What to Recycle and Compost 

As a community member of Mills College, please direct your discarded materials into one of our four streams: reusables, recycling, compost and landfill. Reusable items can go to the Re-Use Depot. All of our recyclables go into the same blue bin, making it a commingled system. With a commingled program, it is important to keep food or drinks out of the bin. A bottle half full of liquid can contaminate the whole bin, making the paper products no longer recyclable. Most compost bins are bright green and landfill bins are grey, though it is best to look for the label to ensure proper sorting.

Feel free to print these signs for use in your space:

Recycle signage
Compost signage
Landfill signage

What to Reycle

Most paper
printer paper
notebook paper
magazines
catalogues
envelopes
newspaper

Cardboard boxes
shipping boxes
cereal boxes
egg cartons
shoe boxes

Glass
bottles
jars

Plastics #1-6
empty juice bottles
detergent bottles
milk jugs
yogurt containers
certain packaging

Aluminum, steel and tin
soup cans
soda cans
broken reusable water bottles

What is NOT Recyclable

paper towels
candy and chip wrappers
soy milk and soup boxes (they are lined with foil and coated with plastic)
juice boxes
broken plates
latex gloves
food and beverages
paper soiled by food and beverages

What to Compost

Food scraps
fruit and vegetables
coffee grounds, filters
tea bags
leftover pizza

Soiled paper
paper towels
napkins
paper plates from events
paper cups from events
pizza boxes

Wax-coated cardboard
some milk and half and half containers
to-go boxes from the Tea Shop
bioplastics found in the Tea Shop: it will either say “compostable” or look for the recycling symbol, it should have a 7 and the words PLA

Plant material
flowers
sticks
dead plants

Uncoated, untreated wood
stir sticks
wood without paint or nails

What is NOT Compostable

glass
metal
plastic bags
plastic containers
ceramics