Recycling S/O: Do you wash out bottles, cans, and jars before recycling?

[Rebecca VA]

((Blush)) I never do. Honestly, I just figure that everything will go into a big water bath at the recycling plant and get washed out there. It seems that it would take so much water to scrub each item at home that it would cancel out the recycling benefit.

 

What does everyone else do?

[DarcyB]

I do if it's something particularly messy just so we don't attract fruit flies. Otherwise, I generally don't for the same reason.

[NaturalMomma]

((Blush)) I never do. Honestly, I just figure that everything will go into a big water bath at the recycling plant and get washed out there. It seems that it would take so much water to scrub each item at home that it would cancel out the recycling benefit.

 

What does everyone else do?

 

I rinse everything out. It just seemed the likely thing to do not to mention, I'm a clean freak. I keep my recycle bin on the side of the home, sometimes in the garage. Cleaning things out keeps the insects from finding there way in it to it. I couldn't imagine all that sitting for a week, until trash day :eek:. I would worry it would smell or draw insects. Do you keep your bin inside?

[kalanamak]

Yes, we keep our bins for years, and I don't want them stinky.

[Firefly]

If it's something particularly messy or stinky, I will rinse. Otherwise I don't bother for the reason the OP mentioned. Also, we have a small container under the sink that gets emptied every day to a separate, enclosed trash area outside, so smell is not usually an issue.

[Ellyndria]

I rinse things out. Our recycling only gets picked up every two weeks, and they asked for clean bottles, etc.

[Renthead Mommy]

I do a quick rinse. Most of our recycling is cranberry juice bottles and other juice/sport type drinks. So it just take a quick rinse. Spaghetti sauce jars take just a bit more water.

 

Our recycling gets picked up weekly, but I only take it out when the bins are full, not every week. But I also ship our plastics that we can't recycle (non #1 and #2) back to my bff's house when we go there or she comes here. The quick rinse seems to be enough. Weeks old recycling, that's been sitting in the garage, and is now in the back of the car doesn't seem to smell.

[Laura Corin]

I do, just because the recycling sits in my kitchen until I take it to the centre once a week.

 

Laura

[cjzimmer1]

Our paper ran an article last year about this. If there is dried on food etc they have to throw them out. I can't remember the exact explanation but something about when then process the stuff (in whatever fashion this is done), the food causes too much contaminents. I'm sure I'm not remembering the exact explanation well but basically if it's dirty they can't recycle it. They even gave a detailed explanation about how to dismantle a pizza box because if their is grease on the cardboard, they can't use it. They actually want people to rip apart the box and recycle the sides and lid (since those are usually clean but toss them if they aren't) and then throw away the bottom panel since that is usually soaked in grease. Needless to say we just toss the whole box on the extremely rare occasion that we order pizza.

[NanceXToo]

If it's something like a soda can that's been opened, I will rinse it so it isn't sticky or leaking droplets of soda. A can I opened that had veggies or something in it, I'll rinse that out. If it's like a glass jar of sauce I'll usually give it a quick rinse. But most of the milk, water, juice containers etc. I just leave the cap on and toss them into the recycling container.

[Mejane]

Our center recommends a "quick rinse" but I don't know if that's for their sake or ours. I rinse things well because I don't want bugs. We had maggots in our trash one summer and it grossed me out. :tongue_smilie:Check with your town to see if they have a policy. I'd hate to think they are throwing recyclables out because I didn't take a few seconds to rinse them.

[2squared]

For some reason I thought that dirty recycling doesn't get recycled. It has to be clean otherwise it gets rejected. I probably read that a while ago. Things may be different now.

 

I do clean my recycling. I rinse out cans and bottles but put containers through the dishwasher.

[Mom2absh]

I rinse them, sometimes soak them, until there's no food stuck anywhere - otherwise it makes the bin smell nasty!

 

J

[Cedarmom]

Our recycling co. sends out notices along with what is/is not recyclable that they need the stuff cleaned. So I do. SOmetimes I even put dirtier container (peanut butter) in the dishwasher first. Around here, recycling pick up is free, so I recycle as much as I can. That way we have a much smaller garbage bill. In our yard waster, we can put food scraps and pizza boxes (grease and all) Then I guess they compost it.

