Dear Eartha, I just started recycling this year. I thought plastic was recyclable but I got a note on my bin this summer saying that plastic cups and berry containers are trash. What’s the deal?

From the moment we open our eyes until the time we turn in each evening, we’re faced with plastic in all parts of our lives. Mobile phones (alarm clocks), clothing, yogurt tubs, vehicle interiors, computers, lunch boxes, pens, chairs, food packaging, soap dispensers, toothbrushes … the list goes on. And when it comes to recycling, not all plastics are created equally. In fact, many of those plastics I named are not recyclable. If you need answers quickly, check out the Recycling Search Tool from the High Country Conservation Center. Type in any item, and you can learn what to recycle in Summit County, where to recycle it and what belongs in the trash.

Recycling 101

Before I break down some of the top plastics questions, let’s do a little recycling 101. The mixed recycling you put in your curbside bin travels from your home to the local Summit County Resource Allocation Park, or SCRAP, where it’s packaged up with all the other curbside recycling in the County. From here, it heads to a larger Denver facility for sorting and shipping to mills or manufacturers.

That’s pretty straightforward in the case of a newspaper: once the Denver facility packages up and ships out all the newsprint, it heads to a paper mill. There, it’s added to something like a giant blender and mixed with water to create a “slurry.” Tape and staples are filtered out, the slurry dries, and you’ve got recycled paper.

In the case of plastics, more steps (and facilities and transportation) are required for additional cleaning, melting, and reforming into tiny pellets that can be used to make new items. Since plastics come in many different forms that can’t be mixed when melting, only the most valuable plastics – like soda bottles and milk jugs – are collected for recycling. That’s why your plastic cups and berry containers are best thrown in the trash. Let’s dig in to a few of the top questions from Summit County locals.

Plastic Bottle Caps

Despite confusing directions and messages on the tops of many 2-liter (or smaller) soda bottles, these plastic bottle caps belong in the trash. Why? When recycling gets crushed in the truck, or at the SCRAP, those tops pop off and end up as litter.

Plastic Yogurt Tubs

Often stamped with a #5 inside a little recycling symbol, yogurt tubs can be recycled in your mixed curbside, or single stream, recycling bin. You’re also welcome to pop in other dairy (and vegan alternative) tubs such as those containing ricotta cheese, sour cream, cottage cheese, Cool Whip, and cream cheese.

Plastic Bags

While plastic bag use is estimated to be down thanks to state-level changes, plastic bags still come inside of cereal boxes and wrapped around loaves of bread. Keep these and any other plastic bags or film out of your mixed curbside recycling. You can however take plastic bags to our local City Markets for recycling.

Plastic Packaging

From plastic cups and berry containers to toy packaging and cosmetic cases, plastic packaging belongs in the trash. While some local dentists and doctors collect specialty items like toothpaste tubes and disposable contact lens packaging, those items are the exception rather than the rule.

Recycling Search Tool

If you’ve read this far, you may be the type to consider all those random items and exceptions. Next time you have a recycling question, big or small, type your item into the local Search Tool. From refrigerators and yard trimmings to clothing and mattresses, the Recycling Search Tool will tell you how to properly dispose of anything in Summit County.

For those of us who simply don’t have time to sweat the small stuff – it’s 100 percent ok. Stay focused on properly recycling the most common items (like aluminum, glass, and cardboard) and challenge yourself to carpool with friends or neighbors. Protecting the planet goes beyond recycling and together we can make a big difference.

Ask Eartha Steward is written by the staff at the High Country Conservation Center, a nonprofit dedicated to waste reduction and resource conservation. Submit questions to Eartha at info@highcountryconservation.org.