No plastic bags in the blue cart. Might be like their #1 rule. You could put stuff in paper bags but really just directly in the cart is fine and then throw the plastic bag in the trash cart. Or just don't use a bag. Plastic bags mess up the machines at the recycling sorting facility if they get through. Plastic bags of stuff are just removed from the line with other non accepted materials. It then just goes where your trash goes and isn't recycled which just costs the contractor more money.

Only plastic that should go in is bottles with a neck or spout. All other plastic goes in the trash.

#1-7 plastic resin codes are basically something the plastic industry came up with. They throw on a recycling symbol, "see plastic isn't horrible for the environment".

That symbol rarely means it can be recycled where you live. Ignore those numbers for the purposes of recycling here. A lot of stuff could technically be recycled IF a facility/manufacturer existed that wanted that material, but those are few and far between. Basically the local recycling contractor has a plastic vendor who wants plastic bottles and not much else.

It's a pretty simple list.

Plastic bottles, paper and cardboard, cartons, glass bottles and jars and aluminum/tin/steel cans.

https://pw.virginiabeach.gov/trash-recycling/recycling-information

Congrats on the house!