Recycle This Pittsburgh

What Plastics Can Go Into Pittsburgh Curbside Recycling?

When it comes to the city’s residential recycling program, there’s a limited set of plastic items that are accepted as of January 2020: bottles, jars, and jugs larger than 2 inches and smaller than 3 gallons.

That’s it. 

“Look for the Neck”

One way to remember what is accepted is the phrase “look for the neck.” Generally speaking, necked-containers will be a bottle, jar, or jug. The neck can be narrow, like the tops of water bottles, soda bottles, soap dispensers, etc., or wide, like at the tops of peanut butter jars. Most containers with a neck are accepted curbside (though one exception is plastic tubes with necks, such as toothpaste or sunscreen tubes, which are not accepted.)

What ISN’T Accepted?

What isn’t accepted? For starters, all caps, lids, pumps and other small pieces are not accepted. Remove these from your bottles, jars, and jugs, then rinse these containers out before placing them in your recycling bin. In addition, all other plastic items such as bags, buckets, tubs, tubes, trays, and clamshells are not currently accepted in Pittsburgh curbside recycling either. 

What About Those Recycling Symbols?

What about those little numbers in the recycling symbol usually printed on the bottom of plastic items? Why do these no longer determine what is accepted for recycling? The truth is they never did. These numbers don’t give the whole story about the recycling value of a product. While they indicate the type material an item is made out of, they do not mean that an item is actually being recycled. The form-factor of the product has a big impact on its value and how well it makes it through the recycling sorting process. (To hear more about why these “recycling” symbols are so disconnected from what is actually recycled, check out this snippet from Frontline’s Plastic Wars documentary.)

This is why the city’s recycling program has moved away from numbers and instead is focused on the overall shape of the container. Necked-containers are nearly always made out of heavier, rigid #1 (PET) or #2 (HDPE) plastic. In today’s current recycling market, these are the most valuable, re-sellable plastics, and the heavier bottle, jug, and jar shapes also sort relatively well. If you go looking for these numbers on other items, you’ll find that a lot of other items like clamshells and some cups are also #1. However, their light, thin form-factor means they are less valuable and less likely to make it correctly though the sorting process. Therefore they are not accepted in the city’s curbside program, and there are no other options for these items for Pittsburgh residents- they can really only be reused or put in the trash… or avoided in the first place! (UPDATE: There is a Pittsburgh-area hauler, Michael Brothers Hauling, who has started a collection for thin #1 and #2 plastics like clamshells. As of 3/2021, you can take these items there. They are working on finding a sales channel for them.)

Our Recyclables are a Commodity.

It’s important to remember that the city’s collected recyclables are a commodity that must be sold on the market. Buyers are looking for an effective “raw material” to make into new products and post-consumer plastic coming from our recycling program has to compete with subsidized virgin plastic raw material produced by the petrochemical industry. Like any commodity, quality and cost matters for sale value. It’s easy to look at a yogurt tub, a produce clamshell, or a plastic takeout container and think that they seem to be plastic worth recycling. And you’d be right to say that these items are technically recyclable. However, they should not be put in Pittsburgh curbside residential recycling as they contaminate other more valuable recyclables like paper and heavier plastics, lowering the value and recycling-prospects for the rest of the collected items. 

Reduce, Reuse, then Recycle.

So what can you do about these other not-accepted plastic items? The best thing you can do is to try to reduce how many of these plastic items you acquire by choosing products with non-plastic packaging (like glass, cans, boxes, or loose with no packaging at all). Purchasing in-bulk also reduces the ratio of packaging to product. And some items, like cups or take-out containers, can sometimes be avoided by carrying your own reusable containers with you.

Also, when buying items, look for products and packaging made from recycled plastic and paper. Increasing demand for post-consumer recycling increases the value of recyclables.

There are some specialized recycling programs for certain items such as particular types of plastic bags, toothbrushes, caps, plastic tubs,etc., though this may require dropping-off or mailing-in items. Recycle This Pittsburgh tries to capture and share these specialized recycling programs. Search our site for a specific item, or if you know of a recycling channel that we don’t have listed for an item, let us know.