To ask if you wash plastic bottles and other containers before putting them in the recycling?

[Motherinlawsdung]

Or does the giant recycling machine thingy clean them somehow anyway?

No , never

Just milk cartoons.

Yes I I because we are asked to, why would they bother asking if it wasn't needed?

Also if it's going to sit around for a while it needs to be clean!

Tops off plastic bottles here as well, otherwise they will explode when they are crushed, I assume.

Yes, just a quick rinse. It's not fair on the poor buggers that have to sort it out at the other end.

Correct me if I am wrong, I have no idea.

But are plastic bottles actually reused, or recycled?

Either way I would be reluctant to use good clean drinking water washing stuff which will definitely need to be properly cleaned before it comes back into popular use.

It all feels a bit counter-productive. But then I live a lot of the year win the Middle East, where use of water is becoming an increasingly important issue.

Only things that are likely to drip/leak.

Individually washing items to be recycling makes me question how green recycling actually is?

I wash or rinse nearly all metal, plastic and glass. Mostly stuff gets bunged in the dishwasher but bottles I do by hand. I also take the paper labels off tins before opening them too. Not sure what that says about me...

Yes, our council won't collect mingy recycling.

Meant to add - Metal and plastic gets taken once a month so it would hum something horrid in the summer. And I hate dealing with sticky glass when chucking it into the bins.

yes rinsed out otherwise it smells in recycling bin in kitchen.

I rinse tins and milk then squash them by stamping on them.

I dont rinse fabric conditioner or washing liquid bottles as they smell nice anyway, I still stamp on them.

Lids off plastic bottles here as the council doesn't recycle the plastic the lids are made from.

I wash everything.

" I would be reluctant to use good clean drinking water "

do you never have a sink full of water where you could slosh them about before pulling the plug?

no ME drought here anyway.

Never rinsed the recycling.given it'll be mulched up chemically

Yup, either swooshed under the tap if it's stuff that comes off readily or they go in the dishwasher so that the bin remains clean.

Yes, depending on contents (I wouldn't bother rinsing out a plastic water bottle before putting in plastics bin!). I imagine things are burnt off during the recycling process anyway (chemically or physically) but it's probably best to have as little contamination as possible- I would hate to be the one responsible for a whole vat of plastic/aluminium/whatever being useless!

I don't have a dishwasher either, sadly, so I can be especially self-righteous . When I get a pay rise this may cease to be true.

Ok so someone knows someone who works at a recycling plant and it all gets done by hand and someone else knows someone who works at a recycling plant and it all goes through a steam cleaner - mmmmm.. i need to know who is telling the truth as I always rinse and take off the labels but my DH bungs everything in without washing urgh.....

Rinsed immediately after use, then washed after I've washed everything else up, left to dry, then put in recycling bin. I don't want a sticky, smelly wheely and they are much harder to clean. Do I get a gold star or something?

I give them a cursory rinse.
Ours go every week and they take it all. Never had any left behind.

Our recycling has to be sorted into paper/glass/plastics/cardboard/food.
I feel I do more than my bit.

I slosh things about at the end of the washing up, to rinse off raw meat juices, milk, bean juice, etc. I certainly don't use clean water.

Our council requires us to rinse. Hence Daily Mail Sadface on the front of local rag when binmen from the new company refused to take blind old lady's insufficiently rinsed maggot-ridden recycling. Lots of humphy letters saying it's not worth bothering and the (landfill waste) black wheely bin isn't big enough.

Yes everything is washed.