Do I Need to Rinse Recyclables?
Do I Need to Rinse Recyclables?
I get this question a lot. Mostly from my significant other as he is trying to get some stubborn food residue out of the bottom of a narrow-necked jar or while cleaning some aluminum foil. “Is this clean enough?” he’ll ask. “How clean does the recycling actually need to be?” The answer to that is basically that yes, it’s a good idea to rinse recyclables, and the cleaner you can get them the better, but they don’t need to be pristine.
The Problem with Recycling and Contamination
When I visited our local MRF (Materials Recovery Facility, aka, the place where they sort the recyclables), one of the other members of my Master Recyclers program asked about how clean recycled materials need to be. And the answer our guide gave us was, “If you’re even asking that question, I can pretty much guarantee that whatever you are doing is fine.”
Because, as she explained, the real problem for them are the people that throw in half-full jars of peanut butter, sauces, vegetable oil and so on, not to mention all kinds of other random unrecyclable junk. A bit of food gunk left in the bottom of a soup can isn’t a concern.
But as with everything in recycling, the cleaner the materials, the more profitable the entire business is. The less contamination that finds its way into the recyclables, the better the whole system functions. This is particularly true in single-stream recycling, where paper, glass, metal and plastic are all mixed together in one bin and then have to be separated out at the MRF.
Oils and grease are especially hard to remove from paper and cardboard products. So please, at the very least, don’t throw full or half-full containers of peanut butter, sauces, dressings, drinks or anything else in your recycling. Not only does it potentially ruin a bunch of recyclable materials, but it spoils, grows mold and bacteria, creating a health hazard for the workers in the MRFs and manufacturing facilities.
So how clean does my recycling need to be?
If you are using single-stream (a.k.a. commingled) recycling (i.e. all recyclables mixed in one bin), it’s a good idea to at least rinse out jars, bottles and cans. Could the MRF deal with it if you don’t? Yeah, probably. But you are doing a good deed when you rinse. You’re helping to support the viability of your recycling program by sending the highest-possible quality materials with the lowest possible contamination into the recycling stream.
What about gunk stuck in the bottom of the jar?
Don’t sweat it.
For more recycling tips, visit the Green and Grumpy Recycling page.
