our clamshell entry.

#5 – No compostable plastics

​Compostable plastics, Polylactic Acid, are fully recyclable IF sent to an appropriate processing center. In the past a local company tried to separate these materials out of recycling streams but it became too costly. These items can contaminate the main recycling stream and will not be composted if placed out with curbside items.

Where use of compostable plastic can make sense is for special events where you arrange for these items to be contained, sorted and sent to a commercial composter. Read more about compostable plastics here.

*BONUS: About those Construction Junction Recycling Dumpsters..

Many people in Pittsburgh are aware that there are recycling collection dumpsters near the entrance of the Construction Junction parking lot. However, many people don’t realize that these dumpsters are collected by the City and for the most part these dumpsters only accept the same items that are accepted in curbside recycling. This is particularly important when it comes to plastics – only rigid plastic bottles, jars, and jugs (without caps) are accepted – no bags, tubes, trays, clamshells, plastic cups, etc. Please don’t take your clamshells, cups, etc to these dumpsters – you will be contaminating the accepted plastic items! (by the way, the same is true at all the city’s dropoff locations, even if you see old signage that says otherwise.)

The only item you can drop off at these dumpsters that you can’t put out for city curbside collection is bags of shredded paper.

Though these dumpsters are separated by type, they are often collected by a single city truck. However, the city has been working on changing this. The bright green dumpsters for glass collection are picked up by a separate truck. And on some days so are the mixed paper dumpsters. Why does this matter? Because these separate pickups keep recyclables from cross-contaminating each other (like crushed glass embedded in paper!) and that means that these items are worth more and are more likely to be recycled.

So, although you can’t take plastics not allowed curbside to Construction Junction for recycling, you can make a point to drop off your glass and paper instead of putting those items out curbside. This will help increase the value of these items and improve the overall quality of Pittsburgh’s recycling.