Do I have to rinse my jars before recycling them?

Question

My wife insists that we need to rinse out our jars before recycling them. I think that whatever is leftover would just burn away. Then we got into this hypothetical: what would happen if you put a full jar of, say, spaghetti sauce into the recycling? I say it would just burn away; she says it would cause big problems for the recycling plant. Thoughts?

Answer 1

yeah  have respect man . that stuff rots and gets gross.  that's all. no one is sitting down there washing them so yeah just rinse them. plus your trashe wont smell as bad. she is right.

Answer 2

You are supposed to rinse them.  Period.

Answer 3

Our recycling program gave us a flier that says we must rinse everything out before recycling it, and things with permanent food stains or stuck on food cannot be recycled.  I would check with your recycling provider to be sure though.

Answer 4

I have had the same thought.  Does it waste water.  Would it be better to have my dog l**k it out?

Answer 5

you are supposed to rinse jars, milk cartons (plastic) before you put them in the recycle bin, but who does, since it wastes water

Answer 6

It would be more sanitary and if germs and spores go airborne, children may get sick.  You don't want to attract or feed the rats or mice,   Flies and maggots would love your trash can for sure.    I believe you will do the right thing and rinse it.

Answer 7

Yes, you are supposed to rinse them.  For hygeine reasons if nothing else - the food left in them will rot by the time it gets to burn away, increasing the risk of rotten smells and disease.

Where I live, all recycling is put in one box and the people at the recycling plant sort them by hand - not too good if they haven't been rinsed.

So don't be lazy, rinse them properly.

Answer 8

Dude, think of all the water you're wasting...

millions of dollars that could be spent saving the owls man

think of the owls

better yet, don't buy glass jars

grow all your own food

Answer 9

Interesting question.

I'm not really sure but in my house it's the other way around. I(the husband) alway argue with her that the jars and what not need to rinsed out.

Even if they don't, there are people that sort stuff at the plant and they have to go through all that stuff. Also, in Phoenix we recycle all of our stuff once a week and It all goes into the same truck once a week. I don't know what the ramifications of putting entire jars of spaghetti sauce for example would be on the rest of the recyclables like paper or cardboard.

Just take a second to rinse it out, I'm sure you'll make some worker down the line happy.