• Recycling standards vary across the US, with municipalities often setting their own unique rules.
• Recycling the wrong material or including wet or dirty items can contaminate the waste stream.
• Some items may need to be dropped off at specific locations rather than collected.

Many of us have been guilty of "wish-cycling" — that is, tossing every piece of paper, plastic, metal, or glass in the blue bin, assuming it's probably recyclable.

Unfortunately, recycling is more complicated than that.

"There are literally thousands of recycling standards across the country," Rajesh Buch, a professor at Arizona State University, where he teaches a course on sustainable business, told Business Insider.

That's in part because recycling systems that sort through piles of discarded items can cost tens of millions of dollars. "In most communities," he said, "they don't have the resources to have these fully loaded, full-capacity systems."

The disposal of household batteries, for example, is a common source of confusion. While the EPA recommends that single-use household batteries be sent to specialized battery recyclers, it also says that "in most communities, alkaline and zinc carbon batteries can be safely put in your household trash."

For residents of New York City, however, the Department of Sanitation's guidelines declare this is illegal and dangerous, citing risk of fire and explosion. New York City residents are required to dispose of their batteries at waste drop-off sites or at stores that accept them.

Conflicting standards can be confusing, but dumping every container or scrap can contaminate the waste stream, Buch said.

Earth911 has a recycling locator that can help you find where to dispose of certain recyclables, or you can pay a company like TerraCycle to do the work for you.

That said, there are some items that almost always need to go in the garbage or a special recycling facility. Here is a list of 25 of them.

1. Aerosol cans

Aerosol cans are metal with plastic caps, which should be recycled separately. Some recyclers accept the cans, but others don't.

You'll want to make sure they're empty if you can recycle them, especially if the cans contained chemicals.

"Some of these are dangerous to put in the blue bin," Buch said.

2. Batteries

Some cities, like Seattle and New York, have barred people from throwing batteries in the trash because they can cause chemical leaks and fires. Batteries usually can't be recycled curbside, either.

Instead, a battery recycling facility needs to take them, Buch said.

If you want to recycle them, you can find retail locations willing to take batteries on the site Call2Recycle.

3. Chip bags and other snack wrappers

Chip bags, granola bar wrappers, and other snack packages are often multi-layered materials, Buch said.

"You've got foil on the outside," he said. "You've got a plastic coating on the inside, and that's not recyclable."

The machines aren't able to separate the layers, he said.

Some brands' packaging is recyclable through How2Recycle, though you'll have to drop it off at a participating grocery store or retailer.

4. Coffee mugs and other ceramics

There isn't good technology to recycle ceramics, Buch said. They can even damage equipment.

The same is true for heat-resistant glass used to make items like baking dishes. Unwanted ceramics can usually be discarded in the household trash.

5. Coffee pods

Over the years, coffee companies have made their pods more environmentally friendly by switching to a different type of recyclable plastic. But you still can't just toss them in your recycling right out of the machine.

"The foil is recyclable," Buch said. "The plastic is recyclable." But you have to remove the foil top from the plastic cup. As with all other recycling, it should be clean and dry.

Even when properly separated, though, the pods can be what Buch calls a "nuisance item." They're so small that they often fall through slots or holes in sorting machines instead of getting recycled.

"Anything that's 2 inches or smaller is going to fall out of the sorting system," Buch said.

There are still ways to recycle some pods, though. Nescafé accepts pods you return to them, for example.

6. Diapers

Disposable diapers are difficult to recycle "even if you didn't have all the poop inside," Buch said. They contain a variety of materials, like plastic and cellulose.

Some recycling companies like TerraCycle might take them, but municipal facilities most likely won't.

Some companies abroad, like Germany's BASF, are making advancements in chemically recycling diapers using the process of gasification, Plastics News reported.

7. E-waste

Cellphones, printers, and computers contain plastic, metal, and a mix of other materials that make them poorly suited for standard recycling systems.

Many cities have separate facilities where you can drop off e-waste, or you might be able to schedule a special pickup. For example, if you have a coffee maker that's gone kaput, a retailer like Staples might recycle it and other small appliances for free.

