Do you wash rinse bottles out before you recycle?

[GFFord]

I don't normally but I've read that remaining liquid can contaminate the rest of the recycling. Additionally, can the pumps in hand wash be recycled? I've seen on a UK recycling site that you can't but it's vague, should I be disposing of the pumps and recycling the bottles, and also washing the soap out of these bottles?

Yes.

With a drought on the horizon I’m not sure it’s a good thing to be rinsing everything.

We put ours in the sink once we've finished the dishes and a soak usually gets residue off.

I do a quick swill rinse - sometimes with a squirt of washing up liquid - but I wouldn't say I wash them
If that makes sense.

And I've always wondered. How contaminated does a load have to be to be classed as contaminated? Because surely the chances of at least 10 people on a normal bin lorry run not having rinsed something are pretty high?

I put my recycling in the dishwasher along with the day's pots and pans, so no additional water used, or do it at the end of my "manual" washing up if I don't have enough dirty pots to make it worth running the machine. It's not like you need to use fresh water for every individual jar or can.

I have learned something today. There are people who put their recycling through the dishwasher 😂. Just do a quick rinse under the cold tap ffs. You might be running the dishwasher anyway but it will be taking up space that could be used for other dishes, meaning running it more often and worse for the environment.

Yes, at the end of the washing up (no dishwasher). It doesn’t use any new water, so no additional resources are being used up that way.

Yes I do. I actually get some perverse pleasure out of it!

Yes, I rinse everything. I don’t run the tap, I either bung it in the dishwasher or swill it out when washing up by hand. I worry that not rinsing will attract vermin to my recycling bin. I’ve also seen horrible pictures of hedgehogs with their faces stuck in tins

Likewise.

Yes, of course.

Yes, everything. Most tins and jars go in the dishwasher.
I can’t understand people putting unwashed and possibly smelly things in the recycling.

I give it a quick swill. Don’t dry it because the gets rained on. Also I don’t waste too much thought process on it because I don’t believe it gets recycled. I think it’s incinerated.

Yes, I rinse everything. I also noticed recently that the advice is to put lids back on milk bottles etc so I do that too now.

Yes, everything.

I would also like to know this!

If we have enough water for fucking golf courses we have enough for washing the recycling

I've visited my recycling plant and seen what they do with it, so yes I make an effort. Often cleaning the recycling means the dishwasher is properly full. It never gets run extra because of it.
They ask you to not put pizza boxes in because that completely screws up the paper recycling. Most big plants sort stuff but it's done with magnets, air jet and sieve systems so dirty stuff can get through.
Oh and never put small button batteries in your bins, they can actually ignite if crushed wrong and then you have a bin lorry fire or worse!

Like pp's I just swill tins and bottles etc in the washing up bowl before letting the water out. No wasted water. My washing up goes like this..... glasses, then wooden stuff, then other more greasy stuff like baking trays, then recycling, and finally cat bowls! The water is pretty grim by the end 😅

Yes I wash food & drink off. It's not as smelly for recycling staff to prix

Process

We rinse everything in our house.

I figured that if I find it a horrible yukky job while the stuff is still relatively fresh, then the poor sod working on the recycling sorting belt would find it much worse once it's gone properly minging.

It's common curtesy.

No. There is no need. The water wasted particularly if heated is a net loss of resources.

Yes, I was brought up to do all this, my dad's always been very hot on correct recycling!