Yellow: packaging, not plastic
This is the distinction that changes everything, and Ecoembes puts it first in its own list of mistakes. Yellow is for light PACKAGING, meaning things that contained something: bottles, cans, cartons, bags, trays, tubs, caps, aluminium foil and cling film.
A plastic object that was never packaging does not belong there, even though it is the same material. A broken toy, a bucket, a lunchbox, a baby bottle, a dummy or kitchen utensils go to a punto limpio.
- Yes: plastic bottles, food and drink cans, cartons, plastic trays and egg boxes, bags, aluminium foil, empty aerosols
- No: toys, buckets, hangers, lunchboxes, baby bottles, dummies, kitchen utensils, toothbrushes
- They do not need washing. Emptying is enough: washing them wastes water for no gain
Blue: paper and cardboard, clean
Newspapers, magazines, boxes, leaflets, envelopes, notebooks. The rule almost nobody follows is folding boxes: an unfolded box takes the space of several and the container fills long before it should.
Dirt is what disqualifies paper. Napkins, used tissues and kitchen roll are paper, but they are soiled and not recyclable. A greasy pizza box is not either: if part of it is clean, separate that part and recycle only that.
- No: aluminium foil, nappies, napkins and used tissues, paper with oil or food residue
Green: glass packaging, and only that
Bottles, jars, jam jars, cologne bottles. Labels and the plastic ring can stay; the metal cap cannot, that goes in yellow.
Here is the second big misunderstanding: in Spanish, "cristal" and "vidrio" are not the same thing for recycling. A drinking glass, a mirror, a window, an oven dish or a ceramic plate melt at a different temperature and ruin the load. They go to grey or to a punto limpio, never to green.
Brown: organic
Food waste, cooked or raw, fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags, small garden prunings, used napkins and kitchen roll.
Not nappies, cigarette ends, sweepings or animal waste, even though those are organic in the literal sense: they contaminate the compost.
Grey: residual, which is not "everything else"
Grey is for what has no other container: nappies, sanitary products, cigarette ends, sweepings, small toys, cutlery, broken crockery and glassware, ceramics.
It is not a catch-all for whatever is tedious to sort. The fuller the grey container, the less gets recycled, and in practice its contents mostly end in landfill or incineration.
Punto limpio: what fits in no container
This is the piece missing from many people's mental model, and it explains a good share of street dumping. A punto limpio takes electrical and electronic equipment, batteries, bulbs and fluorescent tubes, paint and solvents, used cooking oil, small amounts of construction rubble, clothing, small furniture, and plastics that are not packaging.
Many municipalities also run mobile puntos limpios on a neighbourhood timetable, which is the realistic option without a car.
When the container is overflowing
A full container is not permission to leave the bag beside it. Once one bag is outside, five more appear within a day, and what was a full container becomes a dumping spot.
What helps is reporting it, because a container that overflows every week is not a civility problem, it is a capacity or collection-frequency problem, and that is only corrected with evidence. On CleanSpot the report keeps a photo, a date and coordinates, and if it is always the same container, that history is the argument.
Worth remembering too that abandoning waste outside the established channels is classified as a serious infraction in Ley 7/2022, with a band starting at 2,001 euros, although in practice a street-level case usually goes through the municipal ordinance.
Sources
Should packaging be washed before recycling?
No. Ecoembes names this explicitly as one of the most common mistakes: emptying is enough. Washing with water is an unnecessary use of water and does not improve recycling.
Does a broken drinking glass go in the green container?
No. Green is for glass packaging. A drinking glass, a mirror or a window is a different material that melts at a different temperature and ruins the load. Those go to grey or to a punto limpio.
Where does a broken plastic toy go?
To a punto limpio. It is not packaging, so it does not go in yellow even though it is plastic. If it is small and there is no punto limpio nearby, grey, but the punto limpio is the correct destination.
What about nappies?
Grey. They are not organic waste despite appearances, and they are not recyclable.
What do I do if the container is always full?
Report it rather than leaving the bag outside. A container that regularly overflows points to a capacity or frequency problem, and a dated, photographed history is what gets it reviewed.