8. Inflatable pools and toys

In 2018, the US generated 35.7 million tons of plastic waste and only recycled about 9% of it, according to the EPA's most recent estimates. Because there are so many different kinds of plastics, it can be difficult to know what you can and cannot throw in your blue bin.

Many plastic containers have a little symbol: recycling arrows with a number in the center. This is what's known as a resin identification code.

Most recycling facilities accept empty, clean, dry number 1 or 2 plastic. Some locations accept numbers 1 through 7, while others won't take numbers 3, 6, or 7. It's best to check before you chuck your plastic in the bin.

PVC, which is number 3, is used to make inflatable pool toys, faux leather, and other goods, and is very difficult to recycle.

9. Light bulbs

There are many types of light bulbs, from CFLs to LEDs. It's important to figure out what type you have before tossing it because many municipalities have different rules about where they go.

"Some of the old light bulbs even have mercury or other kinds of chemicals in them, like fluorescent light bulbs," Buch said. So you may have to take them to your local hazardous waste collection site.

Some hardware stores will take certain types of bulbs, and Batteries Plus accepts a wide variety, including LEDs, incandescent bulbs, and fluorescent tubes.

10. Medical waste

Needles, syringes, and other sharp medical products can injure workers at waste and recycling facilities. Some locations have drop boxes or other collection sites that take them.

Safe Needle Disposal offers lists of disposal locations by state as well as mail-in services, which often require a fee.

11. Napkins and paper towels

You may know that you only used a paper towel to dry your hands, but the recycling facility doesn't. They have to assume it could have been covered in food, grease, or even something hazardous.

"Those things become contaminated waste in the blue bin," Buch said.

Plus, the fibers in these paper products are too short to get recycled.

The cardboard rolls inside, however, can be recycled if they're clean and dry.

12. Plastic utensils

Plastic utensils have a few traits that make them a no-go for the recycling bin. For starters, the size and shape of plastic utensils mean it's hard for them to be processed by machinery. These objects often cause jams or other issues in machines.

Additionally, they're often made from a mix of plastics that can be hard to separate.

The waste collection company Republic Services conducted a survey of over 2,000 Americans, which found that 38% of those surveyed recycled plastic cutlery, as reported by Recycling Today.

13. Prescription pill bottles

As with coffee pods, some prescription pill bottles and their lids are small enough to fall through sorting machines and won't be recycled.

"There might be some communities where they don't take the pill bottle and other communities where they do," Buch said.

14. Greasy pizza boxes

Cardboard is one of the most recycled materials in the US, but over half of what's tossed still ends up in landfills, according to a 2019 estimate.

While most pizza boxes are made of cardboard, they're also often greasy. "Sometimes the cardboard has cheese stuck to it, so now you've got cardboard with food, so it's contaminated," Buch said.

Some facilities will still take the boxes if they're not too dirty.

15. Wet or unrinsed bottles and containers

While many people may throw their finished bottles in the recycling bin without much of a second thought, excess foods or liquids can complicate the recycling process. Briefly rinsing all residue from containers and letting them dry is the best practice.

If bottles still contain liquid, they could damage machinery or be rejected by the automated sorting process, according to Recycle Now.

16. Plastic bags and bubble wrap

Plastic bags and film and bubble wrap can cause serious problems for recycling equipment, acting a bit like hair caught around a vacuum roller brush.

"Plastic film stretches and becomes literally filament-like," Buch said. "It gets wrapped around inside these sorting systems."

The Republic Services survey found that 41% percent of those surveyed recycled plastic shopping bags.

Many grocery stores have collection boxes for plastic bags.

17. Loose plastic bottle tops

Whether you should leave plastic tops on water bottles before recycling them varies between municipalities.

"The lid is made of a different material than the plastic bottle itself," Buch said, so they're recycled differently.

Many facilities can separate the cap and bottle. However, you'll still want to check with your local recycler because some require cap-free bottles.

18. Styrofoam

Many cities and states have banned Styrofoam food containers, but the substance still arrives in a lot of products and shipping packaging.

