Should I Wash My Rubbish ?

exlibris

Sarahsaver wrote:

DOn't bother, it is all washed at the other end anyway. Therefore washing it twice is a waste of water surely

If you are on fortnightly collections the smell of waste food in the containers can get a little high in summer (remember last year its not always raining)

Our collectors sort the recycling by hand and though they wear gloves I wouldn't like to handle sticky and smelly stuff.

Miss_Behaving

I rinse everything I put in my box but only because it's stored in my garage for a fortnight between collections. Our area has got a bad rat/mouse problem so I daren't leave anything which could attract anymore of them!

kittiwoz

I rinse stuff in the dirty dishwater so I'm not wasting water. Otherwise it is likely to attract insects and vermin as well as making life pretty unpleasant for the recyclers.

Edinburghlass_2

exlibris wrote:

If you are on fortnightly collections the smell of waste food in the containers can get a little high in summer (remember last year its not always raining)

Our collectors sort the recycling by hand and though they wear gloves I wouldn't like to handle sticky and smelly stuff.

I was listening to a recyling collector on the radio a couple of weeks ago, probably Jeremy Vine show, and this was exactly what he was saying. A few minutes for us to rinse out bottles makes for a much more pleasant working experience for them.

ailuro2

We have a dishwasher so don't have dirty dishwater to rinse ours, but I do use the leftover kettle water to rinse the milk cartons and make them soft and squishable (there's always a dribble left in our kettle- even though I try to only boil enough for one cupful.)
Dolmio Jars get rinsed out with a little water to get the last remnants out and it goes into the pot, so it's only a little slosh of water to clean it thoroughly after that.

Sadly our council don't take cans, they used to get taken out of the rubbish at the incinerator,but tbh I'm not sure it all goes to the incinerator anymore.