If you’re reading this, you’re probably a recycler. And you probably want to recycle and reduce waste as much as you can.

Below you’ll find an abundance of options to reuse or recycle things that can’t go in your blue bin. A few things in this list don’t have recycling or reuse options, but we included them because they can be particularly problematic if they end up in the blue bin.

If you’re ever curious if something can go in your blue bin, be reused, or recycled elsewhere, look it up in our Recyclepedia search tool.

A

Aerosol Cans

See Household Hazardous Waste (HHW).

Aluminum Foil & Trays

Wash and reuse trays when possible.

Although aluminum cans are accepted in your blue bin, aluminum foil and trays are not because they’re blended with other materials and require a different process to recycle. Because of this, there is a limited end market for it.

Appliances

Donate working appliances to a thrift store or charity.

Find a repair guide online to fix your appliances. If you can’t repair them, some appliance stores accept broken appliances to repair or use the parts to repair other appliances. Contact your local store.

If you have a working fridge or freezer that’s over 20 years old, Efficiency Manitoba offers a $30 rebate for each one you replace. They’ll also pick them up and recycle them for free. See full details.

To recycle non-working appliances made primarily of metal: see Scrap Metal.

Automotive Oils, Antifreeze, & Containers

Used motor oil, oil filters, transmission fluid, gear oil, and other fluids used for lubricating machinery and equipment (as well as their empty containers) should be properly disposed of at a licensed EcoCentre.

Many garages/automotive shops and community depots serve as EcoCentres for Manitoba Association for Resource Recovery Corp (MARRC). Find one near you. Do NOT put them in your blue bin or garbage; they’re harmful to the environment.

EcoCentres collect oils, anti-freeze, containers, filters, and diesel exhaust fluid containers to be recycled or converted into energy.

B

Batteries (Lead-Acid/Automotive)

Take lead-acid batteries (e.g., car batteries) to a Canadian Battery Association drop-off location. Many garages/automotive shops and community depots serve as drop-off locations. Find one near you.

Do NOT put them in your blue bin or garbage; they can be harmful to the environment if disposed of improperly.

Batteries (Single-Use and Rechargeable)

Recycle batteries at a Recycle Your Batteries Canada! drop-off site near you.

They accept single-use and rechargeable dry-cell household batteries weighing up to 5 kg (11 lbs.). Common examples include:

• A, AA, AAA, C, D, 9V, button cell.
• Rechargeable batteries for electronics and power tools.
• E-mobility batteries used on devices such as e-bikes and e-scooters.
• See all accepted battery types.

Do NOT put them in your blue bin or garbage; they’re the leading cause of garbage and recycling truck fires and can be harmful to the environment if disposed of improperly.

• Collect batteries in non-metal containers and store them safely.
• Protect battery terminals with tape or in plastic bags before storing or recycling.

Bicycles

Donate working bikes to a thrift store or check with local bike shops, clubs, or non-profits to see if they accept bike donations. Some will refurbish damaged bikes or use the parts for repairs.

In Winnipeg, you can take bikes and parts to any 4R Winnipeg Depot to be reused or refurbished through their program with W.R.E.N.C.H., which provides residents with affordable or free bikes.

Blankets

Donate to a thrift store or animal shelter.

Black Plastics

Black plastics, regardless of their plastic number, are not accepted in your blue bin. The automated machinery used to identify and sort plastics can’t identify black plastics, and there is a limited end market for them.

Blister Packs with Foil

Blister packs with foil or metallic material (e.g., medication and chewing gum blister packs) are not accepted in your blue bin. Please put them in the garbage.

Many optometrist clinics in Manitoba accept contact lens blister packs for recycling. Find one near you.

Blister packs with a cardboard back or fully plastic blister packs (e.g., clamshell packs) are accepted in your blue bin. Please separate cardboard from plastic before recycling.

Books*

Books (hard and soft cover) in their entirety are not accepted in the blue bin. Donate books to a thrift store if they’re intact.

*Book pages are accepted in your recycling. Please remove the pages from the binding before putting them in your blue bin. Put the binding in the garbage.

