Ever wonder whether it's ok to throw the top in with the bottle? Whether you need to peel off the label?

Wonder no further because the government's Energy Information Administration's site for kids, Energy for Kids has a recycling guide with many answers.

(You may scoff that you need something more sophisticated than a schoolkid guide, but chances are that if you're decorating an apartment or home right now, you're probably too old to have been exposed to a green curriculum in your school days, so at least some of this will be new.)

The EIA guide has a page each for the major recycling categories, and each will tell you not only how to sort your trash responsibly but what happens to it after it leaves your home:

• Recycling Plastics
• Recycling Metals
• Recycling Paper & Glass

And no, you can't recycle the bottle top (the plastic is too soft), but you can leave on the label.