That's the thing that you're not really sure of, but it should be recyclable, so you toss it in the blue bin anyway. So why is that a problem? If the local materials recovery facility ("MRF") doesn't have the equipment to handle that particular item, then it becomes contamination, adding cost to the MRF to try to fish it out of the materials stream (and then pay to have it landfilled). Or, the item gets through the sorting equipment and becomes a contaminant in the baled product that the MRF is trying to sell to a recycler. That adversely impacts the price that the MRF can achieve on their bales. Check out Austin's "What Do I Do With?" site to see which bin specific items should be placed in. For example, cartons (of milk, almond milk, etc.) and any Tetra Pak-style packaging has to go in the brown/landfill bin in Austin. Bags and any type of flexible film plastic is the worst — they tangle up in the equipment causing damage and downtime to remove the bags. If you are from a different market, then your local municipality may have a similar site. 

So you want four avocados. There is the mesh net bag option with four bundled together, or there are the loose ones. Put the loose ones in your basket — there's no need to have a superfluous accessory that will still be taking up space on the planet 300 years from now. Same with the apples and the carrots that come either loose or in plastic bags. On other aisles you can choose mono-material packaging (e.g. cardboard only rather than the neighboring product that has plastic fused to the cardboard, making both the cardboard and the plastic either hard or impossible to recycle). Likewise for your soap: disposable dispensers that have a metal spring embedded in the plastic pump make both the plastic and the metal unrecyclable — get a reusable dispenser (that will almost certainly be more attractive than the disposable version anyway) and refill it from something that comes in plastic-only packaging.

Not only can actual bags (which, really, there should be very few of) go in the bag bin, but thin films like what covers hummus pots can go in as well. We are making contact with local supermarkets in our area to try to get more details as to just what can and can't go into these materials streams. Stay tuned (or help support the work we are doing). 

For restaurants that only have single-use plastics for cutlery, there are some great kits available that have a fork, knife and spoon (or chopsticks) in a small container that will slip into a purse or backpack. Talk to the restaurant manager about their unsustainable practices, but barring a change at the source, you can displace some plastic waste by using your BYOC from your kit. It is also a visible way of triggering people to think. People at the next table will see your conscientiousness and perhaps think more about actions that they could take. Your friendly website administrator frequently gets "That is so cool! Where'd you get that?" comments when he whips out his reusable kit. (Pro tip: go for a plastic or aluminum case rather than cloth ones so that the dirties can go back in after the meal). 

An oldie, but a goodie. Not only are you displacing the plastic that would have gone into single-use bottles, but you are also displacing the carbon generated by the transportation of a low-value product across large distances. As a bonus, you don't have to worry about harmful chemicals leaching from the plastic into your water on those hot summer days.

Carry your lunch to work? Frequent a restaurant that has such big portions that you know you are going to want a doggie bag? Rather than use the Styrofoam (polystyrene) or plastic take-away containers, you could bring your own reusable takeaway vessels.

Like what we are doing in this space and wish you had something similar in your city? How about borrowing our infrastructure and leaning on our lessons learned to start up your own chapter. 

Recycling is becoming more important as apartments compete for tenants in the amenities wars, and recycling now ranks right up there with having a gym. If the only recycling dumpster at your facility is inconveniently far from your unit or if there are other issues with your complex's recycling, speak to management about valet service for doorstep pickup. If you have such a service and they aren't as attuned to recycling as the should be, ask management to up their game. If you live in a condo rather than an apartment, then consider getting the issue on the agenda for the next Board meeting. No traction with the Board? Then consider organizing other owners to call for a vote on adding or improving service. 

Call the manager over to speak with him or her about the use of disposable plastic cups, cutlery, or straws. Get a business card or the manager's name and follow-up during off-peak time to speak further about how poorly unsustainable practices make the restaurant look. 

Like what we are trying to accomplish? Spread the word. You can share our content by using the social media buttons on many of our pages, or generate a message of your own. Found a great product that displaces plastic production or which has conscientious packaging? Lead others there with a post. A restaurant you frequent has finally stopped using Styrofoam or plastic cutlery? Congratulate them with a shout out and send them some business as a reward. 

It will be hard to get McDonalds to change anything, but the little ice cream shop on the corner — maybe that's not as hard as you would think. Point out the benefits to their business of being seen as a positive force rather than a destructive one through unnecessary waste. 

Give a little time to be part of a focused effort to make things better. While there are certainly things that you can do on your own via purchasing decisions and communication, being part of a larger group to help row the boat can also feel great. 

Short on time to be able to volunteer? No problem. Donations are also vitally important — help pay for the web servers, expansion of projects, or help cover the costs of getting new groups up and running. You can leverage the time and effort that others have to give, making them more effective. Your funding gives others the wings to fly. 

At least in Austin, those milk (or oat milk, almond milk, etc. — with or without the rigid plastic caps) cartons are not recyclable and should go into the brown/landfill bin. Likewise for juice boxes, soup cartons, and similar products. The general theme here is complexity. Paper is easy to recycle and plastic can be relatively easy, but fuse the two together into multi-layered materials and they become much more difficult to handle, leading to either higher costs for a low-value material or contamination of the materials recovery facility (MRF's) output. Other municipalities do accept them (Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, for example), but as a general rule, simpler mono-material packaging is always better from a recycling standpoint. 

Most glitter is basically microplastics that find their way into waterways, the food chain, and sometimes into our bodies.

Synthetic fabrics by whatever name they go by — nylon, polyester, spandex, acrylic, etc. — are just plastic. Cotton also has its own issues, such as water use, but at least when you wash a cotton shirt, plastic microfibers won't go down the drain and into our rivers and oceans.