Bread Bag Tags/Tabs

Bread bag tags are not accepted in your blue bin because they’re too small to be sorted and end up getting lost during the sorting process. This post has great ideas for reusing them, such as labelling and organizing cords.

Broken glass

Broken glass isn’t accepted in your blue bin because the small shards contaminate other materials and aren’t able to be sorted. Put broken glass in the garbage.

“What about glass that breaks during recycling collection?” you may be wondering. Other materials such as cardboard, paper, and plastic containers act as padding, so very little glass breaks and isn’t problematic.

Bubble Wrap & Bubble Mailers

Bubble wrap and mailers/envelopes/parcels lined with plastic bubbles are not accepted in your blue bin.

You can donate these and other packing/shipping materials to most thrift stores. Local craft, art, and antique sellers may be open to taking them too. Alternatively, you can use them to safely store fragile items, such as glassware and holiday decorations.

Building/Construction Materials

Habitat for Humanity’s ReStores (in Winnipeg and Brandon) accept a variety of construction and renovation materials in new and gently-used condition.

Many communities accept certain building materials for community use or recycling at local waste sites, such as Winnipeg’s 4R Depots. Contact your community to learn what options are available.

C

Cards (Plastic)

Credit cards, debit cards, and gift cards aren’t accepted in your blue bin. Please cut up your expired credit cards before disposing of them in the garbage.

Cassette Tapes & CDs

Donate tapes, CDs, and cases to a thrift store.

Caulking Tubes

Please put plastic caulking tubes in the garbage.

Ceramics

Donate ceramics to a thrift store. Some communities accept ceramics for recycling at community waste sites.

Clothes

See Textiles

Compressed Gas Containers

See Household Hazardous Waste (HHW)

Coffee Filters

You can compost paper coffee filters and most other organic materials in your yard or your community’s compost program. Check your community’s website to find out if they have a compost program and what’s accepted.

Coffee Pods

Check if your brand of choice has a drop-off or send-back recycling program for their pods.

Cutlery

Metal, plastic, and wood cutlery are not accepted in your blue bin. Reuse them as much as possible. Donate metal cutlery to a thrift store and compost wood cutlery that can no longer be used.

D

Diapers

⚠️ Please put diapers in the garbage.

Reusable cloth diapers have made a comeback in recent years. They’re not realistic for everyone though. They take time to clean and can be expensive to wash if you use a laundromat, but they’re a great way to reduce waste and save money in the long run for some.

DVDs & Cases

Donate to a thrift store. Alternatively, some retirement/personal care homes accept DVDs to use for movie nights or to lend to residents.

E

Electronics

Many retailers and depots across Manitoba collect electronics for recycling on behalf of the Recycle My Electronics program. Find a location near you.

Donate working electronics to a thrift store. Find a repair guide online.

F

Filters (Air or Water)

Terracycle has a partner program with Brita Pitchers, so you can recycle the pitchers, filters, and dispensers. Check if the brand you use has a recycling program.

Fluorescent Light Bulbs & Tubes

See Household Hazardous Waste (HHW).

Food Scraps

Compost food scraps and most other organic materials in your yard or your community’s compost program. Check your community’s guidelines to find out what’s accepted.

Food Storage Containers (e.g., Tupperware)

Reusable food storage containers are not accepted in your blue bin. Donate them to a thrift store. You can recycle metal containers at some depots or scrap dealers.

Note: plastic single-use food containers (e.g., for takeout food) are accepted in your blue bin, except for black plastic and foam.

Furniture

Try to repair damaged furniture before discarding it. Donate furniture to a thrift store or non-profit, even if it’s damaged (just ensure the amount of damage is acceptable to the receiver). If it’s too damaged to donate, post it online for free. Many hobbyists will take even heavily damaged furniture and repair/restore it.

G

Gift Bags (Plastic)

Reuse or donate to a thrift store.

Glass Products/Glassware

Reuse or donate to a thrift store.

Glass packaging, such as bottles and jars, is accepted in your blue bin.

H

Hangers

Donate to a thrift store. Metal hangers can be returned to a drycleaning company.

