HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Nearly 20% of the 25,000 tons from residential blue cart items cannot be accepted at the City and County of Honolulu’s recycling facility.

So what’s acceptable and what’s not?

What’s allowed

Metal cans: Aluminum & steel. Rinse.

Glass bottles and jars: Rinse, remove and discard lids and tops. Includes containers for beverages, wine, spirits, food.

Newspaper: Remove magazines and glossy inserts.

White and colored office paper: NO envelopes, junk mail, tape, stick-on labels, rubber bands, magazines, or shredded paper. Staples are okay.

Corrugated cardboard: Flatten boxes. No single-layer flatboard, such as cereal boxes and tissue boxes.

Plastic containers labeled #1 and #2 only: Rinse, remove and discard lids and tops. Look for the plastic number code in a triangle embossed on containers. Some examples include:

#1: Water, soda, and juice bottles, peanut butter jars, and salad dressing.
#2: Gallon milk containers, shampoo bottles, and laundry detergent.

DOWNLOAD: Recycling and disposal guide for Oahu

Plastics labeled #1 and #2 can be placed in your blue bin.

What’s not allowed

Many people often incorrectly put plastic bags in their recycling bin. But Gabriel says it’s the wrong kind of plastic at #4, low-density polyethylene.

Styrofoam, or polystyrene, is not recyclable at #6.

And when you get an Amazon delivery, do not try to recycle the bag. “Even though you see these arrows (universal recycling symbol) here, we do not take them here,” Gabriel said.

Another common mistake: soda can boxes, which are made of flatboard.

“If you look at the edges, there is no corrugation here and a lot of these containers like this are in the blue bin,” Gabriel said. “We always ask people, make sure there’s corrugation. Then you know for sure.”

Another important tip: Deposit all items loose into your blue cart. Do not bag, tie or bundle recyclable materials, Gabriel says.

If you make a mistake, don’t worry. The bins get filtered at RRR Recycling, and anything that can’t be accepted goes to H-POWER in Kapolei to be burned with regular trash.

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