Why there is no single list for the whole country
This has to be said first, because almost nobody says it. The service is organised by municipalities: the colours differ, which plastics are accepted differs, whether glass and metal share a bin differs, and so do the days and the methods.
Your Comune’s calendar or app is the only genuinely authoritative source for the detail. What follows is what holds regardless of where you live.
The rule that settles half the doubts: packaging, not material
Plastic collection is built on PACKAGING, meaning things that contained something: bottles, flacons, trays, wrappers, pouches.
A plastic object that was never packaging does not belong, even though it is the same material. Basins, toothbrushes, water bottles, toys and bowls go to residual waste or the recycling centre, not the plastic bin.
If you find yourself thinking "but it is plastic, isn’t it?", the right question is different: did it contain something?
Paper is spoiled by dirt, not by type
- Used tissues, greasy napkins and soiled kitchen roll are not recyclable paper: organic or residual depending on local rules
- A pizza box with baked-on residue goes to residual. If part is clean, tear it off and recycle only that
- Till receipts are chemical paper and do not belong with paper
- Baking parchment is silicone-treated and does not belong with paper
Glass: the false friends
Glass collection takes bottles and jars, emptied and without lids. Metal lids follow their own stream.
Crystal and Pyrex are the classic false friends: they look like glass and are not, for recycling purposes. The same goes for ceramics, mirrors, light bulbs and window glass. They melt at different temperatures and compromise the whole load.
Organic waste: the two serious errors
The first is liquids. Soups, sauces and stock should not go in, because they disrupt composting. Drain them.
The second is the bag. Ordinary plastic bags in the organic stream are a serious error: only certified compostable bags work. A wrong bag contaminates the entire deposit, and it is why organic waste is rejected more often than people realise.
Bottles get flattened the right way
A small detail with a real effect: plastic bottles should be flattened lengthways rather than crushed top down, and the cap put back on.
A bottle crushed flat is misread by the optical sorters at the plant and risks ending up as reject.
The recycling centre: what fits in no bin
Appliances and electronics, batteries, fluorescent tubes and bulbs, paints and solvents, waste oils, tyres, small amounts of inert rubble, bulky items and furniture.
This is the piece missing from many people’s mental model and one of the main causes of dumping: things that fit no container end up at the roadside, when the recycling centre would have taken them free.
When the container is full
A full container is not permission to leave the bag on the ground. One bag is enough for others to appear within days, and a collection point becomes a dumping spot.
Report it. A container overflowing every week is not a matter of manners but of capacity or frequency, and it is corrected only with concrete evidence. A dated, photographed history of the same spot is what moves a Comune.
Worth knowing: a bag left beside a container in breach of municipal rules falls under the administrative sanction for abandonment, which our dedicated page covers.
Sources
Does a plastic toy go in the plastic bin?
No. Plastic collection is for packaging. A toy is not packaging: residual waste or the recycling centre.
Can a pizza box be recycled?
Only the clean part. Areas with baked-on residue go to residual, so tear and separate.
Can I use an ordinary bag for organic waste?
No, it is one of the most serious errors. Only certified compostable bags work, otherwise the whole deposit is contaminated.
Does a broken drinking glass go in with glass?
No. Glass collection is packaging glass. Drinking glasses, Pyrex, crystal, ceramics and mirrors are different materials and ruin the load.
Why are my Comune’s rules different?
Because the service is organised municipally. Colours, accepted materials and methods vary: your Comune’s calendar remains the source to follow for detail.