Household Hazardous Waste (HHW), Fluorescent Lights, & Paint (including containers)

Take these products, including empty containers, to a participating retailer or depot near you for safe disposal. Liquids must be in their original container. See a full list of qualifying products:

• HHW
• Fluorescent Lights
• Paint

These products should never be dumped in sewers, drains or disposed of in landfills. Help protect our environment by properly disposing of hazardous materials and containers.

I

Inhalers/Puffers

See Medications

Ink/Toner Cartridges

Some brands have recycling programs for their cartridges. HP’s program has drop-off points at Staples and London Drugs retail locations, or you can request free shipping labels to mail back your cartridges. Check your brand of choice’s website to see if they have recycling options.

J

Jewelry

Reuse or donate to a thrift store.

Juice Pouches

Put juice pouches in the garbage.

Juice boxes are accepted in your blue bin.

K

Keys & Keychains

Reuse old keys for art/crafts and donate key chains to a thrift store.

Knives

Reuse or donate to a thrift store. Cover blades when disposing knives in the garbage.

L

Laminated Paper

Put laminated paper in the garbage.

License Plates

Return Manitoba license plates to Autopac. Donate others to a thrift store or take them to a scrap metal depot.

Light bulbs

Throw non-fluorescent light bulbs in the garbage. See Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) for fluorescent light disposal.

M

Mattresses, Toppers, & Box Springs

Donate these if they’re in decent condition. In Winnipeg, you can recycle mattresses and box springs at the Brady 4R Winnipeg Depot or Mother Earth Recycling for a fee.

Medical Sharps

Safely dispose of medical sharps at a participating pharmacy near you. Get instructions here.

Sharps include:

• Needles and syringes
• Infusion sets
• Lancets
• Pen tips
• Pre-filled syringes, cartridges
• Auto-injectors

Improper disposal of medical sharps can cause serious harm to others.

Medications & Health Supplements

Safely dispose of health supplements and medications (over-the-counter and prescription meds) at a participating pharmacy near you. Get instructions here.

Improper disposal of medications and supplements can harm people, animals, and local ecosystems. Never pour medications down the drain.

Recycle empty pill containers in your blue bin (no black plastics).

Mirrors

See Glass Products

Motor Oil, Oil Filters, & Containers

See Automotive Oils, Antifreeze, & Containers.

N

Nails, Bolts, and Screws

Reuse or donate to a thrift store.

Needles, Syringes, Lancets, & Auto-Injectors

See Medical Sharps.

P

Paint & Paint Cans

See Household Hazardous Waste (HHW).

Paper Towels & Tissue Paper

Compost most organic materials in your yard or your community’s compost program. Check your community’s guidelines to find out what’s accepted.

Do not compost paper towels or tissues if they’re contaminated with cleaning products, paint, oil, or other inorganic compounds.

Pencils & Pencil Crayons

Reuse or donate to a thrift store.

Pens, Markers, and Mechanical Pencils (Plastic)

Reuse or donate to a thrift store. Recycle empty and broken plastic writing utensils at a Staples retail location.

Pesticides & Containers

See Household Hazardous Waste (HHW).

Plastic Bags

Reuse plastic bags as much as possible. Some grocery stores and retailers have bins to recycle plastic bags. Find one near you.

Plastic Plant Pots

Reuse or donate to a thrift store. Many nurseries/greenhouses accept plant pot donations as well.

Plastic Wrap

Use reusable beeswax wraps or cloths to cover/wrap food instead.

Pots, Pans and Baking Trays

Reuse or donate to a thrift store.

Power Cords

See Electronics

Power Tools

Check if you can find a repair guide online. Reuse or donate to a thrift store.

For battery recycling options: see Batteries.

Propane Tanks & Cylinders

Reuse or return refillable propane tanks to a retailer.

See Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) to recycle single-use gas cylinders/canisters properly.

Q

Q-Tips/Cotton Swabs (plastic)

Put plastic cotton swabs in the garbage. Get a reusable or compostable alternative if possible.

R

Rope

Reuse or donate to a thrift store.

