Sunday is Earth Day. But when you think about it, we need to take care of our planet every day.

One way to do that is to recycle. Here are some recycling dos and don'ts.

Do recycle the recyclables and don't recycle the trash

We do a pretty good job of recycling around here, but we could do better. There are two ways to do that.

First, we can do a better job of putting things in the recycle bin that we've been putting in the trash. Then, we can make sure we don't put things in the recycle bin that should be in the trash.

If a Waste Management truck picks up your garbage, then your recyclables go to the Cascade Recycling Center in Woodinville. I took a tour to see what happens there.

At the recycling center, huge piles of waster are turned into bales of reusable material. Then, the aluminum is shipped to Tennessee, the plastic to Canada and the fiber to China.

Rita Smith with Waste Management says the company operates 250 trucks a day and picks up 400 tons of residential trash alone.

"Ultimately, what we end up with is less than five percent of them material that comes into the plant going into our garbage," she said.

The first thing I noticed on my VIP tour was that there's very little smell. That's good. It means not much garbage is coming in.

The workers sort your recyclables so you don't have to. First, they get rid of anything that shouldn't be in the system like old clothing, pillows, electronics and other trash. Workers also grab plastic bags filled with other recyclable materials. They must rip them open and get what's inside.

Don't recycle plastic bags

Another problem workers face is loose recyclable plastic bags. The bags must be pulled out of the conveyor belt, because they can get stuck in the machinery.

"So what we would like people to do is reuse their plastic bags and then when they need to recycle them, take them to the grocery store," Smith said.

From this point on, machines do a lot of the work. Giant rollers grab the cardboard, then it's a series of conveyor belts and sorting machines that separates plastic, aluminum and glass.

Don't recycle shredded paper

Because of identity theft, a lot of us put shredded paper into the recycle bin. That's created a sorting challenge. The shreds get mixed up with the glass shards, and that mixture winds up going to the landfill.

So the best thing you can do with your shredded paper is put it in the yard waste bin, where it can be turned into compost. Also use the yard waste bin for old latte cups (but not the lids) and used napkins.

More Information:

King County Solid Waste

Pierce County Recycling

Snohomish County Recycling

City & Country Recycling links