Yes, but not always through your usual recycling bin. Most urban trash cans are made from metal, plastic, wood, concrete, or mixed materials, and whether they can be recycled at the end of their life depends on the material, how contaminated they are, and what your local waste facility accepts. Steel and aluminum bins are usually the best candidates: they can be emptied, cleaned, and sent for metal recycling, where they’re shredded and processed into new material. Plastic bins are more hit-or-miss. Some rigid HDPE or polypropylene bins can be recycled if your area has a program for bulky rigid plastics; others end up in landfill or energy recovery because they’re UV-damaged, dirty, or made from mixed plastic. Concrete, wood, and composite bins are often reused, refurbished, or broken down for other uses rather than recycled in a standard stream.
If you’re dealing with a municipal or street bin, don’t just put it out with curbside recycling. Contact your city’s waste or public works department, or the contractor that owns the bin, and ask about bulky-item collection, metal scrap pickup, or a take-back program. Before recycling, empty it, remove liners and loose parts, and keep it as clean as practical. In many cases, refurbishing or repurposing the bin is better than recycling it, so ask about that first. So the short answer is: yes, urban trash cans can often be recycled, but it’s not automatic—material and local infrastructure decide the route.