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?

I rinse them but don't wash properly

We do because we have to keep it all outside and I don't want rats.

No, never. No idea if we're supposed to

They're not that dirty though, empty tins of tomatoes/ squash bottles.

Yes.

Do I fuck, it's a waste of water to do this and my water is on a meter, so I don't do it. My mum however washes out bottles containing water, wtf??

I give stuff that's going in the recycling a rinse to get main residue off so that the bin doesn't get stinky. Unlike my general waste wheelie which my DS threw a dead rat in 1 day after the fortnightly collection. I chucked bin bags on top of it so by the next collection it'd stuck to the bottom of the bin. A month later it was still stuck there & the smell was horrific. When DS mentioned the probable cause I had to get the special bin cleaning Co. in.

Perhaps leaving a residue of bean juice in a tin is the least of my worries...

Nope we don't wash anything that goes in the bin

Sounds like lots of councils have different rules though on what you can/cannot do with your recycling. Is there that many companies deal with the waste once it has left the council though the necessitate all the different rules the councils have?

I rinse well all the dontainers

I always wash them.

We have one bin for general unrecyclable rubbish, one for garden and food waste, and one for mixed recycling which includes glass, plastics, tins from food and drink, and cardboard. Because these items share a bin the items need to be washed to prevent contaminating the cardboard. As a result that bin is always clean inside and doesn't smell, it is emptied fortnightly. Paper is collected separately.

I wash the stuff by hand at the end of each washing up as we have no dishwasher, a few items extra isn't that bad.

peggy, yes every council has different arrangements, and depending on the collection firms rules. We have general non-recyclable waste collected one week, then the following week two separate lorries collect one food/garden waste and the other all the mixed recycling and paper. They go to different destinations ultimately, I know the food/garden waste goes to a composting facility a few miles away where it is heat treated and chopped up before being made into soil improver. It is sold at garden centres and nurseries to the public.

I'm not sure about where the other recycling is taken from my area.

OK i am going to say it again.

On the TV program from a recycling plant, they very clearly said, if they are dirty they can't use them. the labels are fine, but food residue isn't. They get sorted and the dirty ones get thrown into landfill.

Now maybe not every plant works the same way, but according to that documentary, if you are not prepared to rinse them, then don't bother separating them for the recycling. That was film of one of the workers at the plant accompanied by footage of people sorting the stuff.

Council says rinse for a reason.

as far as I understand it, very few things are reused, they are mostly recycled (the glass bottled get smashed in the bottle bank for example)

reused items normally have to be returned to point of purchase, like milk bottles were.

I can't imagine that anything is just reused as opposed to being recycled tbh.

I wash, because they'd smell. I'm slightly fed up because we initially had a bin for them but my neighbour kicked up such a fuss about it making the street look untidy that we humoured him and got boxes we can store in the garden. They leak and get water in, but according to the council this is fine, it doesn't matter if cardboard is soaking.

So I wonder idly what they do with it.

I keep mine inside so it all gets rinsed, either with left over dishwater or a cold water rinse. I do get the point that takes up resources, but I don't want a stinky recyling box! I don't rinse stuff for the general bin though as it goes outside pretty quickly.

I think having to wash a few containers to be collected is a small price to pay for not having to transport them yourself to a disposal container or recycling centre.

Indeed. Or having to arrange disposal of your own waste.

I used to, until I had my first baby. Now I chuck it all in the blue bin. I'll wash something out if its leaking or things like jam or honey jars.

When he was well, my Dad (bless him) used to wash everything out of cans and bottles and stamp on them and tear up cereal boxes or catalogues. When he sees our blue bin now he despairs at how I've left it all uncrushed and dirty.

Anything that has has anything wet in I do rinse i.e just water but I wouldn't rinse the punnet mushrooms came in for example.

I dont. The information that we received from the council clearly states that is is not necessary to do so. Obviously other councils are different.

No I don't. My arse. I resent the amount of packaging I have to deal with as a modern consumer. Then to have to wash the crap and pay through the nose for it to be disposed of, you must be joking.

Life is to short.