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Friday, 25 September 2026
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Recycling guide

Waste sorting: what goes in which colour

Waste sorting in Macedonia comes in three colours: green for glass, yellow for plastic and cans, blue for paper. The rules are shorter than you think, and the most common mistakes are always the same few. Here they all are in one place.

What goes in which colour

Green - glass

Any glass packaging: bottles from water, juice, beer, wine and rakija, jars from preserves, jam and honey, small glass bottles from medicines, cosmetics and perfume.

Good to know

Throw bottles and jars in empty. Window glass, mirrors, ceramics and porcelain are not packaging, so they don't go in the green one, even if they look similar.

Yellow - plastic and cans

Plastic bottles from water, juice and soft drinks, cans, food tins, detergent and shampoo packaging, plastic film, plastic bags, and disposable plastic cups and plates.

Good to know

You don't have to rinse the packaging, it just needs to be empty - no liquid at the bottom. Throw bags in empty, not stuffed with other rubbish, because mixed waste soils the plastic around it.

Blue - paper and Tetra Pak

Cardboard boxes, shoe and sweet boxes, egg cartons, Tetra Pak cartons from milk and juice, newspapers, magazines, notebooks, letters, bills, flyers and posters.

Good to know

Tetra Pak looks like plastic, but it's collected with paper. Flatten boxes to leave room for everyone else, and greasy paper or napkins with food leftovers don't belong in the blue one.

Rules for all three

  • Empty, not washed. Packaging is washed during processing. It only has to be empty.
  • The label stays. The materials are separated in processing, so there's no need to peel it off.
  • No bags of mixed rubbish. One bag with food leftovers in the yellow or blue container soils the sorted packaging around it.
  • Less air, more space. Squash bottles and flatten boxes, so the container takes more before it fills up.
  • A full container is not an invitation. If it's full, don't leave your packaging next to it. Find the next nearest one.

What goes in none of the three

Electronic devices, cables and batteries go in none of the three containers. There is free pickup from home and free drop-off points for them.

E-waste →

Old furniture, mattresses and construction rubble are not packaging. In Skopje you can take them to a recycling yard for free or ask for pickup from home.

Bulky waste in Skopje →

Window glass, mirrors, ceramics, porcelain and light bulbs look like glass, but they aren't glass packaging. The green container is only for bottles, jars and small glass bottles.

Where is the nearest container?

Once you know what goes where, all that's left is finding a container. Pick a colour and allow location access.

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The nearest one is farther than 800 metres. We keep count - how many people have no container nearby is a number somebody needs to see.

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Frequently asked questions

One wrong piece of packaging isn't a disaster, but a bag of mixed rubbish or food leftovers soils the correctly sorted packaging around it too. When you're not sure, it's better to throw it in the ordinary container for household waste.

Pakomak has no specific rule on caps for the yellow container. At its vending machines, bottles go in with the cap facing the opening, which means bottles with caps on are accepted.

Pakomak lists pizza boxes among the packaging for the blue container, and asks for paper to be free of food leftovers. So empty the box first and remove any leftovers.

Across most of Macedonia, sorting happens in shared containers on the street. Some municipalities have handed out household bins for plastic, but those are separate projects, not a rule for the whole country.