Recycling Vocabulary Words Worksheets

Press Print worksheet to match twelve recycling words, from reduce, reuse and recycle to compost and landfill, to their meanings.

Your own pairs, one per line: left = right

A sample is on the sheet. What you type replaces it.

What you type stays in your browser. Nothing is sent to us.

Pairs

Answer by

Set

More options

Text size

Letter style

Paper

Direction

Add a "Name" and "Date" line at the top Add an answer key as the last page

Next step Next: Earth Day word search

All 36 words

Reduce, reuse, recycle 12

compost Decayed leaves and scraps added to dirt as fertilizer. "Grandpa spreads compost on the garden every spring."
conserve To protect a thing from being wasted or used up. "Turn off the tap to conserve water."
environment The natural surroundings all living things share. "Clean rivers are part of a healthy environment."
landfill A site where trash is dumped and covered with earth. "The truck hauls our trash to the landfill."
litter Trash dropped and left lying in a public place. "Our class picked up litter around the playground."
pollution The fouling of nature by smoke, chemicals or trash. "Smoke from the fire added to the air pollution."
recyclable Able to be collected and made into something new. "Is this cup recyclable?"
recycle To treat used material so it can become new goods. "Rinse the can, then recycle it."
recycling bin The container where used cans, paper and bottles go. "The blue recycling bin is next to the door."
reduce To cut down on how much you use or throw away. "We reduce our trash by packing lunch in a washable box."
reuse To put a used item to work once more. "I reuse this jar to hold my pencils."
waste Unwanted material that is left over or thrown away. "The cafeteria weighs its food waste once a week."

Show all 36 words (24 more)

What gets recycled 12

aluminum A light, silvery metal used for drink cans. "We saved the aluminum cans from the picnic."
cardboard A heavy paper board, the usual stuff of shipping boxes. "Flatten the cardboard so more fits in the bin."
carton A light container of paper or cardboard, as for milk. "Rinse the juice carton first."
cullet Broken or scrap glass that is melted to make new glass. "The furnace is fed with sand and cullet."
e-waste Unwanted phones, computers and other electronics. "The town collects e-waste on the first Saturday of the month."
glass A hard, see-through solid formed from molten sand. "We washed the glass jars and kept them."
green waste Unwanted plant matter, such as leaves and cut grass. "We bag the green waste after we mow."
plastic A human-made material that is shaped while it is soft. "The milk jug is made of plastic."
pulp A wet, soft mash of fibers that is made into paper. "The mill turns old newspapers into pulp."
textile Cloth, such as the fabric of old clothes and sheets. "The shop takes any clean textile, even a torn shirt."
tin can A metal food container, often tin-coated steel. "The soup came in a tin can."
wastepaper Used paper that nobody wants any longer. "A basket by the desk holds the wastepaper."

Bigger recycling words 12

biodegradable Able to decay naturally through the work of microbes. "A banana peel is biodegradable."
decompose To decay bit by bit, as fallen leaves do. "The leaves will decompose over the winter."
disposable Built to be used once and then tossed out. "We stopped buying disposable plates."
hazardous waste Waste that is toxic, corrosive or able to catch fire. "The town holds a collection day for hazardous waste."
incinerator A furnace built for burning trash. "Some of the city's trash goes to an incinerator."
natural resource A useful supply found in nature, such as water or timber. "Water is a natural resource we all share."
raw material An unprocessed material that a factory turns into goods. "Sand is a raw material for making glass."
recycling symbol Three chasing arrows that form a triangle. "Look for the recycling symbol on the bottom of the tub."
repurpose To give an old thing a different job. "We can repurpose this crate as a bookshelf."
reusable Fit to be used again and again. "Bring a reusable bottle on the field trip."
sustainability Living in a way that can go on without harming nature. "The school garden is a lesson in sustainability."
upcycle To turn waste into a product of higher quality. "She will upcycle the old jeans into a bag."

How this list was compiled: Word list chosen for this site on 2026-10-09. Each meaning is written in our own words and was checked that day in two dictionaries: the entry for the term in Wiktionary, the free dictionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/), whose text is under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, and the entry in the Cambridge Dictionary (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/). Cullet and recycling symbol have no entry in the second dictionary and were read in the articles Glass recycling and Recycling symbol of English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/), whose text is under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license; hazardous waste has no entry in either and was read on the page Household Hazardous Waste of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (https://www.epa.gov/hw/household-hazardous-waste-hhw). The meanings of recycle, compost, landfill and recycling symbol were also read against the agency's pages Recycling Basics and Benefits (https://www.epa.gov/recycle/recycling-basics-and-benefits), Composting At Home (https://www.epa.gov/recycle/composting-home) and Basic Information about Landfills (https://www.epa.gov/landfills/basic-information-about-landfills), and tin can, green waste and pulp against the articles Steel and tin cans, Green waste and Paper recycling. The answers under the tool about the 3 R's, the recycling symbol, compost and America Recycles Day follow the same agency pages and its page Reducing Waste: What You Can Do (https://www.epa.gov/recycle/reducing-waste-what-you-can-do), read on 2026-10-09. The sentence after each meaning is our own. Licence: own work

How it works

These recycling vocabulary words worksheets open on twelve words to match to their meanings: reduce, reuse, recycle, compost, landfill, litter, waste, recyclable, recycling bin, pollution, conserve and environment. Two more sets cover what gets recycled and bigger recycling words.

Read the full guide

What gets recycled

In Set, What gets recycled prints plastic, glass, aluminum, cardboard, tin can, carton, wastepaper, e-waste, textile, green waste, pulp and cullet, the scrap glass that is melted down again.

Bigger recycling words

The third set has biodegradable, decompose, disposable, reusable, upcycle, repurpose, incinerator, hazardous waste, natural resource, raw material, sustainability and recycling symbol. Under the tool every word has a sentence to read aloud, such as "Turn off the tap to conserve water."

Questions and answers

What are the 3 Rs of recycling?

Reduce, reuse and recycle. The Environmental Protection Agency calls them the 3 R's of waste reduction and puts recycling last: a product should be recycled only if it cannot be reduced or reused.

What does the recycling symbol mean?

Its three chasing arrows stand for a loop of three steps that repeat: collecting and processing recyclables, manufacturing them into new products, and buying products made from recycled materials.

What is compost made of?

Organic materials such as food scraps, leaves, grass clippings and tree trimmings. Microorganisms break them down with oxygen, and the end product, compost, is added to soil.

When is America Recycles Day?

November 15 every year. The Environmental Protection Agency marks the day with education about recycling.

All 36 words

Reduce, reuse, recycle 12

What gets recycled 12

Bigger recycling words 12

How it works

What gets recycled

Bigger recycling words

Questions and answers

More tools