Rubber

Reuse or donate rubber products to a thrift store.

S

Scrap Metal

Take scrap metal to a metal dealer or depot.

Scrap Wood

Reuse or donate to an artist or builder. See Building/Construction Materials for lumber recycling options.

Sponges

Sanitize sponges in hot water to keep them fresh longer. Reuse them for other cleaning purposes when they become too dirty for dishes.

Try a more reusable option, such as a washcloth or brush.

Styrofoam/Foam

Many Styrofoam products and packaging, such as cups and packing peanuts, are becoming less common in Canada. But you’ll still encounter some, particularly with large products like electronics. Here are some ideas to reuse it:

• Use it as a plant pot filler.
• Line a box with it and put it in your car; you can put groceries in it to keep them cool on the drive home.
• Use it for storing fragile items in boxes or tote bins.

If you’re interested in more ideas, this article has 20 ways to reuse Styrofoam.

T

Textiles

Look up basic sewing tutorials online to repair clothing and home textiles. Small tears can be fixed with just a needle and thread. For complicated repairs, go to a seamster.

Reuse or donate unwanted textiles to a thrift store.

Tires

Take used tires to a Tire Stewardship Manitoba drop-off location for free. Many tire shops and automotive dealerships accept used tires for recycling*.

Learn more about how Tire Stewardship Manitoba recycles tires.

*Note: The drop-off location finder linked above sometimes doesn’t load all available locations. Please call your closest tire shop to find out if they take used tires (most do).

Toothbrushes

Reuse toothbrushes as a cleaning tool. They work great for spot-scrubbing shoes, clothes, and hard to reach places around the house.

Toys

Reuse or donate to a thrift store.

Thermostats

Take mercury-containing thermostats to an HRAI thermostat drop-off location near you for safe disposal for free. Find out if your thermostat contains mercury.

Mercury is toxic to people, animals, and the environment. Please dispose of thermostats properly.

V

Vapes/E-Cigarettes

Check if your local vape store accepts used products for recycling. See Batteries for battery recycling options.

VHS Tapes

Reuse or donate to a thrift store. Some retirement/care homes accept VHS tapes to use for movie nights or to lend to residents.

W

Wet/greasy boxboard and cardboard

Compost food scraps and most other organic materials in your yard or your community’s compost program. Check your community’s guidelines to find out what’s accepted.

Note: A bit of grease on a pizza box is okay to recycle in your blue bin, but don’t put cardboard with excessive grease in your blue bin.

Wine Corks

Recycle corks at a Liquor Mart cork collection bin.

Recycling contamination is a problem, and the reasons may surprise you.

A load of residential recycling may contain items that don’t belong, but that doesn’t mean the entire load is contaminated or no longer fit to be recycled. High-tech sorting facilities can separate your recycling from the things that don’t belong. So, what’s all the fuss about contamination in the blue bin, and what happens to contaminated recycling?

What is recycling contamination?

Recycling contamination occurs when anything that isn’t allowed in a blue bin ends up in one. It varies by location, but for Manitoba’s residential recycling programs this includes:

Items that are not accepted in the blue bin in your community, such as:

• Garbage
• Organic waste
• Items that can be recycled through depots but can’t go in your blue bin, as they require special handling (e.g., electronics, household hazardous waste containers, batteries, and much more).

Items that are accepted in your blue bin, BUT:

• they contain excessive food or liquid (note that some residue is fine; check out this video to see how clean containers should be).
• they have been bundled together (i.e. put in an opaque plastic bag or nested inside other materials).

On average, 15% of the items collected in Manitoba’s residential recycling are contaminants. We list the most common contaminants later in this article.

What happens to contaminated recycling (and what doesn’t)?

A somewhat-common belief exists that if someone’s recycling is contaminated, everything goes to the landfill, no matter how perfect the rest of the recycling is. This is not true. If it were, there wouldn’t be a point in collecting recycling, because there’s bound to be some contamination in every truck load.

Once collected, residential recycling goes to a sorting facility. Workers and machines sort accepted recyclables by material type and then compact them into bales. Nearly all non-accepted items get filtered out and taken to a landfill. The sorters aren’t perfect, so some residual waste may get baled with recyclables.