Styrofoam, also known as polystyrene, isn't recyclable in most curbside bins. Many cities have drop-off sites, though they may only take certain types, like Styrofoam blocks.

19. Receipts

Though receipts can sometimes seem paper-like enough for the recycling bin, the thermal paper that most are printed on contains chemicals like Bisphenol-A and Bisphenol-S, which could contaminate other paper in the recycling stream or find their way into wastewater, per the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

So the next time you're cleaning out your coat pockets, those receipts that have been in there for a year can go straight to the trash.

20. Photos and glossy photo paper

Much like receipts, recycling photos and glossy paper may seem acceptable, but the coating on most photo paper contains metals or plastic.

If you're unsure about whether certain other glossy materials, like wrapping paper, can be recycled, you can perform the "rip test" as outlined by the Ecology Center. If the material doesn't rip the way printer paper does, it's most certainly not recyclable.

21. Cables, wires, garden hoses, and extension cords

Like plastic bags, electrical cords and wires, string lights, and garden hoses are items that sanitation departments often describe as "tanglers."

Portland's garbage and recycling guidance notes that these materials can wrap around the recycling equipment and must be removed by hand, a process it describes as both inefficient and dangerous.

22. Clothing and shoes

Clothing, shoes, and other textiles don't belong in household recycling bins.

If they are in good condition, they can be donated to charity or even sold online for some extra cash. The US Environmental Protection Agency recommends checking with local charities to see whether they accept damaged clothing and shoes.

You can also check to see whether your local authority offers a textile recycling service. For example, Fairfax County, Virginia, has a pilot textile recycling program with bins for recycling old clothing, shoes, and other textiles.

23. Mirrors and window panes

While you should generally be recycling your glass containers and bottles, mirrors and window panes are a different story.

This is because mirrors and window panes have a different melting point than glass jars and containers, which can contaminate the recycling stream.

If in good condition, mirrors can be donated to thrift stores, and windows to organizations like Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

24. Shredded paper — depending on your recycling program

Whether you can recycle shredded paper depends on your local recycling program, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Its small size makes it challenging to sort at recycling facilities, and many facilities do not accept it for that reason. Some authorities, such as Gainesville, Florida, request that residents place it in a paper bag for recycling.

To avoid shredded paper going to waste, you can also use it for compost.

25. Compostable plastic cups and containers

Compostable plastics can contaminate plastic recycling streams when mixed with non-compostable plastics.

The Environmental Protection Agency recommends checking whether your area has a recycling program that accepts compostable plastic or a local drop-off area for these items.

Sadiq Khan's Culture Team has blocked Charlotte Gill on X after she flagged their bonkers £500,000 woke grants – funding queer birding, doll workshops and a solarpunk festival. Your money at work.

The post Why Was I Blocked on X by the Mayor of London’s Culture Team? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

As the Trump administration's short-lived Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project implemented its plan to downsize the federal workforce, there was much wailing from the liberal institutions in Washington, D.C.

Federal employee unions filed lawsuits to block the effort. NPR ran profiles of federal workers who, for the first time, faced the prospect of potentially not having absolute job security forever. The Brookings Institution wondered how many jobs the federal government could shed before it crashes.

The answer: plenty. The Trump administration has cut more than 10 percent of the federal workforce, and the government hasn't crashed. Indeed, it hasn't even shrunk—if you're counting by dollars spent instead of people employed.

In a new article for City Journal, Manhattan Institute senior fellow Judge Glock highlights the tremendous gap between the dire predictions about DOGE's cuts and the reality that has emerged, more than a year after DOGE was shut down. Despite having only a modest impact on spending, Glock writes, DOGE "had a massive impact on the federal civil service."

This is true—to a point, more on that in a moment—and notable. Aside from a modest downsizing in the 1990s, the number of people employed by the federal government has been steadily growing for decades. Reversing that trend is one of the few genuinely libertarian accomplishments by the Trump administration.

The cuts to the federal workforce prove that "DOGE worked," argues Glock.

