You’ve just finished sipping down warm peppermint tea at a farmers’ market, and you pause in front of the large plastic bins. They loom, inscrutable—challenging you to the Sphinx’s riddle of what to do with your now-empty paper cup, plastic lid, and teabag. Well, the paper cup can be recycled, right? But…it’s wet from holding tea, so does it have to go in the trash? The plastic might have to be thrown away, or maybe it can be recycled. And the teabag is a conundrum in itself: it’s made from plants, so it can be composted, except that it’s also made from paper, so it should be recycled…?

A few weeks later, you and your friends tidy up after watching the game and chowing down on take-out pizza and a few drinks. You again find yourself pausing, this time in front of the small trash can and recycling bin in your friend’s kitchen. You confidently rinse out the glass bottles, rinse and crush the soda cans, and put them all in the recycling bin. But then there’s the pizza box, its paper liner filled with grease and cheese scraps. It’s made of cardboard, so it could be recycled…but there’s grease on it, so maybe it has to go in the trash. None of your friends know the answer, either, so you shrug your shoulders and forget about it.

Okay, let’s drop the pretense. This “you” was me. Though I proudly wear my tree-hugging heart on my sleeve and I was an RA at a college that emphasized waste reduction, I suffered from waste disposal anxiety for years.

I’m here to share what I’ve gleaned from friends whose jobs are to educate the public about these things, from studying the lids of municipal recycling bins and looking up tips from the omniscient Internet.

COMPOST

Foreign though it may seem, figuring out what to compost is actually the most straightforward of all waste disposal skills.

If…

• it is a plant or part of a plant (vegetable scraps, fruit peels, grains, tea leaves, coffee grounds)
• it was made from plants (for example, bread or anything made from flour.
• it is an egg shell

…you can compost it.

Don’t compost anything that came from an animal, or anything that’s greasy. (That means no meat and no dairy!)

Note: Those fancy compostable dishes and biodegradable bags that you might see at farmers markets are biodegradable, but usually only if they are taken to a special composting facility that is more high-tech than your average worm bin. If you get your home compost picked up by a municipal service, then you should be able to throw that potatoware right in, but if you’re doing it yourself, it might take awhile.

RECYCLING

Things get a little more complicated when it comes to recycling, and you should make sure to check the guidelines for what is recyclable in your county.

I’ve lived in California, Texas, and Montana, so to give you some perspective: in the Bay Area, most paper, glass, plastic, and aluminum products are recyclable for free; in the suburbs of Houston, you have to pay for a recycling service; in Missoula, Montana, you have to bring glass recyclables to a drop-off location so they can be shipped to a recycling plant in Washington.

You should be able to find guidelines for what and how to recycle on your city or county website. I’ll outline some general tips, but it’s always good to double-check what services are available where you live.

Important rule: when you recycle food containers, it’s important to make sure they are cleaned of any food residue.

• Paper and Cardboard

You can usually recycle most items made of paper or cardboard: newspaper, phone books, cereal boxes, egg cartons, etc. Pizza boxes can sometimes be recycled—as long as you take out the liner and there isn’t any grease/cheese residue on the box itself. (Some counties can even recycle it if there’s a little grease on the cardboard, so check the details for where you live.)

Watch out for soymilk (and other alternative milk) containers. Because they’re actually a combination of paper, plastic, and metal, they’re pretty impossible to recycle.

• Plastics

Ooh boy, plastic materials may be the most complicated. For starters, look on the plastic you’d like to recycle. If there’s no triple-arrow recycle symbol, then it’s gotta go in the trash. But even if there is a recycle symbol, you still have to be careful. You should see a number (1 through 7) inside the symbol, which indicates what type of plastic it is. Most places recycle plastics 1-5, but 6 and 7 aren’t always guaranteed. Again, it’s worth the little bit of time spent on the Internet to learn what types of plastics can be recycled in your county.

Pay attention to plastic bags. Many recycling centers can now recycle plastic bags, but the types that are recyclable vary. In any case, make sure the plastic is clean and dry.

• Glass

Any kind of bottle or jar can usually be cleaned and recycled. If the bottle or jar has a metal lid, make sure to take it off so that it gets properly sorted.

• Metal

Any metal can is recyclable—as long as it doesn’t have food residue and it’s empty (in the case of spray canisters). Aluminum foil, pie plates, and trays are also good to go (sans traces of food).

• Other Possible Recyclables

Electronics can be recycled! But they must be taken to a specific electronic waste recycling center. Check online to see if there’s one near you.

TRASH

And, well, everything else is garbage. Remember that Styrofoam (including those little packing peanuts) is never recyclable or compostable. Things like CDs and batteries aren’t either. (In fact, batteries really shouldn’t even go in the trash. Several chain stores offer programs to accept your old batteries for disposal or recycling.)

This might all seem pretty overwhelming. That’s okay. I used to feel that way, too—it doesn’t mean that you’re an ignoramus or anti-environment. These things take time to learn, just like any worthwhile habit. I’ll leave you with a few simple, easy-to-remember nuggets:

• If it came from a plant, compost it.

• If it is clean paper or plastic or glass or metal, you can probably recycle it.

• If it came from an animal or it’s Styrofoam or anything else that doesn’t fit in the first two categories, trash it.

Like Captain Planet says, “The power is yours!”