To not wash out recyclable containers??

[DisgruntledGoat]

I think it's totally unnecessary to blast containers with water that are going to be cleaned and recycled anyway. My DH sometimes puts them through the dishwasher which drives me nuts. They flip the right way up and fill with dirty water and when you pull the rack out they spill water everywhere covering the clean stuff with the dirty water that's trapped inside. Plus you wouldn't wash out non recyclables to put them in the general bin?! AIBU or does anyone else put dirty recyclables straight into their recycling bins?

I wish supermarkets gave you the choice of buying stuff not In plastic boxes instead more and more things are boxed

I agree Missmargie. I particularly hate all the flimsy plastic bakery good like croissants come with.

Oh FFS. So as a result of this thread so e people are going to recycle less.

I honestly despair.

Sukey learning that you have to really clean and wash out all the recycling is bound to impact on how much you do, and what is sensible to do. We were not recycling a few tins a week, we were recycling an huge green bin's worth, as our council takes pretty much everything and anything, even clothes, in that bin (except glass funnily enough which we do separately). But part of why large amounts were recycled was it was easy, didn't require too much extra time and resources or faffing about. I was taking out one or two carrier bags a day to recycle. I don't want to leave tins soaking on the side for a day or two , or worry about people cutting themselves on tin tops, or rinse out meat/poultry containers when we are told not to ever wash meat/poultry in the sink as it spreads bacteria due to the splashback. Starting to do washing up bowls of recycling when I dishwash everything makes it untenable time-wise. I think 90% will still go in recycling so it's not a huge loss.

I feel better now that I'm not contaminating whole lorry loads, I'm not going to worry about a few tins that I can't quite get clean and ditch into landfill.

Isn't recycling just a smokescreen by the West to stop countries like China and India puffing out smoke from their coal chimneys. I read somewhere that barely anything gets recycled.

I wash and swill plastic bottles and tins but do not wash out marg, peanut butter etc it would block the sink. My DH still puts stuff in the bin and I have to fish it out most days!

Milk cartons get a quick water rinse.
I find a solvent, petrol is ideal, is very useful for more heavily soiled items.

Our recyclers only take glass, tins and paper; that's pathetic, isn't it?! They won't even take the bottle tops and window envelopes have to have the windows ripped out and not included. We use envelopes for making shopping lists, instead. Everything else has to go in the landfill bin or taken to the dump (15 miles out of town). I was a bit jealous of people who got so much more stuff recycled, cardboard, plastic etc, but I'm not so sure now

Strangely, in the village up the road, they're allowed to include cardboard and plastic. The recylers are exactly the same as ours - from the same day down to the same lorry and team! They pick up ours as I leave for work on a Wednesday, and a short time after I get to work, there they are picking the stuff up in the village. Their stuff goes in and ours doesn't. No sense to it, and it does make it hard to take seriously.

Weird, our council say you dont have to wash out bottles as they are cleaned at the plant. not that id waste water on it anyway, any dirtydishwater i have is used to soak the dogs food bowl in before rinsing off.

User9240, you use petrol to wash things out ? Wtf ?

think User was being funny! i laughed anyway........

I despair, all the excuses for not following a simple practice of swilling out a can or a bottle after use.
If you don't clean it:

1. It will go to landfill.
2. It will use up space in landfill meaning that landfill sites will be filled faster and more land will need to be devoted to landfill.
3. Your council will charge you more because they will need to maintain more landfill and purchase more landfill. Also they will be organising a recycling service that you are essentially negating by not rinsing your stuff out.
4. In terms of wasting water, you likely live in the UK. IT RAINS ALL THE TIME HERE. I realise there is effort and cost associated with water cleansing but... IT RAINS A LOT.

Just rinse the recycling. It's not hard. Get the kids to do it, it's their planet you are destroying by not recycling.

Flaming Nora Enquiring thats a bit unnecessary!

And Watch not always true, see my post, my council say washing recycling isnt needed as its done at the plant

If all it takes is a quick swill, then I already do that.