Well, hold on.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (who departed the DOGE project before Trump's inauguration and is now running for governor of Ohio) set some very ambitious goals after being appointed DOGE co-chairs in late 2024. In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal in November 2024 where they promised "we won't just write reports or cut ribbons. We'll cut costs."

Musk repeatedly attached some rather absurd numbers to that promise. He said DOGE would cut $1 trillion or even $2 trillion in federal spending. In the end, it didn't come close. By DOGE's own (questionable) accounting, it cut $170 billion. Meanwhile, overall federal spending has increased in each of Trump's first two years in office, and the budget deficit has widened as well.

Yes, Musk and Ramaswamy also said they would reduce the federal workforce. But that was presented as a natural consequence of cutting spending, not as the primary goal.

Think about it like this. If I spent months promising my friends and family that I would lose 50 pounds on a new diet, and then didn't lose any weight, would it be fair to say the diet worked?

What if I reduced the number of donuts I eat every day, but still didn't lose any weight? Sure, that might be good for my health in some way—just like reducing unnecessary workers in the federal government is good for America's fiscal health—but it certainly wouldn't mean I had achieved the goal of losing weight.

Finally, even the claim that DOGE cut the federal workforce requires an asterisk. As Glock also notes in his report, the decline in federal workers has been offset by an increase in federal contractors.

It's not a one-for-one trade, of course. The new contractors are overwhelmingly concentrated in places like the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon, while the cuts mostly targeted other areas, like the Department of Health and Human Services.

"Most of that increase came from the buildup in homeland-security and defense contracting, including purchases such as surveillance aircraft and tanks, rather than substitutes for government workers," Glock writes. "DOGE achieved real contract savings, but these were more than offset by higher spending elsewhere, reflecting a shift in priorities rather than an overall reduction in contracting."

So, the government is eating fewer donuts but more pizza.

There might be libertarian reasons to prefer contractors over government employees. They are less likely to hold those jobs for life, for one. But there's nothing inherently good about a government policy that cuts jobs in some areas just to create more room in the budget for poorly trained immigration enforcement agents and defense contractors. That may even be a negative outcome for liberty.

In the end, the DOGE project looks less like a meaningful attempt at cutting government spending or employment levels and more like a way to purge parts of the federal workforce likely to get in Trump's way during his second term. "As long as [Trump's] larger commitment is to extending his power rather than rolling back power itself, you shouldn't expect the government to stop growing," as Reason's Jesse Walker wrote last year in comparing DOGE to President Richard Nixon's attempted purge of the civil service.

Did DOGE work? Only if you grade it on a pretty dramatic curve.

Yes, it proved that a president can slash bureaucratic jobs—particularly the bloated managerial and administrative types—without doing much damage to the government's core responsibilities. That's a lesson future administrations should remember.

Maybe, someday, a president will try applying the same logic to government spending too.

The post DOGE Worked? Only If You Grade on a Curve. appeared first on Reason Magazine.

A California state auditor found waste, mismanagement, and misuse of taxpayer money inside several state agencies, including the office of state Controller Malia Cohen, which is responsible for managing state finances and payroll. The investigation found that for over a year, senior officials in Cohen's office deliberately stalled the recovery of more than $33,000 in salary overpayments to two employees, canceling a required payroll deduction while considering an alternative plan to seek state payments on the employees' behalf. Officials never carried out that plan, and the auditor concluded that the office violated state law by failing to collect one employee's debt. The investigation also found that two managers worked remotely from Idaho, Tennessee, and Alabama despite rules restricting out-of-state telework. Across nine cases involving multiple state agencies, the auditor identified about $885,000 in wasted, misused, uncollected, or improperly spent public funds.

The post Brickbat: Not Counting Every Penny appeared first on Reason Magazine.

Environmental organisation ZERO has called for more mechanical and biological treatment of municipal waste in the Algarve, saying sustainable alternatives offer a better solution to landfill-site problems. Speaking to the

The post NGO calls for more mechanical, biological waste treatment in Algarve appeared first on Portugal Resident.

