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Just because something is made from plastic does not mean it can be recycled. Most plastic items are marked with the recycling symbol, but this symbol alone doesn’t make them recyclable. Rather, the recycling symbol is a manufacturing requirement, and the number indicates what type of plastic the item is made from. Recycling programs differ by location, but they usually accept limited types of plastic or containers.

The best way to find out if an item is recyclable is by looking it up in our Recycling Guide. You can look up the item by its name or the number of plastic.

Putting non-recyclable items in your recycling, also known as wish cycling, can cause problems for your recycling center. Plastics that aren’t accepted by our program can contaminate whole batches of recyclable material, which then need to be thrown away. Other times, they may have to be manually removed by sanitation workers, which slows down the sorting process and can be unsafe for these workers.

See what plastic materials we recycle in Stockton.