Recycling seems pretty straight-forward, and in cities like Seattle, you have to separate the recyclables from the garbage. The pressure is on to do the right thing, but some of us are making mistakes.

"One of them is when we try to recycle coffee cups," says Marcia Rutan, Community Recycling Manager for Seattle Public Utilities. She says that paper cup you get at the stand every morning shouldn't be recycled or placed in the compost bin.

"Because they (the cups) have a thin, plastic layer," she adds.

Within King County, you can't recycle bubble wrap, freezer and food bags, plastic food trays and utensils, Styrofoam, or take-out containers. The county plans on changing recycling haulers in 2009, which means we'll be able to recycle even more. Until then, check with your city or county to find out exactly what you can recycle, and what you shouldn't.

In this age where we're all trying to do our best for the planet, many of us are recycling things that can't be recycled. Know that when you put something in the recycle bin that can't be recycled, it's literally picked off the line by people hired to look for plastics that cannot currently be recycled.

In 2006, 100,000 tons of plastic from King County went into landfills because it couldn't be recycled.

And just because your item has the three familiar arrows -- the recycling symbol -- don't think that recycling it is a slam dunk.

"And the answer is 'not always,'" says Tom Watson with King County. He says items with the "recycle" symbol can be recycled somewhere, but not necessarily in your town.

Use the following links to find out what you can, and what you shouldn't try to recycle in your area:

King County:
http://your.kingcounty.gov/solidwaste/garbage-recycling/recycling.asp

Pierce County:
http://www.co.pierce.wa.us

Snohomish County:
http://www1.co.snohomish.wa.us

City of Seattle:
http://www.seattle.gov/UTIL/Services/Recycling/index.asp