Is it Normal to wash/rinse the plastic recycling before putting it in the bag 🤷‍♀️

[endofmytether26]

I've always rinsed out plastic pots/containers etc before I put them in the recycling bag. OH said not to bother as it's a waste of time and just put it straight in the bag after use.
I think he's probably right and it's just a habit I've got into but do you rinse it or fling it?
Lighthearted - I'm not losing any sleep over it 😍

@endofmytether26

Interesting how different areas have different rules. We don't have bins yet just the clear recycling bags which everything goes into. So to those of you that have recycling bins do you also get recycling bags which you fill up and then the whole bag goes in the bin? Have to add - I'm very impressed with *@SoupDragon who puts hers in the dishwasher!! And to @halcyondays* - I just do the food containers.

No bags allowed in the recycling bin so everything is in loose. I rinse most food containers under the tap as we also have a 3 weekly collection

Yes all loose, no bags. And the Bon isn’t big enough

bin, even

P.s. I have 2 bins in the kitchen, 1 for mixed recycling and 1 for general waste. Once the recycling is full it is tipped loose into the wheely bin outside

@Sparklingbrook

Yes all loose, no bags. And the Bon isn’t big enough

In my LA in Scotland we can get larger recycling bins free. I have a large mixed recycling bin and large paper/card one as well.

Run most items though the dishwasher first before binning.

I rinse everything that goes in the recycling. I also put my milk bottles through the dishwasher - DH calls me Hyacinth!

I'm very impressed with @SoupDragon who puts hers in the dishwasher!!

Lol. Things go in to fill up gaps when I'm ready to put it on.

The Dog cleans up things like meat trays and cat food foil trays 😂😂

I rinse everything. If something is particularly stinky I'll stick it in the dishwasher - otherwise our recycling bin starts to smell grim.

Wash them. If I don't, then foxes will scatter them all over the place.

Yes I give milk bottles, cans etc a quick rinse, or put things like jars/margarine tubs in dishwasher

Yes, always wash stuff before recycling

Also impressed that sparklingbrook clearly writes about Simon le Bon much more often than she talks about bins!

@dementedpixie

P.s. I have 2 bins in the kitchen, 1 for mixed recycling and 1 for general waste. Once the recycling is full it is tipped loose into the wheely bin outside

Ditto.

The only plastics our LA collects is bottles, nothing else. We don't have food collection, either, nor glass, though there is a glass recycling point outside the town centre, which a lot of people can't get to if they don't have a car

Oh, and yes, we rinse all bottles.

Ours has to go loose into the recycling bin outside which is emptied once a fortnight. So we keep a recycling box under the stairs to chuck items in as they're used up and then it goes into the outside bin when full.

We rinse everything inc bathroom containers, just takes a second. Our council wants it clean and anyway I don't want our box understairs to stink.

Normal, yes. That said I don't rinse everything. Milk cartons, jars, food tins get washed but cola bottles I usually just shake any dregs out.

Our bin says clean dry recyclables only so k hand wash/rinse and drain pretty much everything.
I once got into a colleagues car when she was going to the recycling centre and she had loads of unrinsed dog food cans. It was stink and i was horrified.
On a tv documentary i watched the workers had to stand at a conveyor belt and pick out and dump all dirty contaminated items

Oh I didn't realise we should be squashing things - we've just started doing this as the bin seems to get so full so quickly.

I do rinse things but have sometimes wondered what the economics are are using clean, fresh water to rinse out, for example, a coleslaw tub as it seems to need such a lot. Perhaps I'm being over dramatic...

www.sciencedaily.com/terms/water_scarcity.htm

Water scarcity is being driven by two converging phenomena: growing freshwater use and depletion of usable freshwater resources.

I do rinse things but have sometimes wondered what the economics are are using clean, fresh water to rinse out, for example, a coleslaw tub as it seems to need such a lot. Perhaps I'm being over dramatic...

Don't rinse them separately. Wash them when you are doing the washing up. No extra water used. And they are properly clean too.

I actually scrub mine - things like food trays (aluminium or plastic) which have burnt-on food are soaked and then scrubbed.
Most things are soaked in used washing-up water & paper labels removed for paper recycling, milk bottles rinsed in cold water.
Everything squashable is squashed.
Bags from things like potatoes/bread/frozen veg/ go in with carrier bags back to Ocado.
I am a bit evangelical about recycling (but I don’t dry anything...)
It would be so helpful if every council took the same items with the same rules

@EarringsandLipstick

Ah, washing up! I remember that.

I use copious amounts of electricity and it's all done in the dishwasher... all sorts of mixed messages here!

So I giveth and I taketh away.

@endofmytether26

Interesting how different areas have different rules. We don't have bins yet just the clear recycling bags which everything goes into. So to those of you that have recycling bins do you also get recycling bags which you fill up and then the whole bag goes in the bin? Have to add - I'm very impressed with *@SoupDragon who puts hers in the dishwasher!! And to @halcyondays* - I just do the food containers.

We have wheely bins for our recycling, one for paper & cardboard and one for tins, plastics & glass. They are collected on alternate weeks. I give everything a quick rinse as soon as I’ve used it up and pop it in a basket under my sink. Every couple of days that gets tipped into the wheely bin (no bags). Our council likes everything clean and NOT crushed.

I'm a slattern then. I don't rinse cos water bill and resources. I have a dishwasher so rarely run a sink. Embarrassingly most of my recycling is alcohol cans/bottles plus milk cartons. Which aren't gunky anyway.

Plus I assume everything is industrially washed at the other end so doubling the amount of water needed which is also a valuable resource. I presume recycling goes through an awful lot of processes before being reused, I doubt the odd coleslaw pot contaminates everything despite what the council tells you. To make it viable most sorting is done by machines now I think. We are a few miles from a bio fuel station and apparently all our waste, including general and paper/card goes through there. And is all sorted through the same machines.

I do, because when we empty our recycling bin into the big one you have to do it one item at a time. It’s a really grim job if the stuff stinks because of leftover food. I don’t bother doing toiletries because they don’t smell awful after sitting around for a few days.

I wash ours as one I don't want my bin smelling as it's two weeks between collections, and two I think of the people who have to hand sort the rubbish and the stuff they would have to deal with if it wasn't cleaned. It takes seconds, and sometimes I put things in the dishwasher if there is a bit of space.