Definitely wash, unwashed hanging around indoors or outdoors would just be nasty
But I try to use “leftover” water. My tip for the peanut butter jar would be to pour in the hot water left in the kettle after you’ve made your tea or coffee
If I’ve used a bucket of water to wash the kitchen floor I’ll give the recycling a quick swirl in that and I use the water from the condenser bottle from the tumble dryer too. Or if I’ve washed some cups by hand, the water left in the bowl
It doesn’t have to be hygienic, you could eat off it clean, just rinsed so it’s not smelly, stick and attracting insects
As for becoming smelly, wouldn’t that depend on how often one empties the dustbin inside and where the wheelie bin is? I empty the bin before anything can become smelly and the wheelie bin is at a place far away enough for any smells to be noticed.
I won’t have a bin in my house. l put things straight into the appropriate bins that are well away from my house.
I am wondering why some have such soiled plastic containers, as l don’t. Do some of you rely on ready made meals? I never eat those, l make everything myself from scratch.
Do you hide them under less incriminating recycling? I always lay the wine bottles
on the bottom and put other stuff on the top. Don’t want the neighbours counting
In the days before the tin crushing, I put the recycling out and the wind blew the bin over, the neighbours help me to collect all the cans rolling down the road
We’re asked to wash things before putting them in the bins, so yes, I always wash bottles, jars and tins thoroughly. I’ll even wipe down the cardboard packs from the local chippy to remove grease before putting them in the recycling bin - not always possible, as they’re sometimes far too bad. But, mindful of wasting water, I don’t use fresh water for any of this, but leftover water from washing up, washing floors, cleaning windows and so on.
If tins and jars are just thrown in the recycling bin as they are, with food still clinging to them, they can’t be recycled and can, in fact, contaminate an entire recycling collection. So you might just as well throw them in landfill.
Yes, same as Mags and a few others. I rinse everything out, sometimes with soapy water if the container needs it. I hang a small waste bag by the back door, in which I put plastic, food boxes etc (glass goes in a small recycling bin indoors ready for when I can get to a bottle bank), and when the bag is full I take it out to the garden and empty into the recycling bin. I don’t want anything smelly hanging around indoors.
Yes. I wash anything that has contained food before putting it in the recycling.
I use the warm soapy water left in the bowl after I’ve finished washing up to swish round the inside of empty cans, bottles, jars etc - sometimes I need to put the lid back on to give it a good shake with the soapy water in it to clean off the debris.
Then I leave them to drain and dry off before adding to recycling bin.
Yes. All food containers (they’ll get very smelly otherwise), empty milk/beer/wine/gin bottles, etc all get washed/rinsed out before disposal in the recycling bin. I’ve just checked on our council website and it’s a must do here apparently.
Well, excuse me for not realising it was only plastic under discussion.
I also cook my meals from scratch - and the only ‘ready meal’ you would find in my freezer would be one I had prepared myself. However - I do admit that the odd tin of tuna, sardines, corned beef, baked beans, and kidney beans are used from time to time - and to put those out for recycling without washing them first would be nothing short of disgusting - especially as our recycling bins are only emptied once per fortnight.
Yes, Sheba.
I saw a programme on telly a while back about that. Some of the recycling couldn’t be recycled because of contamination.
As others have said, the council here ask you to give stuff a quick wash.
that’s a very personal question!
