As part of our survey, we asked the municipalities what materials they accepted in their curbside recycling programs. Generally, the materials fall into two large categories. There is the category of containers, and there is the category of paper products. As recycling collection, sorting and remanufacturing have gotten more sophisticated, the kinds of individual products and materials that fall under these two broad categories has expanded dramatically. It is also interesting to note that two trends in the container category have begun to develop. The first is that an increasing number of programs have dropped the requirement that the consumer separate glass containers by whether they are clear glass or colored glass. The second trend that is emerging is that several programs are now accepting all plastic bottles rather than limiting the acceptable plastics to #1 and #2 plastics.

The following tables provide a summary of the kinds of materials accepted in the curbside recycling programs. Please keep in mind that this information does not include drop off recycling sites. Also please note that this information is sketchy with respect to private contract arrangements between haulers and customers, and we have yet to survey the private haulers to ascertain what materials they routinely accept in their curbside programs. For the purposes of this table, we have included private haulers if the responding municipality reported it on the survey. Please note that the programs noted in Table 1 that accept commingled containers may be counted in both the material specific column and also in the All Plastic Bottles column:

Table 1: Number of Municipalities Reporting Containers Accepted in Curbside Programs
Aluminum Cans	Steel & Tin Cans	Clear Glass	Colored Glass	#1 & # 2 Plastic Bottles	All Plastic Bottles
88	76	82	79	74	51

The following table displays the number of municipalities reporting the kinds of paper materials accepted in the curbside programs. Similarly to the container category, the trend with paper materials has been to commingling rather than sorting, and the expansion of the types of paper products that are now acceptable within the general categories. The caveats noted for the preceding table are relevant to this table as well:

Table 2: Number of Municipalities Reporting Paper Materials Accepted in Curbside Programs
Newspapers & Supplements	Magazines, Catalogs & Inserts	Office Paper	Cardboard	Junk Mail	Misc. - phone books, paperboard, etc.
81	67	58	61	54	39