Your blue cart is for acceptable household paper, cardboard, and container packaging. It is important to recycle the right things in your blue cart and community recycling depots, and properly prepare your materials.
When you put in items that don’t belong, it can cause injuries to workers and costly shutdowns at recycling sorting facilities. Not sure where to put an item? Check out What Goes Where: https://www.calgary.ca/waste/what-goes-where/default.html.
Put These Items into Your Blue Cart:
- Bundled Stretchy Plastic Bags and Cling Wrap
Bundle all stretchy plastic bags into a single plastic bag and tie closed before recycling. Acceptable bags include:
- Grocery bags
- Shopping bags
- Sandwich/lunch bags
- Resealable/Ziploc bags
- Freezer bags
- Bread bags
- Dry cleaner bags
- Plastic overwrap (wrapping on toilet or paper towel, water bottle cases)
- Plastic film wrap (saran wrap)
- Bubble wrap
Tip: If the plastic bag/wrap stretches (like a grocery bag) it’s recyclable; if it does not stretch, is crinkly, or tears (like a chip bag or cellophane), it’s not recyclable.
- Paper and Cardboard
- Cardboard boxes (cereal, pizza, tissue boxes, etc.)
- Toilet and paper towel tubes
- Catalogues, magazines, and telephone books
- Newspapers, flyers, and brochures
- Letters and envelopes (remove plastic window)
- Paper coffee cups and fountain pop cups (no lid)
- Greeting cards
- Non-foil paper gift wrap
- Paper bags
- Soup and beverage cartons (e.g.Tetra Pak® packages)
- Milk cartons and juice boxes
- Shredded paper (in a see-through bag and tied closed)
- Paperback and hardcover books (separate hardcovers from pages)
- Container Packaging
Your blue cart is for containers – bottles, jugs, jars, cartons, cans, and other rigid containers.
3a. Containers made of plastic
- Milk jugs
- Yogurt tubs
- Pop bottles
- Takeout containers
- Laundry detergent container
- Body lotion containers (no tubes)
- Beverage and juice bottles
- Mouthwash bottles
- Shampoo and conditioner bottles (no hand pumps)
- Molded plastic packaging
- A plastic holder with a cardboard backing – separate each item for recycling
- Clamshell packaging
- Divided food trays like cookie trays or party trays
Tip: Once you have determined that your plastic item is a container, then look for a recycling symbol from 1 through 7. If your plastic item is not a container, do not recycle.
3b. Containers made of tin – food cans and tin foil
- Tin food cans
- Clean tin foil (crumple up)
- Foil takeout containers and pie plates
- Tin containers (e.g. cookie tins)
- Pop cans
3c. Containers made of glass – food jars and bottles
- Glass food jars – baby food jars, salsa jars
- Glass bottles – pop bottles, condiment bottles
- Lids and Caps
- Metal lids must be larger than 5 cm (two inches) in diameter
- Plastic lids must be larger than 7.5 cm (three inches) in diameter
Tip: If the lid is about the size of the palm of your hand, it’s okay to recycle. Please note that all coffee cup lids belong in the garbage. They are too light to be sorted properly at the recycling facility.
