Items properly placed in your curbside recycling carts (wheeled cart, like your garbage can on wheels) are sorted and baled at the City’s recycling facility for sale and reuse.
UPDATE!! As of Nov. 15, 2025
As of this date, you can place paper cups, for hot or cold beverages, as well as plastic polypropylene cups, i.e. soda cups, in your blue carts.
Three things to know
- Do NOT put plastic bags, films, or wraps in the blue recycling cart! Collect it and return to grocery stores – most offer bag recycling. Here’s more info on that topic.
- In addition, do NOT BAG RECYCLABLES, using plastic garbage bags, before you put them in your blue recycling cart. This risks landfilling valuable material.
- Just a little food and liquid waste can contaminate your entire blue recycling cart, forcing the city to landfill recyclables. Rinse food and empty bottles and cans. Don’t overdue it – conserve water as well.
Yes! Put these items in blue recycling carts
- Newspaper and newspaper inserts
- Cardboard boxes, shoe boxes, cereal boxes, paper tubes
- Magazines and phone books
- Aluminum cans
- Steel (tin) food cans
- Plastic containers (like milk jugs, plastic bottles, plastic cups, yogurt containers, etc)
- Plastic polypropylene cups
- Paper cups (like from a coffee shop)
- Junk mail, office paper, envelopes
- Aerosol cans – please make sure they are drained by turning them upside down and releasing the pressure.
No! Don’t put these in blue recycling carts
- Glass (Sign up for curbside glass recycling or take yours to a community drop-off location.)
- Plastic bags
- Styrofoam, including take-out containers and block foam
- Food, food residue, or food wrappings – empty all food and food residue from containers
- Construction materials and waste
- Napkins, paper towels, toilet paper, paper plates
- Scrap metal
- Clothing
- Electronics, computers, small appliances
- Yard waste
- Toys, garden hoses, plastic swimming pools
- Shredded paper
Related
Link to other pages that might be useful to someone looking at this page.
Contact
- 801-535-6999
- mySLC online, scroll down and click on Waste & Recycling
- For up-to-date info visit SLC Green on X (formerly Twitter) https://x.com/SLCgreen
- 2010 W 500 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84104
- Hours: 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.