Is it it worth recycling a container if you have to use a lot of water to clean/rinse it out?
Answer:
Probably not.
always
You don't need to use a lot of water to rinse it out.
ive often thought it such a waste of water especially when you have a difficult to clean jar but the jar is being recycled so i guess its worth doing seing we have so much surplus water at the moment.
Keep your nasty recyclables outside, let the recycling plant clean them or more than likely melt them down.
Answers that water problem of yours.
Yes, it is silly to waste water to wash out recycling ~ therefore, the time to wash your recycling is after you've washed the dinner dishes and still have a sink full of wash up or rinse water.
The cans & jars don't need to be spotless; but should have most of the food rinsed out so as not to stink up the recycling bins.
Oh my yes!! Water comes back to us -- rain, etc. You'll be able to clean again. And why use a LOT of water to clean a throwaway? But that container is a big solid object that would be taking up sapce forver on our planet if you don't recycle. So yes, getting physical waste off the planet trumps using water! If you want to be really conscientious, keep reusing the same water!
It depends how much you have to use. I can't think of anything that you'd have to use too much water on, though, so yes.
Yes I think you should rinse them out, this prevents you from having a smelly recyle bin, I use my leftover washing up water and have a washing up brush and bottle brush, using these I only have to fill the cans once, and the botlles once. It is also safer when cleaning the cans. Pat (pg_bluebell)
I clean the recyclables before putting them in the container! I rinse them in dirty dish water!
In reply to Kelly L's suggestion, a while ago I contacted Tendring Recycling and spoke to a really helpful girl who said all items must be washed before putting them in the recycling bins. If they are dirty, they can contaminate the rest of the recycling and the whole lot could get refused when it is sent to the giant recycling centre in Kent somewhere. I don't want to be responsible for that, so I now wash most food wrappings, bags and containers but not paper, plastic, cereal boxes etc. Rinsing jars, meat or milk containers can be easily done at the end of a wash or added to the dishwasher.
okay YES!!
I imagine it takes water or other resources to make a new container, and then there is the landfill as prev. mentioned.
worried about the water? dont use a lot! or you could:-
use the dirty dishes water as prev post said,
i like to fill in empty corners of the dishwasher to make it full before i use it,
or catch water used in a large bowl and use it as grey water...or use the water after rinsing milk carton or whatever to water garden or house plants
:)
The City of Phoenix says "All recyclable material must be relatively clean, dry, empty and uncrushed. No need to wash recyclables." They once circulated a flyer explaining that if you wipe out a peanut butter or mayonnaise jar with a used paper towel or something, for example, that would be fine. However, I have a recycyling container in my kitchen and I would rather keep it fresher than that, so I rinse most of my cans, cartons, and jars. But I use water I might have been using for soaking dishes, say, and I use it over and over from one container to the next before dumping it. If you rinse when the remnants are fresh (not dried-on), you only need a couple of spoonfuls of water.
It is worth it. I takes alot less energy to filter and clean that water then to make another one of those containers.
I'm sure they wash them all again at the recycling plant, and it probably uses less water that way.
Or you could wash your bottles with greywater from the sprinkler or the shower. Then you wouldn't be using any extra water.
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