Tick brown cans you need to recycle (7)
I believe the answer is:
instant
'tick' is the definition.
(both can mean a short amount of time)
'brown cans you need to recycle' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'brown' could be 'tan' (tan is a kind of brown) and 'tan' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'inst' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
(Other definitions for instant that I've seen before include "Tick" , "Mo" , "pressing" , "Happening immediately" , "No need to cook" .)