Many items don't take a quick swill, they require proper washing, with detergent to get them truly clean- such as tuna tins, chinese take away cartons, all jars with jam/peanut butter, anything that has been left more than a few hours.

That's what I'm talking about, not easy peasy things that honestly take one minute.

It's just washing up!

It's not a big deal, it doesn't take that long, it doesn't take much effort and it will save the bloomin' planet!

Just do it!

Stuff gets swilled out as soon as possible and that takes care of about 95% of the recycling (tin cans, milk and juice bottles etc). Things like yoghurt pots need a bit more attention but they certainly don't need the dishwasher. The hardest is Marmite and Nutella, but if you use really hot water, fill about a third of the way up and shake very hard, rinse and repeat a couple of times it's possible to get it all out without too much drama

I absolutely despair reading this thread. Why will people not take responsibility for the amount of waste we produce in our privileged first world lifestyles? I can't believe how many people WON'T put in a tiny bit of effort and clean all their recycling. Your lack of effort cancels out those who do bother as you contaminate the load. So great-it all gets buried in a big hole in the ground and we hope it just goes away. And then more and more resources and energy are used to make more of the same for you to chuck straight into a hole in the ground, and so on and so on. All of you who can't be bothered to clean your recyclables-does this not bother you one iota? Out of your towns and cities things don't just magically appear and disappear-it's not a case of out of sight out of mind. Fuck it, I can't keep typing I am so bloody livid about this.

Doesn't much of it get shipped to India anyway, where they bury it?
I doubt they're too bothered if it's a bit grubby.

facepalm
I'm pretty sure that rinsing tuna cans, peanut butter and jam jars and tale away boxes is a task worthy of Hercules.

This thread has descended into madness

No, recycling doesn't just get buried in India or dumped in landfill somewhere else! (sigh, why do people love these myths so much)
Sorted recyclate gets made into squashed cubes on pallets (cans/metal, or paper/card), or into large containers of glass fragments (cullet). At which point the recycling company need to sell it or they don't make any money (obviously they ensure they have contracts in place before collecting the stuff, as much as possible).

So which is more likely, an Indian company orders 2000 tonnes of aluminium cans to make into new aluminium products so happily pays for shipping as its cheaper than getting the required amount of bauxite out of the ground and purifying it, or they decide to pay to import cans just to shove them in the ground?

It's possible that landfill costs and tax in the UK could be more expensive than paying another country to accept it, but the other country still has to dispose of it legally - yes sometimes this involves incineration but people happily burn fossil fuels like coal and gas - burning non-recyclable plastics etc to make energy is no worse. Britain is just too full of NIMBYs and people who think allowing more waste incineration would distract from recycling - thing is there's going to be plenty of non-recycled burnable stuff for at least the lifetime of an incinerator, so a couple would be a good addition to our diversity of energy supply. But getting planning permission for any waste handling facility in England is a nightmare - conversely most of Amsterdam gets power from waste incineration in a remarkably central plant!

For those 'only' chucking a few grubby tins into the landfill

1.5 million cans of beans are sold in the UK each day.
www.heinz.co.uk/Our-Company/About-Heinz/Trivia

All of you who can't be bothered to clean your recyclables-does this not bother you one iota?

Tends to be the people WITH kids who have this attitude. Perplexing.

I don't think it's perplexing at all, I think it's that if you have kids and jobs together time can be so tight that 10 minutes a day can feel insurmountable.
I have always rinsed my recycling but I remember back when I had 2 babies and a full time job a friend extolling the virtues of reusable nappies said 'it only takes 10 minutes extra a day' and my immediate reaction was something like '10 whole minutes? That's more than an hour a week!'

I give a quick rinse to tin cans, plastic milk bottles, wash up mayo, nutella jars etc. I don't wash meat cartoons because I don't want to splash raw meat juices around. I gave a survey recently to local council and the woman told me they are thinking of scrapping recycling/sorting!