The Manitoba Recycling Guide

What goes in your bin, what doesn’t, and where everything else goes.

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What goes in your recycling

What can you recycle in Manitoba

Six categories, a few simple rules for what can generally go in your blue bin. Keep it mostly clean, keep it loose, and keep containers empty.

  • Printed Paper

    Newspaper, flyers, office paper, magazines, greeting cards without foil.

    Keep dry and loose

  • Paper packaging

    Milk and juice cartons, paper bags, moulded paper trays, gift wrap without foil.

    Empty

  • Cardboard & boxboard

    Shipping boxes, moulded paper trays, cereal boxes, egg cartons, paper towel rolls.

    Flatten, keep dry

  • Plastic containers

    Bottles, jugs, tubs, clamshells, jars.

    Empty, lids on

  • Metal cans

    Food and beverage cans, cookie tins, hair product tins

    Empty, no foil or foil trays

  • Glass bottles & jars

    Bottles and jars from food, beverages, and condiments.

    Empty, lids off

The full A-Z

This page covers the basics. Recyclepedia covers everything.

Search any item from blister packs to batteries to pizza boxes and get the answer for your community.

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What doesn’t belong in the bin

The most wish-cycled items — and where they actually go

  • Styrofoam

    Breaks apart and contaminates bales; no local market for it.

    Garbage

    Expanded polystyrene crumbles into beads that stick to paper and plastic alike. It’s expensive and difficult to recycle, so there are no reprocessors available to Manitoba.

  • Batteries

    Fire risk in collection trucks and sorting facilities.

    Battery drop-off location

    Lithium-ion cells ignite when they are crushed, and a compacting truck crushes everything. Fires started this way have shut down sorting facilities across Canada. Tape the terminals of any battery you are storing, keep them in a container away from heat, and take them to a designated drop-off — most hardware stores, libraries and municipal offices host one.

  • Electronics

    Contain materials that need specialized recovery processes.

    Electronics recycling depot

    Phones, laptops, and microwaves hold gold, copper and rare earths worth recovering, alongside lead and mercury that must not reach landfill. Manitoba’s electronics recycling program takes them free of charge at registered depots and department stores; wipe your devices first, and remove any batteries if accessible.

  • Textiles & clothing

    Fabric tangles sorting machinery.

    Textile donation or drop-off bin

    Loose fabric winds around the spinning discs that separate paper from containers, and crews have to stop the line and cut it free by hand. Wearable clothing belongs with a charity or thrift shop.

Frequently asked questions

Sorting, prep, and collection basics

For anything item-specific, the Recyclepedia has the one-item answer.

  • If it’s empty, loose (not bagged), and roughly the size of a fist or larger, it almost certainly belongs in the blue bin. Anything smaller than a credit card falls through sorting screens and should go in the garbage instead.

  • No. Everything the program accepts goes loose into the same blue bin — no sorting by material at the curb, and no bags. Separation happens after collection, at the materials recovery facility, where the load is sorted by type, baled and sold on.

  • Plastics #1, #2, #4 and #5 containers are accepted province-wide. #3, #6 and #7 are not — and the number alone isn’t the whole answer, so check the item itself in the Recyclepedia.

  • Empty, rinsed and dry is enough — they do not need to be spotless. Food residue contaminates the paper and cardboard travelling with them, so a quick rinse matters. Leave labels on; they come off during processing. Put plastic lids back on the bottle once it is rinsed, and keep everything loose rather than bagged.

  • It travels to a materials recovery facility, where it is sorted by type, baled, and sold to processors who turn it into new packaging and paper. Manitoba’s recovered material is sold into end markets under contract, and recovery rates are published each year.

Recycle Manitoba

The Manitoba Recycling Guide

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One guide designed to work on your fridge or a black-and-white office printer

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All sorted.

Search any item for a one-answer breakdown of what bin it goes in.

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