If everyone washed out bottles and cans for recycling how long would our water reserves last and what the cost

Question

each year we are told to rashen clean tap water .councils are now telling us to waste it on washing old cans and bottles.

Answer 1

It isn't neccessary to wash them according to the recycling plant that collects our stuff.  All that stuff, including labels, is removed during the process.

Answer 2

It would use up less water than the water that would get used to make up the same amount of bottles and cans from scratch should they not have been recycled. (I know, I'm smart).

Answer 3

fact water can neither created or destroyed, just in a state of flux as for our usable part in flux ie to wash, not going to happen, but it does depend were you are in the world if you run out just remember somebody else is getting it

Answer 4

no idea, but i always wash out mine, thought everyone did?

Answer 5

I wash my bottles and cans at the end of the washing up, so there's no extra water used.

Answer 6

WHAT THE!!!!! ---- no one can answer that accurately!

Answer 7

By the end of the day all water is recycled the one that goes down the drain is the same that pours down in a rain

Answer 8

Let me bust out the trusty old abacus for this one, because it is really worth it...

Answer 9

The great thing about water is that it recycles itself.  We have more water now than before due to the melting of the polar ice cap and much better ways of desalinization so I don't think a lack of water is a huge issue.  However, even though some places in the east and in large metropolitan areas have "garbage issues", we also aren't overrun as a country with garbage.  So either way, not to worry... :-)

Answer 10

Use water collected in a rain butt to wash that stuff

Answer 11

there is as much water on the planet as there was thousands of years ago.  Water is the most recycled thing on the earth!

as for washing them out, I think thats just to keep smells and rodents and other nasty stuff(mosquitos laying eggs etc.) away while they sit waiting to get recycled.  

The heating process used in recycling will remove anything left on them.  So technically, you really dont have to wash them.

Answer 12

Use water

Answer 13

that's is a brilliant question