The bales are then shipped to end-markets (i.e., paper mills, metal or plastic processors) that process the materials to be used to manufacture new products. The processors that purchase the bales permit some contamination and will remove any residual waste that doesn’t belong. If the bales repeatedly exceed the permitted level of contamination, the processors may refuse them. But don’t panic—this is rare thanks to the high efficacy of modern sorting facilities.

But if that’s the case…

Why is recycling contamination a problem?

1. Worker safety and equipment damage

Many items pose risks to collection and sorting staff and their equipment. For example, batteries are the most common cause of recycling truck and sorting facility fires.

Although most recycling is sorted by machinery, staff must first remove contamination by hand (which moves quickly along conveyor belts) that could damage equipment. Furniture, scrap metal, and other large or sharp objects can injure sorting staff.

Biohazards like pet waste or leftover food, and chemical hazards like fluorescent light bulbs can have the potential to cause serious illness to the workers that handle them.

Plastic film and bags are surprisingly detrimental; they get tangled in machinery, and workers that remove them may not see potential hazards under or in the bags.

2. Increased transportation (more fuel emissions)

As mentioned, any non-accepted items collected get sorted out. They then need to be taken to a landfill. This adds an extra trip to dispose of things that could’ve been collected by the residential garbage trucks already on the road. It ends up taking two trips to end up in the same place it would have had it been just put in the garbage bin.

3. Contamination of accepted recyclables

Perfectly good recyclables occasionally don’t get recycled due to contamination. This typically happens in one of three ways:

a) Nesting – When different types of materials are placed inside each other (e.g., a soup can inside a cereal box) which can prevent sorters from putting them into the correct stream.

b) Improperly bagging recycling – In many communities, it’s ok to put your recycling in clear bags. But if they’re put into black or opaque bags, staff can’t see whether it’s recycling or garbage, and they typically won’t open them for safety reasons.

In many communities, such as Winnipeg and Brandon, the only time a clear bag should be in the blue bin is if it contains shredded paper. Other materials can’t be bagged—not even in clear bags. This is because staff need to manually open and empty the bags before they reach the sorting line. There’s an enormous amount of recycling that needs to be processed daily, and if too many people bag their recycling, sorting staff won’t have time to safely open and empty every bag on top of all the other things they do to keep the facility running.

c) Excessive food and liquid – Metal, glass, and plastic recyclables aren’t easily affected by food or liquid contamination. As long as there’s not a lot of food or liquid in them, they’ll be baled and sent to end-markets that will clean them of any food, dirt, or other residue.

Paper and cardboard aren’t as resilient. Paper quality decreases when it absorbs food or liquids, and it can’t be washed like plastic and metal. For this reason, paper-based items can become contaminated if unemptied containers in the blue bin or recycling truck leak onto them.

4. Increased costs

Each problem above increases operational costs. Plus, when would-be recyclables are thrown out because they’re tainted by excessive food or liquid, it reduces revenue from material sales that help offset program costs.

How to reduce recycling contamination.

You can help reduce your community’s recycling contamination rate by following the steps below:

• Make sure your containers are empty before you toss them into the blue bin.
• Toss your recyclables into the bin loosely; don’t nest the materials (i.e., stuff them into one another) and don’t bag them unless your community’s program permits.
• Don’t put anything in your blue bin that your community does not accept.

When in doubt, check the Recyclepedia. It shows you what can go in your blue bin and what can’t. It will tell you any special recycling instructions, and let you know if other recycling options are available for items that can’t go in your blue bin.

Top 10 most common contaminants in Manitoba recycling.

DO NOT put these in your blue bin:

• Styrofoam
• Coffee pods
• Clothing and textiles
• Compostable packaging
• Pots and pans
• Aluminum foil and plates
• Paper towels, tissues and napkins
• Plastic pouches and laminates (e.g., chip bags, bread bags)
• Ceramics

Other common types of contamination that can be recycled or safely disposed at depots and/or retailers, but not in your blue bin:

• Batteries
• Electronics
• Household hazardous waste (HHW)
• Ink and toner cartridges
• Medications (e.g., capsules, tabs, ointments) and some medical sharps.
• Paint cans (full or empty)
• Oil, antifreeze, and their containers (even when empty).
• Plastic bags and cellophane
• Thermostats containing mercury
• Tires

Author: Joel Larson

Are you unknowingly contaminating your recycling?

