[alopex_rex]

This has been a terminology nightmare for us too. Our situation is something like:

GRAY TOTES: totes, bins, boxes, gray totes, non-yellow totes, normal totes
YELLOW TOTES: yellow totes, yellow bins, yellow boxes, auton totes, special totes, totes
RECYCLING CONTAINERS: containers, cans, bins, green bins, green things, trash cans, totes (when confused)
LITTER: pool noodles, noodles, trash, "po-no's" (did not catch on)

We eventually settled on "[gray] tote", "yellow tote", "bin", "[pool] noodle", which works well enough... for us.

For the purposes of the forum, I vote we use the official terminology whenever there is possibility of ambiguity. As long as we all have to use the same words, we may as well use the same words as the rulebook and save everyone some brain-trouble. Shorten "recycling container" to "container", preferably after using the full term once to establish what you're talking about.