British taxpayers have already paid for nearly 1,000 free hijabs for Channel migrants this year, with the total likely to hit 1,500.

The post UK Hands Out More Than 1,000 Free Hijabs to Channel Migrants at Taxpayer Expense appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Five more charities in receipt of three quarters of a million pounds of public funds have been added to Charlotte Gill's list of taxpayer-funded asylum charities which are assisting illegal migration to the UK.

The post Five Examples of Taxpayer-Funded Asylum and Migration Charities appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Ed Miliband has announced an £88 million aid package for Palestinians in Gaza – just as the British Army faces cuts to save £30 million.

The post Ed Miliband Splurges £88 Million on Palestine as British Army Faces Cuts to Save £30 Million appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Refugee Action is busy lobbying the Government to scrap its "cruel" new asylum bill. Which is curious, says Charlotte Gill, because this 'charity' received over £16 million in government funding in 2021-25.

The post Refugee Action: The Government-Funded Charity That’s Busy Lobbying the Government appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

On Saturday, September 5, around 100,000 people took to the streets of Zagreb to protest against illegal toxic waste disposal in the Lika region. The mobilization, one of the most notable in recent years, brought together diverse networks from all over Croatia.

Protesters demanded not only the clearing of the affected areas in Gospić, but also accountability from the government and a pledge to temporarily halt waste imports into the country. This final demand relates to the fact that tens of thousands of tons of illegal waste found at several dumping sites across the country originated from Slovenia, Italy, and Germany.

The protest built upon over a year of campaigning by local groups in Gospić. These initiatives have been fighting for the urgent removal of approximately 37,000 tons of waste, including hazardous material, exposed during a EU corruption investigation in early 2025. State institutions’ records indicate complaints were filed locally as early as 2023 and 2024 but received minimal, if any, reaction from authorities.

The government’s inaction is particularly striking given that the region is a traditional stronghold of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). On the ground, many perceived their stance – implicitly or explicitly – as profound betrayal and arrogance, likely compounding political headaches for party leadership. In practical terms, this widened the protest’s political spectrum, bringing together an unusually broad group of demonstrators.

The notable lack of official response continued even as it became apparent that the dumping site is likely to have long-term impacts not only in the area immediately surrounding it, but also in downstream regions through underwater pollution. Materials found at the site included shredded plastic from electronic components and medical-grade waste. In addition to having been left lying around, they were also buried underground.

Read more: Local communities in Croatia oppose mega-farm project

Locals raised environmental and health alarms from the beginning, including concerns about soil pollution by heavy metals and PFAS contamination of the area. Only after a long period of pressure, authorities published related analyses. All showed local concerns were grounded, recording high levels of metals like zinc, lead, and chromium, as well as PFAS presence in water courses. The most recent of these reports, made publicly available by the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime (USKOK) on Monday, September 6, confirmed microplastic presence in water samples taken downstream of the illegal dump, adding urgency to demands for removal.

For its part, after a year and a half of alarms sounded by the community in Gospić, the government announced it would cover the waste with foil as a first step of the sanitation process. They claimed further steps would follow, yet without guarantee of timing.

On Monday, Gospić je naš dom reasserted the planned actions were not enough. “The liner can reduce the amount of rainwater entering the landfill from above, but the waste is buried an average of three meters deep in karst rock” they wrote. “Groundwater flows in from below and through cracks in the rock from the sides. A surface liner cannot stop this. Covering the waste will make it less visible, but all 37,000 tons will remain in the ground.”

“Last Saturday, on Zagreb’s central square, before tens of thousands of people from across Croatia, we presented our demands to the Government of the Republic of Croatia. These were not a negotiating position, but a minimum we refuse to go below. After this latest finding, that minimum remains unchanged, but the urgency can no longer be disputed.”

“Eighteen months later, we are still waiting for answers,” they added. “How did 37,000 tons of waste end up buried underground? Who brought it? Who took it? Who was paid for it? […] There is also the question of responsibility for what happened after the waste was discovered. Who knew, and when? Who decided it was not urgent? Who decided to withhold the initial analyses?”