Should I wash out all household goods which can be recycled?

textbook

tins of tomatoes, mayonnaise jars, microwave dishes (purchased like lasagne in tin dish) etc, do i have to wash these out or can I just throw them in recycing bin without washing out?

silvercar

Ive also wondered whether it wastes water to wash out recycling items.

Doozergirl

You should rinse them out.  We're certainly instructed to where we live.   Paper shouldn't be contaminated with food, so if they're all going in the same box, things should be clean.  

comeandgo

Always wash them as our bins are collected fortnightly and bins would smell otherwise.  They are washed last in the bowl after all other items so not using any extra water to do so.

Jeepers_Creepers

Interesting.

I remember hearing this conversation a few years back on R4 - probably 'costing the earth' or similar. The 'green' guest was advocating recycling and saying we should rinse out the cans and jars before putting them in the recycling container - and was then besieged with calls asking who was going to pay for all this water, and whether this water use was, itself, 'green'.

There followed lots of umms and errrs.

I rinse mine too, but we're not on a meter so already pay crazy money for our water, so happy to use some for this. Still not sure it's 'green', tho'. 

MovingForwards

The few we use are washed when doing the washing up, then put into recycling.

pollypenny

A quick rinse won't use that much water. 

Norman_Castle

If you don't wash them people dealing with or storing them as they go through the recycling process will be dealing with rotting food, mold and pest problems. They don't need to be spotless, I wash mine at the end of washing up. If you use tap water you could tip the same water between items.

Bigphil1474

The council I work at ask people to rinse off food waste, but they don't need to be clean. Plastic milk bottles are shredded and washed when they get to the plant, so apart from avoiding the smell of the milk remnants don't need much cleaning. As others have said, if you wash up in a bowl, rinse the recycling off in the skanky water left after doing all the washing up.

twopenny

Tins with remnants of food will attract ants and rats.
If you do it as you use them it's quick.
Milk bottles I fill with water and use for watering plants. It's good for them.

Niv

Rinse the materials for sure. Apart from the workers having to put up with your rotting food (treat others as you would like to be treated?), there is also the odour in general which 'the public' are all to happy to complain about and blame the waste management company without considering the fact they sent them a bunch of rotten food...