It’s your birthday! You pull a shirt out of the gift bag your aunt and uncle gave you. Trying your best to pretend you love it, you toss the bag aside. Your aunt stops you and says there’s something else in the bag. You look back inside. Hidden at the bottom is a $100 gift card—a gift card you came close to losing out on…

This is what can happen to materials in your blue bin when you put them inside other recyclables (also known as nesting). The difference is your aunt was there to let you know about the gift card. There’s no one to tell the machines and workers who sort your recycling there’s a soda can hidden at the bottom of a cereal box.

Nesting recyclables is recycling contamination.

Nesting may seem like a harmless way to save space in your blue bin, but it’s a form of contamination. Even if all the nested materials are accepted for recycling, the different materials can end up getting baled together. This is because most recycling is sorted by automated machinery. Magnets pull metal food cans and lids, and optical sorters use lights and sensors to identify and separate plastics. The sensors can’t detect when there are other materials inside containers or boxes.

Recycling processors have staff who sort nested materials when they see them, but some get missed. Winnipeg’s residential recycling program collected an average of 210.4 tonnes of materials per day last year. It’s impossible to catch everything that doesn’t belong, and some bales get contaminated—but that doesn’t necessarily mean the bales don’t get recycled.

What happens to contaminated recycling?

In most cases, contaminated bales still get recycled. So, what’s wrong if they’re contaminated with other materials? Let’s think back to the soda can in a cereal box example.

When the bale of boxboard gets to a paper mill, the soda can and any other non-paper materials in the bale get thrown out.

Not only does the soda can not get recycled, but it also wastes energy, money, and time by going through the collection, sorting, and shipping processes just to end up in the garbage.

What if materials nest themselves?

Let’s say you do your best and put your recyclables into your blue bin individually. There’s a chance that gravity and movement will nest some materials on the way to a recycling facility. How can you prevent this from happening?

An empty, collapsed box can’t nest anything. Neither can a plastic tub with a lid on.

However sometimes things just don’t have a lid. What now? The best thing to do is avoid overfilling your bin. All materials should be loose in the blue bin.

How to save space in your blue bin.

Too much takeout? Too many deliveries? Too many bulk store visits? Sometimes it feels like the blue bin is filling faster and faster. Here are some tips to get more space without nesting materials:

• Try to reduce the amount of packaging you go through. Some containers are unavoidable (e.g., food, especially for large families), but if your bin is filling quickly, consider buying items where the packaging can collapse (more boxes, less plastic).
• Use reusable containers: Instead of buying single-serving snacks or drinks, use reusable containers and refillable water bottles.
• Reduce junk mail: Did you know you can request direct mail to avoid your mailbox? You can unsubscribe from junk mail! Check how on Canada Post website.
• Collapse cardboard and boxes; no need to remove the tape.
• Crush beverage cans by hand. Crushing cans by hand is fine, but using can-crushers can increase the chance of cans falling out of bales.
• Crush plastic bottles: Squeeze or crush plastic bottles to minimize their size. Make sure to put the cap on so they don’t get lost during the sorting process.
• Empty and rinse containers: You don’t need to scrub them spotless, but try to remove any remaining food, liquid, or other substances. Put the lids back on all containers (except for glass containers with metal lids). Having lids on will prevent smaller objects from getting inside.
• Only put accepted items in the blue bin. Your recycling could be filling fast because you’re wish-cycling – when you have an item that isn’t accepted, but you’re not sure, so you put it in your blue bin and hope it gets recycled. The intentions behind wish-cycling are good, but it leads to contamination and is counterproductive. The collection, sorting, and transporting of contamination from the recycling facility to the landfill leads to more emissions than if you had disposed of it properly.