Please help me settle a "recycling" argument...?

Question

My hubby tends to be lazy and place recycleable items in the bin with food still on them! He believes that it can still be recycled, and has no worries about it. But, I have heard that these items will not be recycled (due to concerns about messing up an entire batch of recycleables), but either will be thrown into a landfill or burned. If true, this defeats the purpose, and requires extra time and energy of people sorting through the recycleables. So, is it true that items with food or grease still in them will NOT be recycled? Thanks!

Answer 1

Contact your city or recycling centre and ask them so you know for sure.

Answer 2

Good for you for being so concerned.  Unfortunately there's no easy answer- simply because it varies so much between different waste management agencies.  I live in San Francisco, and they say they'd rather have you save the water you'd use rinsing something out, and just toss it in the recycling bin and it will get washed.  Others require that you rinse them quite thoroughly.  So I agree that you should contact your local waste management co, they might even have a web site that explains the method that they prefer.  

Another thing to consider is how the left over food is affecting the rest of your recyclables.  Like one of the other answers said- you can't recycle pizza boxes because they're all messy and greasy.  (You can compost them though)  Well, for the same reason, you can't recycle paper if it gets yucky with food or other liquids.  I don't know if you city requires that you separate your paper from your other recyclables, but if they don't, your hubby might be ruining other recyclables by not rinsing!  

Hope this helps.  Best of luck!

Answer 3

It really depends on what you're talking about.   If it's like a juice bottle and there's just a tiny bit there, no big deal.  But if it was like a can of condensed soup with a thick layer of goo on it, it really should be rinsed.

Besides...stuff like that in your bins that's really heavily filthy could attract insects and start to stink.  Maybe tell that to your husband and he'll be convinced to rinse.   No one wants pests!

Answer 4

I'm in Canada.  If we don't rinse out and clean our recycleables the guys will just leave them in the bin and take whatever IS clean.

Answer 5

Items such as pizza boxes cannot be recycled because of the grease stains that are on the cardboard boxes.  

That being said, other items, such as a can of soup, vegetables, etc. can have a little food in them and will still be recycled.  The best idea for you is to wash out any containers that had food in it, such as cans, bottles, etc. before bringing them to your recycling bin.  That way you can be ensured that they will be recycled.

Also, if you have a glass or plastic bottle with a little bit of liquid in it, then it is fine and will be recycled.

Answer 6

Im convinced they just pull the bottles and cans out of what i put into my recycle bin clean or not. right??

Answer 7

This kind of recycling only makes people feel good. If it's not even doing that, there's really no reason to do it. For these kinds of items, recycling takes a lot more energy than burying, and energy is very expensive right now -- not to mention the greenhouse gasses released in the process.

Answer 8

You really want to know the truth about recycling, watch Penn and Teller on Youtube. They did some specials for Showtime and the name of thier show is Bullsh _ _. It cost more and causes more pollution than it's suppose to fix. The only thing that was working is alum. cans. If u watch the special u'll see whats going on with this goverment s***w up. Myself, I quit recycling except for alum. cans. and thats because I can get paid for it.