[Brilliant]

I just rinse, and if it's something that won't get clean with a rinse, I throw it away so I don't have dirty stuff in my recycling bin in the pantry.

 

When we lived in another city, we were basically required to recycle b/c our trash bin was so tiny that we couldn't afford not to (a 2nd trash bin was cost prohibitive). And they had such detailed requirements for the recycling - we had to wash all cans & bottles, then use the can opener to remove the bottom lid from each can, then flatten the can. I hated it. Who wants to handle their trash that much? And I agree with the poster that said if you are thoroughly washing them, you're using resources that cancel out the benefits of the recycling.

[freerange]

I rinse everything - our collections are fortnightly, but even if they were more frequent, I wouldn't want the accumulation of ickky sticky gunk at the bottom of the bins.

[UmMusa]

Yep, I do rinse out the cans, milk jugs, orange juice cartons, etc.. Just a habit. I wouldn't want all that residue stinking or getting the bins sticky.

[stripe]

We have been told to wash ours. I was under the impression that stuff gets washed, but I toured our local recycling plant recently and there was no washing facility at all! This has made me wonder what to do with things like a peanut butter jar. I am not going to scrub it out, sorry.

[Garga]

Rinse them out. For most things, I just put them in the sink while I wash other dishes. I allow the rinse water from the other dishes fill up the containers and sit there. After a while, I dump out the rinse water and the food comes out.

 

That way, I don't use extra water to wash out the jars, but they do get rinsed.

[dirty ethel rackham]

I rinse most things. If it has food stuck on it (like peanut butter containers, I do a light wash on it when I am washing other things. When we toured a local recycling unit, this is what they requested.

[Gooblink]

Yes, I wash everything - at least rinse it. We keep our bin inside (utility room), and it's got holes on the bottom of it, so I don't want gross leaking out of it.

[HappyCrazyMama]

I too used to assume items would get washed and didn't wash most things.:blushing:(when we lived with curbside recycling) Then low and behold we move to where there is no recycling for 70 miles (aka boonies) and my dh decides to begin recycling services so he made a deal with the town, manufactured some bins and we collect, bale and sell the recyclables. Guess what, we can't sell dirty recyclables. We have to clean them or toss them. I haven't noticed dh cleaning anything yet.:001_huh: It is very likely your dirty recyclables don't get recycled, sorry. I put things like peanut butter containers in the dishwasher. I don't know what the big boys do but we haven't seen any washing facilities at the places we have toured.

[Miss Sherry]

I wash them out. If I don't think it would take long for the recycle can to get really nasty.

 

Now after hearing on here that items with food left in them don't get recycled I will continue to wash all of them.

[danybug]

I rinse out most things. I never actually run water just to rinse them, because I feel like that defeats part of the benefit because your wasting water. So, if it is something that really needs rinsed out well I leave it standing in my rinse sink while I am washing dishes and let it get rinsed out that way.

 

Our recycling bin is in our garage and we have never had any stink issues.

[AHASRADA]

I wash everything until there is no food stuck on it. Juice and milk containers, I just rinse out quickly and crush. Tomato cans, salsa jars, yogurt containers, etc., I rinse until clean. Really awful items, like peanut butter jars, I fill with water, put the cover on, and leave it on my counter for 24 hours or so, before draining and rinsing (this softens the stuck-on stuff).

 

We also toured our local recycling facility, and not only was there no washing process, but we watched the poor workers hand-sorting every single piece of recycling, with gloves and masks, but it was still quite smelly. They did a good job of driving home the point that dirty recycling is a health hazard, not to mention just nasty and disgusting, for the workers.

 

Although both our trash and recycling is paid by the municipality, we recycle everything we can. We usually have one trash bag per week, but our recycle bin needs to be emptied at least twice a week. It's just the right thing to do, IMO.

[JenneinCA]

We recycle mostly paper. All that junk mail!

 

I rinse anything that can be cleaned with little water and throw away anything else. When we were in AZ that was the preferred solution. It was more important to save the water by not washing things than it was to save the can or bottle for recycling. Water was more precious than land fill space.

 

I suspect that may vary by region though.