To tell you that if you don't wash your recycling...

[MrsColon]

...before you put it in the recycling bin, it won't get recycled?

If you don't rinse out cans, containers, bottles etc. they will be rejected and go into landfill.

Not enough emphasis is placed on this in recycling campaigns, and in my experience, the majority of people just don't realise this.

We always wash our recycling. I just swoosh them in the sink after doing the dishes (don't have a dishwasher)
Our council says to put pizza boxes and and such like in the food recycling bin.

Anyone been to a recycling centre? What was the process

Is it people or automated

Our council just says that items have to be loose and dry

Actually, I'm quite cross about this thread because clearly it's not true and perpetuating a myth that recycling is more "difficult" than it really is will reduce recycling rates.

@Spiceup

Actually, I'm quite cross about this thread because clearly it's not true and perpetuating a myth that recycling is more "difficult" than it really is will reduce recycling rates.

Also, rinsing it arguably wastes water. The OP is pretty misinformed here.

I put a greasy pizza box that was covered in cheese, tommato sauce, oil and chilli sauce in my normal bin. My local bin men refused to empty it and said it should have been put into the recycling bin . I phoned to complain and said it can't go in recycling bin as it's ruined and they argued for 20 min with me that I was wrong and refused to empty my normal bin as the box was in there. You can't win.

Our water bill is £80 a month more since we moved to the county with the countries highest water bill. I will not be rinsing out any recycling.

My council used to exclude pizza boxes but recently changed policy and now will take them, obv not with actual food stick on but greasy is ok.
I do rinse out cans, bottles etc because it stinks otherwise. Also been conditioned to do so over many years.

@cate16

Pizza boxes can be put in our green bins.

Our green bins are for normal waste and our black bins are for recycling

We always rinse things before putting them in the recycling bin. We always have. I thought that was standard.

The claimed rejection rates for contaminated recycling was 6.5% over 500000 tonnes last year.
Like many meta data compilations I'd be extremely surprised if that figure hasn't been significantly massaged down at all points in the data collection chain

@Yourdeadtome

Fgs whos got time for that?

How lazy can you be?

I'm amazed by this thread. Typical MN virtue-signalling aplenty, but some people have admitted to ordering boxed pizza. reaches for smelling salts

We wash our recycling using the water from the dehumidifier tank.

It's not perfect, but the recycling doesn't have obvious food on it and we aren't using our metered water.

Recycling is literally the easiest thing we can do to help the environment. Everyone needs to take more personal responsibility for the waste they're sending to landfill either by intent or omission of action. Check your local LA rules and follow them. It's not rocket science.

I'd be more persuaded about this if our council didn't ask us to separate our recycling, and then come bin day the bin men chuck everything in the same refuse lorry.

🤷

We’re on water meter, so need to wash waste, we’ve paid for, using more water and electricity, to give to a firm, to sell it for us and make a profit ?
Hmmm

Yes, I wash all plastics/tins/jars, with sponge and Fairy.

80% of the time it’s fine, but it’s annoying then there’s gone off food like coleslaw, as have to empty it out and then wash it.

Even plastic strawberry punnets get a quick rinse.

Oh this has made me a bit confused! I rinse plastic milk containers out with cold water- tins eg beans are washed last in the washing up water (no dishwasher in this house) -cardboard and paper are put in if they are clean- eg box the Subway came in but not the paper. I don't rinse glass bottles that have contained wine or gin nor the plastic tonic bottles.
We seem to create quite a lot of recycling- blue wheelie bin full every 2 weeks so I hope it gets recycled and not dumped!

I rinse. Also take the lid and label off the milk container as they are not recycleable.

So they want you to waste water washing rubbish? That's a disgusting waste of a resource.

Well I suppose it won't smell so bad when it finally ends up in some poor Far East county to be burnt.

@Throckmorton

On the BBC today they said pizza boxes are recyclable if you remove any food. Which is it?

Our's can go in the green waste.

They do sort it at the other end - otherwise every load would be contaminated and unusable as lots of people put the wrong things in their recycling bins and they collect it from hundreds of households into each lorry load.

The suggestion to wash/rinse is much more about making it easier for the staff who sorts it and less smelly while it's in your bins - it doesn't have to be washed the way you'd wash your dishes though, just washed in the sense the containers are not still full of food scraps that goes everywhere.

@TwinklyBranch

I always wash or rinse it. I can't believe people don't know to do this.

It drives me mad, over the road never wash or secure their recycling so we have to pick their filthy tins off our drive on windy days

People also put ridiculous things in with recycling.
Just google what your local council actually collect!
Some people shove anything in and risk contaminating a whole batch of recycling

Fine. My life is too short to wash empty bean cans, so if they don’t want stuff which isn’t pristinely clean, I will stop recycling and send my green bin back.

It doesn't waste water if you just slosh it about at the end of your washing up