For most people with curbside pickup, the recycling process seems simple — just dump your cardboard, plastics and aluminum into the bin for your weekly pickup.

But proper recycling isn’t so straightforward, and getting it wrong can throw a major wrench into the larger system. Case in point? Crushing your aluminum cans.

Smashing your empty cans into a flat metal disc seems like a good idea because it saves space. (It’s also kind of fun.) As it turns out, it’s a habit you should break — the sorting machines at recycling facilities need to recognize the shapes of cans to properly identify them. 

When you flatten cans, you might confuse the equipment and potentially send perfectly good aluminum to the dump. Here are some more easy tips for recycling to make sure you’re always taking the right actions. 

Which sorts of metal cans can be recycled?

All metal cans are recyclable, if they’ve been cleaned. Examples include:

• Aerosol cans
• Beverage cans, like soda and beer, including the tabs
• Canned goods
• Paint cans

Cleaning metal cans

Don’t do this: Toss cans into the recycling bin before cleaning. If foods or liquids are left in the cans, they can contaminate an entire batch of recyclables, rendering them useless. Unrinsed cans can also attract roaches, rodents and other nasty critters that you don’t want crawling around your bins.

Do this instead: Make sure all cans are clear of liquids or foods that could be left in the container. You can do this by rinsing the can when you’re finished with it.

What to do with the lids

Canned goods: Don’t remove the lid only halfway before placing it into the recycling bin. Instead, completely remove the lid from the can and place it inside the can (after rinsing). Only place lids inside an empty can made of the same metal material.

Aerosol cans: Lids on aerosol cans are typically plastic so you should remove those before putting the cans into the bin. The plastic lids should go with other plastic recyclables, as the heat applied during the metal recycling process will destroy any plastic recyclables mixed into the batch.

Do I need to remove paper labels before recycling cans?

Generally, you don’t need to remove paper labels from metal or aluminum cans before you chuck them in the recycling bin. When the cans are recycled, the heat applied to the metal burns away the paper and the adhesive, ensuring there’s no risk that your contributions might contaminate the batch.

However, there are other cases in which you might want to remove the paper labels before recycling. You can take these labels off your metal cans and toss them in with your paper recycling if you don’t like the idea of them turning to ash in the recycling process. More importantly, you do have to remove the paper labels if you’re recycling plastics, because the recycling process for metals and plastics is different.

When in doubt, it’s best to contact your local recycling facility. One Reddit user familiar with recycling facilities pointed out that, while the mechanics of recycling are important to understand, each recycling plant has its own unique machinery with different capabilities — they aren’t standardized so it’s not simple to give a one-size-fits-all answer.

Making a quick call to your local plant will ensure that you know what can and can’t be recycled, and what might contaminate a batch of recyclables.

What else should I do?

• Avoid puncturing aerosol cans to remove the remaining liquid.
• Make sure all paint is either dry or completely rinsed out before recycling. If you have leftover paint or other hazardous waste, take it to a drop-off center near you.
• Don’t crush aluminum cans before recycling because they can contaminate the batch. Recycling sorting machines also rely on shape to identify and crushing cans and other recyclables can trip them up.

For more recycling information, here’s how to properly recycle plastic and the right way to recycle paper and cardboard.

Metal recycling FAQs