to wonder why you don't wash/rinse your recycling?

[kinkyfuckery]

Sorry, this has probably been done before.

We have an excellent kerbside recycling collection here. I know many people who don't rinse their recyclables as "Why should I?" "I can't be bothered" "Eh, why would I do that?"
For me, it's just an extension of washing up. Dishes get washed, pots get washed, then recycling gets washed. It sits on the draining board to drip dry then makes it's way to the recycling bin.

Do you? Those who don't, why not?

@rubybleu Yes, we are requested not to use plastic bags.

Oh, I don't use clean water! Just whatever is left in the bowl after washing up. I guessed things would be blasted at the recycling centre, but wouldn't be particularly happy for someone to handle my manky tins and bottles when it takes me two minutes to wash it myself.

Only if I have a bowl of water on the go, and then it's just a dunk as when it first started I cut myself several times on cans.

i do wash/rinse, imagine the smell in the bin otherwise, after 2 weeks.

and not very nice job for the sorters

in fact the butter packs which are a bugger to get clean, quite often i just chuck in land fill bin

We have the stacking recycling sorting boxes at home - if the recycling didn't go in there clean and dry I imagine it would shortly become very smelly and dirty.

Plus thanks to all the various craft activities LO seems to do for school it makes it easier to rifle through.

Rinse out plastic packaging, tins and cans containing food waste at the end of your daily washing up to minimise smells. It is the liquid at the base of a wheelie bin that attracts flies so to avoid this build up you can also lay a piece of newspaper at the bottom of your waste bin.

instructions from my council as above

Ours get collected every week. We have 5 different bins. All outside

Because I have psoriasis and my hands are sore and weeping, more water will make them worse.

I have never washed my recycling. It gets emptied weekly so no smell and I really can't be arsed. The recycling people also haven't left me any notes in the last 8 years so obviously they aren't bothered either.

I rinse my tins before putting in recycling as it can't be hygienic leaving food remnants about.

Because its a criminal waste of clean drinking water to use it to wash rubbish.

We have a dishwasher so almost never wash up by hand. Not adding unnecessarily to cleaning/housework by putting rubbish in the dishwasher.

Because the stuff will be washed anyway as part of the recycling process. Whether its paper, cans or glass, it all goes through either heating or chemical processes that will separate impurities during recycling including drips of mouldy bean juice for example.

I've never done it and the council have never told me off for not doing it.

Because I really can't be arsed.

I think that just about covers it

I rinse ours because it is sorted by hand at some points in the process by actual people who are worthy of me making their job just a little less unpleasant. Also because I don't want festering smelly goo at the bottom of my recycling bin. Same reason I bag up other kitchen waste.

I do it because it's requested and because I store it indoors for a fortnight, but I think it's a terrific waste of water and get very grumpy about it.

I would not recycle if I had to wash it. Has anyone done any calculations on the cost to the environment of all those extra dishwasher loads and hot water and washing up liquid for all that rubbish? I won't work for the council fro free.

I always rinse it.

Of course, otherwise it would start to smell in the 2 weeks between collections. Mostly milk cartons while kids are back from uni - can have a whole bin full of them.

Sorry I forgot two other reasons.

If anyone in this country was actually serious about the environmental aspect of recycling instead of paying lip service to the problem, none of our rubbish would be shipped to the other side of the world for sorting etc.

It would also be illegal for the likes of Virgin Fucking Media to send me a big fat envelope every five minutes month begging me to take up their TV service. It goes straight in the bin, unopened. I have asked them to stop sending it, they won't.

It's reduce, reuse then recycle. We could go a long way in reducing unnecessary packaging, junk mail, pointless plastic tat, rampant consumerism etc and make it easier to reuse things before we expect householders to wash their rubbish prior to recycling it.

I really don't have the time and energy for Freecycle etc but how about being able to take the stuff you don't want to a local point where people can take it if they want it, and the council takes stuff away every so often if it's not picked up?

I do it even though it's not requested. Not scrupulously but a good blast with hot clean water, I don't use washing up bowls because they ming.
I do it because I would hate to be a bin woman and have to rifle through people's manky recycling.

We've got a recycling shed at the local tip. Commonly knows as 'john lewis' - anything you put in there goes. We had two rusted up kids bikes - didn't even get them out of the boot before someone bagsied them.

Leave plastic plant pots, books, furniture - everything except electricals. Though I people do leave those too and they go before the Council bods spot them.

Ours doesn't need to be. I will rinse out tin cans and jars if that's all it takes - mainly to prevent the bin getting mouldy food all
Over it

Our council ask us to rinse jars, cans etc that go in the recycling boxes. Also it helps stop the foxes going through the recycling boxes.

In fact I'll disgust you OP- I wouldn't recycle anything if I didn't have to (fortnightly black bin collection) and in my old house, where I could black bin as much as I wanted I didn't.