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.

It does astound me tbh that people seem to think once the rubbish is gone from their house, it’s just gone forever. Gone where? Its just been moved from your bin to a giant bin.

Pizza box goes in my recycling because it would fill my normal waste bin that is collected fortnightly. I know it shouldn’t but what else am I meant to do if they don’t want to collect household waste?

I didn’t know this. I remember seeing videos on Blue Peter where they took all the reclining and were kind of spraying it down on massive conveyer belts. Maybe they do show the process they use now on kids shows but for us oldies, it’s not widely known.

I think a proper campaign to highlight this would be a good idea.

@AnnieLobeseder

Do people seriously not rinse out their recycling before it goes in the bin?!?!? Even things full of food waste? That's so disgusting!!!!

It doesn't need to be perfectly spotless, so no need to put it in the dishwasher or scrub it within an inch of its life, but all the food scraps need to be cleared out as far as possible.

And do people really not bother recycling in this day and age of awareness of just how much trouble we're in with the climate emergency? Just because it's a little bit of extra work? Really? Good grief, we really are doomed aren't we?

I agree with you, as it happens, but it’s not just the time it takes, is it?

I would be using potable water if I used the cold tap - which should be conserved.

If I used hot water, I would be using the energy needed to heat that water, producing carbon emissions in the process. Which part of this cycle is more damaging: using water and energy, or not recycling?

People also forget that recycling is a last resort. The mantra is:

Reduce
Reuse
Recycle

In that order. Because recycling is also massively energy hungry. Using fewer, reusable containers, and only after those possibilities have been exhausted, then considering recyclables, is the proper way to approach this.

Doorstep recycling allows us all to still buy the same amount of single use plastic, but feel virtuous when we put massive bags of it out for recycling. It’s the wrong way of looking at things, but the easy way.

I live in Germany and we don‘t have to rinse the things that go into the recycling bin. They still get recycled. Why should it have to be rinsed?

Do people seriously not rinse out their recycling before it goes in the bin?!?!? Even things full of food waste? That's so disgusting!!!!

Not as disgusting as “things full of food waste”. Why are you throwing away and wasting food?

Please tell me people don't put recyclables in the dishwasher?

Do you need to remove the labels from tins?

I’m shocked people are not routinely rinsing their recycling. Just use the washing up bowl ends if trying to conserve water. It’s grim to put things in there with food on still. Who wouldn’t rinse out tins of beans or fish? So odd! We even try to keep our waste as clean as we can (we have a separate food collection). Are parts of the country filled with smelly bins?!

Always wash, leave it to dry on the dish rack. Our kitchen permanently looks like a recycling facility with the mound on the rack, giant balls of foil, boxes of batteries, pill packets, other non-council recycling, scrap fabric, etc.

Really recycling in this country needs to be unified with simple rules that are universal across boroughs, counties and countries. And companies shouldn’t be allowed to offload their crap packaging onto impossibly difficult schemes like TerraCycle.

There’s some sneering on this thread about being ignorant or misinformed – but there’s conflicting information everywhere; and sneering about how everyone has the time to rinse and how it takes five seconds – which is ableist and overlooks the fact it’s not 5 seconds per can that’s the problem, it’s stuff like pill packets only recycled at certain Superdrugs, plastic bags only at bigger supermarkets, multiple different rules across the country, inaccessible tips, not everyone having the space I have the luxury of to sort out all the non-kerbside stuff so it just gets binned.

And ultimately it’s all less important than fossil fuels and methane anyway.

We have a dishwasher, but I also have kitchen equipment that needs to be handwashed. I would never put my pans, wine glasses, wooden chopping boards or sharp knives in the dishwasher, nor do I put tupperware etc in the dishwasher as it would just fly about. Therefore we always have some handwashing to do. We use this water for washing out any cans jars or bottles that need recycling.

Where we live water is not exactly a rare commodity. We have just put hoses on the outlets on our water butts to drain them into the drain because they are overflowing.

Up until lastyear I didn’t know about the shredded paper 🤦‍♀️

I've never rinsed anything - all of the local councils I've ever lived in said not to

It wastes water, is even more environmentally unfriendly - with the giant washers it's more efficient (there was a programme on it)

I've certainly never put it in the dishwasher

It does astound me tbh that people seem to think once the rubbish is gone from their house, it’s just gone forever. Gone where? Its just been moved from your bin to a giant bin.
Yes, there’s no throw away, there’s just throw. Something I wish my MIL with her bin bags of junk she sends for Christmas would remember: “If you don’t like it, just bin it” is her gifting mantra

@TurnUpTurnip

This is why so many don’t bother recycling then. Already got enough things to do tbh

How long does it take to rinse out a tin?

I thought everyone knew this, tbh.

Never occurred to me that it didn't need washing. Otherwise it would reek in the containers. I just stick it in the dishwasher. Bottles I rinse with warm water

@BeautifulBirds

Is this adding to fat bergs in the sewers?

I am genuinely interested to know this.

I do rinse mine, but often wonder as tiny bits of food end up down the drain

[quote Letsnotargue]@SummerHouse that’s what I thought, but this article I read today suggests otherwise.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-59133056

It’s so location dependent that it’s really hard to know what to do for the best. Local councils should be much clearer on what they can and can’t accept - this would take the guesswork out of it and would improve their recycling figures.[/quote]
I read this earlier. I thought the recycling was sorted by hand which is why I always wash my tins etc before they go in the bin. I would hate to be them sorting the rubbish with mouldy jars and tins < not envy.

People also forget that recycling is a last resort The mantra is
Reduce
Reuse
Recycle

We were taught it as a circle
Refuse (as in do not accept)
Reduce
Reuse
Recycle
Refuse (as in rubbish)

I rinse ours as it only gets collected twice a month.

But our council insists on everything being separated into glass, paper/card, cans and plastic (else they won't collect it), only to dump it all into the same lorry anyway

I always wash out tins, bottles and jars. I thought that was normal before recycling.

This from our council website:

More information. Remember to wash and squash all plastic bottles, flatten tin cans where possible and rinse out all cans, glass bottles and jars before placing in your bin.

And this:

Putting items with food residue into your blue bin may lead to large lorry loads of waste becoming contaminated, and being rejected from the sorting mill. This negatively impacts the recycling process, and prevents us from being able to recycle large amounts of materials.

Our council is pretty good at recycling recyclables TBH.

It’s not one tin though is it, unless your a single person, Its me and 4 children I don’t bother, already got mountains of washing up as it is and I can’t stand washing up

This was on the radio recently. www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-59133056.amp

I suspect they ask for recycling to be clean because if they didn't, people would put half empty tins and boxes with pizza still in them, in the recycling. You have to give people simple instructions.