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You’re standing in front of three bins – one for compost, one for recycling and one for landfill – holding an empty container called a “PlantBottle” and a clear plastic cup embossed with the recycling triangle and the number seven. Now what?

Your instinct might be to put that “PlantBottle” in the compost bin, and to put the clear plastic cup in the recycling bin. But in this case, you’d be wrong on both counts.

PlantBottle is Coca-Cola’s brand for its bio-based plastic bottles, and while they are made either partially or wholly from plant-derived materials, they have the identical chemical structure of plastic made from oil, and therefore should be recycled right along with petro-derived plastic. A PlantBottle, despite its name, can’t be composted.

And the cup bearing the recycling logo and the number seven? Seven is the catchall for plastics that aren’t generally recyclable but that a few curbside systems might take – things like durable goods such as sunglasses, DVDs and some types of rugged plastic packaging. Compostable plastic is lumped under number seven, too. This cup in your hand happens to be a compostable bioplastic material, PLA, and so, though it might seem counterintuitive, it is supposed to go in the compost bin. Of course, if the word “compostable” were printed on the cup, this would be obvious. But such hints are not always provided.