This Online Guide Will Teach You How to Recycle, Once and for All

Conscious city dwellers hear time and time again that recycling is a virtue, that the path to environmental civic do-goodery is as easy as throwing reusables in the right bin. But this is much, much easier said than done. Are pizza boxes recyclable? They’re cardboard, right? What about yogurt containers? Batteries? And if you’ve got it figured out and then find yourself moving cities, the recycling rules might totally change. Plastic coat hangers, for example, can be dropped in the recycling bin in Austin, but they’re verboten in Houston.

Recycle By City is the answer to all those thorny recycling questions. Since 2014, the former advertising executive Tracy Bugh and her small, L.A.-based team has partnered with local governments in Los Angeles, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Austin, Houston, Philadelphia, and—as of December—Chicago. For an annual fee, the group organizes each city’s localized recycling information into cute, straightforward, and well-designed guides, which are constantly updated as cities inevitably change their systems. Then it then tests users’ comprehension with fun quizzes.