Do you clean your recycling before putting in the bin?

[Frosty66612]

Bit of a boring one but do you rinse out tins and yogurt pots etc before putting them in the recycling bin, or do you just put them straight in?

bluebeck You can do it at the end of washing up or use bath water or stick the plug in towards the end of a shower to collect some water to wash stuff in. Doesn't have to be fresh water.

No. waste of water.

How come they aren't still contaminated if they are just being rinsed out in dirty water?

My local plant washes all their plastics/cans etc, I thought they all did?

I think each council needs to be much clearer about what people need to do as they all seem to have different rules. I’d be so fed up if my recycling went to landfill because someone hadn’t rinsed their stuff out.

jaseyraex my mum puts the plug in when she is having a shower and uses that to water her garden. She lives in a bungalow so not too much hassle for her to go in and out with the watering can.

Yes, once I've finished washing the normal dishes, I wash the recycling in the dish water.

You need them clean otherwise they won't be recyclable

Yes always

I mean, how are the council to know the empty bottle of veg oil hasn't been rinsed out v the one that has? They'd look the same surely? Same with say gravy granule jars, or any other bottle/tub that looks the same once it's empty whether it's been rinsed out or not? So surely they get washed anyway? I really doubt a cursory swill in dirty dishwater is enough to send straight off to recycling?

That's a lot of ????

Otherwise our blue bin would end up in a right state, and cleaning that would take a lot longer

Well yes, or else it contaminates everything which means it then can't be recycled.

I'll not risk cutting my fingers to get the last dregs of gunk out of a tin can but that burns off, anyhow.

Yoghurt and salad pots etc just don't rinse, you have to wash up to remove the residue. If put in the dishwasher they turn into Shrinkles and contaminate the rest of the dishes with burnt plastic taint. So I currently have a drainer of dirty plastic waiting for enough to build up to warrant a bowl of suds. I've got to work out a better way.

Oh and a question please for those who know. Our council has just started recycling plastic trays barring black ones. What about other colours? Dark brown is possibly a no but what about mid green?

No of course not.why would I? Astonished people are fastidiously rinsing the recycling
It goes in a closed lid bin,weekly collection.

@LipstickHandbagCoffee If it isn't rinsed, then that entire truck full of recycling is treated as contaminated and disposed of in landfill.

lipstick because, as many previous posters have said, if not rinsed it is classed as contaminated and it all goes to landfill instead! Please rinse!

Do sticky labels need to be removed on things like tins? Or can it just be put in the recycling bin as it is (as long as it’s rinsed out etc)

Astonished people are fastidiously rinsing the recycling . It goes in a closed lid bin,weekly collection.

That would be an every two weeks collection by us (if lucky). Bank Holidays, other disruptions, that would be every three to five weeks.

General question - cleaning foil is a big nuisance in our household and our council insists on it. What's the benefit of lining some pans with foil if you end up having to scrape it and then wash it clean. [/more grumbles]

Yes, very thoroughly.

No waste of water and they wash it at source so a false economy

Yes, because it sits in an Ikea bag the kitchen before getting chucked out, so it would stink out the kitchen.

Astonished people are fastidiously rinsing the recycling . It goes in a closed lid bin,weekly collection

Astonished that people wouldn’t. If you’re not going to rinse you’d be better of not recycling.

@Crinkle77

Our local council states that anything that has a triangle with number 1 and says pet under can be recycled as can anything with number 2 in a triangle with hdpe under it.

Does anyone else not understand this ^ ???

I do. Always.

But why isn't it all washed out in a big machine, early on in the process to ensure no contamination?

I never do washing up as have a dishwasher, so that's not an option. If I was doing more dishwasher cycles because of it being filled up with recycling that would waste water and power.

I don't have a bath - I shower, so that wouldn't work either.

If people have environmentally friendly ways of cleaning stuff like suggested, then that is obviously ideal. I do shudder to think of the amount of fresh water being wasted by people running recycling under the tap

As PP have said, better not to recycle some things at all than put in dirty or waste water cleaning.

And why are councils not telling people to do it??? Surely if one unwashed bag contaminates a while truck then they need to be letting people know?????