Do you wash all of your recycle rubbish ???

savemoney

I wash tins, yoghurt pots, plastic containers etc in washing up bowl after washing dishes mainly. Rarely have to clean wheelie bin these days. I sometimes use cardboard though on log burner my recycle wheelie bin is usually quite full even when I press things down

iris

Most things get a rinse at the end of washing up, however I don't use 'fresh' water as we are on a meter.


We don't have wheelie bins. We do have our own dustbin so we don't have trouble with vermin/cats & dogs), which we line with green bags (provided by council) that are collected weekly.

wiogs

We don't have a recycling bin so everything gets chucked in the one bin.

Living_proof

I am grateful for this thread as it's something which has concerned me for some time and as I have changed local authority recently the rules and regulations have also changed. We have a bin for plastics and cardboard and a box for bottles, jars, tins, batteries and foil. We have been told we can no leave the lids on plastic bottles etc. but I understand that foil-lined drinks containers aren't allowed anywhere.

I wish my local authority would have roadshows to explain to all the inhabitants just what is allowed, and why. I think a lot of over-zealous cleaners will be wasting more energy (because making water safe enough to come out of your tap uses quite a lot of energy) than would be saved by recycling. If every item will be individually rinsed using hot water, then the energy consumed will be even higher.

My daughter's Local Authority in a more affluent area have just one enormous recycling bin (of which she needs two!) and all bottles, cardboard, tins, foil etc. is just chucked in and someone somewhere sorts it out. This may of course cost much more and the LA will make less savings out of recycling. Is there anyone in waste who can enlighten us?

Norman_Castle

I expect you're asked to rinse items otherwise you would be putting food waste into the recycling system making it unpleasant to handle at attractive to vermin while awaiting processing. It doesn't need to be spotless. Just remove the food residue. A simple rinse is enough.

Torry_Quine

No I don't wash out items for recycling. Never been told to either.

Alias_Omega

VoucherMan wrote: »

So you like to save those extra few drops of water :T

Well, maybe not

Your theory is flawed, different pots of cash.


Cant afford to wash it (preventative maintenance), however we can afford repairs.

kboss2010

Yes! There's nothing worse than getting to recycling day and finding a sludge of whatever was in them at the bottom of the box or bag, especially if it doesn't go straight into the curb side recycling box and you have to then sort through it!

It's a real bugbear of mine with flatmates. It takes 2 seconds, seriously, don't be lazy.

Also, if you mix unwashed plastics/glass with paper and there's food residue leaking, it will contaminate the paper and cardboard and they won't be able to recycle it.

kboss2010

Living_proof wrote: »

I am grateful for this thread as it's something which has concerned me for some time and as I have changed local authority recently the rules and regulations have also changed. We have a bin for plastics and cardboard and a box for bottles, jars, tins, batteries and foil. We have been told we can no leave the lids on plastic bottles etc. but I understand that foil-lined drinks containers aren't allowed anywhere.

I wish my local authority would have roadshows to explain to all the inhabitants just what is allowed, and why?

They can't be that specific because what can and can't be recycled is based upon demand, resale value after processing and what an individual private waste carrier will take at any one time so it varies constantly area by area depending upon who your waste is being taken to.

Recycling in the UK is an absolute shambles, we're decades behind other European countries like Germany.

REEN

The rinse water from milk containers can be used to water plants, it's a bit of a feed for them. Mine seem to like
it, anyway.