Do you need to rinse bottles out before recycling them?

Question

I'm just wondering how important this is...for stuff like milk and orange juice, I always rinse out thoroughly because of the smell. However, do I need to rinse out all beer and juice bottles? Or is ok to leave that last bit of juice inside? Because I spend a lot of time rinsing out all of my gatorade bottles and beer cans. I'm not sure exactly what happens when these products are recycled but my guess is that they're heated to extremely high temperatures, and in that case, it really wouldn't matter if there were traces of liquid in them because it would just burn off and evaporate.

Also, while on the topic of recycling, I have two other questions - first, are you supposed to throw away or also recycle bottle caps, and second, can you recycle cardboard and boxboard together?

Answer 1

we have to rinse ours out- bees love dirty recycle stuff in the summer....

Answer 2

I would say rinse them out. I know they do go through a process of being cleaned later. But in the mean time you don't the "juice" to attack bugs in your containers, their trucks or the recycling center. I have heard a few times that you can put the tops in with the bottles but not capped on. I was told that a Long time ago. I know the caps are recyclable and are the same plastic as the bottles. When you rinse your containers don't rinse them so thoroughly, it just sort of waste water. To conserve on energy and water, fill the sink up with warm soapy water and dunk the bottle sin the sink. I try to save up a few bottles on my counter to do this. One would be silly.

As for the boxes, i think so. I stick them in the same bin at my place. No one has said any different to me. i hope I am not wrong.

Dont forget to recycle magazines and newspapers too

Answer 3

I was told that we should always rinse it out before recycling, from green living pamphlets. I often find it more wasteful using a gallon of water to rinse the milk cartoon. If we use so much water and energy, we might as well burn the garbage.
There was a TV special showing the workings of the recycling plants. Everything is soaked in hot water first, so I seriously doubt we need to rinse them at all.
The only reason I can think of is for those who lives in houses where garbage is picked up weekly. It can smell bad if you don't rinse them.

Answer 4

its a ood idea that you are cleaning out each plastic bottle etc. the reason for this is no matter what was in them it still can seap into the ground of the land fill and it hurts our enviornment so keep up the good work and never car stuff like batteries and naver put transmission fluid bottles etc in the trash always call the 800 number on the back to drop off these things at their designated drop off locations bottle caps if plastic can be recycled together cardboard and boxboard seperatly their chemical make up is diffrent than plastic call you local recycling facility for more info

Answer 5

The main thing about washing the bottles is the smell and also it could attract rats if left out.
As for bottle tops I assume that you mean the plastic ones. At the moment there are no plants taking them so take them off and throw them.
As for the cardboard as far as I am aware there is no problem mixing the two. It only is a problem if you try to recycle Tetra ie milk/ juice cartons the waxy stuff.

Answer 6

You should rinse out all recyclable products. The water that is left behind will evaporate with no problems, but beer and soda will dehydrate and leave the sugars and other ingredients to be mixed with the container. That's what I was told - don't know how accurate it is.

Answer 7

On our barrel it says to place clean items inside. I rinse everything out because we have ants and roaches and rats in our neighborhood. I throw away the bottle caps, my husband recycles them. The cardboard and all paper products can all go together.

Answer 8

The cleaner the container, the more smooth the recycling process goes for the town....also rinsing the cans/bottles/etc...will keep your recycle bin fresh and bug-free...hope this helps...happy recycling! CA

Answer 9

Rinse them out. One reason is the smell can attract raccoons and feral cats who 'dumpster dive' for whatever they can. (Our area stopped curb-side pick up and set up an area of large bins that are just fork-lifted over the truck.) To conserve water, you can put a bucket to catch the water that drains out of your washer and use that for rinsing.
I don't know about bottle caps. Our area takes cardboard, boxboard and newspapers all together.

Answer 10

you should always rinse the bottles out before recycling.....and i have heard just recently that the caps need to be removed and tossed in the trash as well.....why?? i am not too sure...but I always try to recycle everything...

Answer 11

No, but it keeps the bugs away and during the summer there is no stench if they are rinsed. Where I live they want you to clean out tin cans and take the labels off. They want the bottle caps off, they don't take those.