Soft plastics recycling - how clean is "clean"?

[madeinmanc]

I want to start recycling my soft plastic packaging etc. but they all seem to specify the plastic mustn't have food on. Would this rule out things like empty bags of nuts that have maybe a little salt or nut dust on the inside? What about empty Nakd bar wrappers that don't have any of the bar on but I guess if you touch the wrapper it's a bit sticky where the date was in contact with it?

I fill the nut/crisp/pet food bags & sachets with water and give them a rinse. Any bars that have left sticky on I either dispose of, so they don’t contaminate a whole batch of soft plastics, or when I’m washing up I leave them soaking in the sink. I let the bags drip dry propped open on a radiator that has kitchen roll on to catch the water.

Aha, so it does matter then, it's a good thing I asked. I don't have any drying room or radiators so I don't think I'll be able to do that. It is already very hard for me to get my regular recycling dry in a cold, damp house. Thanks for letting me know.

just wipe them with a tea towel after rinsing..

I can't do that, I struggle to dry laundry and that would create more laundry. You can't really understand how difficult it is unless you have lived in this kind of house. Nothing dries. Yes, I have a dehumidifier before someone says that. Laundry takes about three days on a rack, longer for woollens. Every spare space is covered in drying laundry, the kitchen is already full of recycling that's drying. I can't add to that.

Anyway I don't have a car so I'm already less harmful than most to the environment.

Get a Lakeland heated drying rack OP. With the humidifier in a damp basement it takes me around 6 hours to dry a full rack.

For the clothes or the soft plastics? 😁

Not smelly or obviously smeared. I'd say a bit of dust/salt/sticky is fine. It all gets melted anyway doesn't it?

But as an aside, I worked out that the tumble drier (quite new AA rated I think) would only use a third more electricity than humidifier and heated airer, so if this is really making your life a miser and you can afford a TD, I'd get one. You could just use it for the hard-to-dry stuff if you felt v guilty.

I often wait until there's a few things, then soak them in sudsy water and rinse the soap residue out. I don't think water is a problem, the bales are stored in the open air.