Which is better: to waste water rinsing out a glass jar for recycling or to just throw it away in the trash?

Answer 1

throwing it away would be worse.

And generally speaking you do not have to rinse it out, because the recycling plant will rinse all of them in very hot water to remove any remaining paper and glue before they melt them down.

Answer 2

I rinse every container before recycling. Remember, at some point, some *person* will have to handle this object. Some stuff smells pretty bad, if left in a jar, can or paper container.

I try to think how I would like handling an empty ice cream container with sticky stuff all over it. Rinsing takes only a few seconds.

Answer 3

You rinse it out to keep your recycling bin from smelling rancid. If you live in an area where the water supply is limited, use one of the suggestions the other answerers have given. Otherwise, give it a quick rinse... you're not "using up" the water: it's going back into the lake or river where it came from.

Answer 4

If you live in the desert, rinse the glass jar then drink the water. Otherwise it is aways better to recycle.

Answer 5

Rinse the jar in the sink when you've washed everthing else, and then use that water for your plants (if it's not too hot) and reuse the jar for some homemade jam.

It is important to clean your recyleables if you put them all in the same bin, otherwise the giant sorting machine gets gunked up and they have to stop and clean it or throw the dirty recycleables in landfil.
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Answer 6

Do neither if you don't want to rinse jar put it in recycling anyway don't throw it in the trash it's still recyclable dirty or clean

Answer 7

Throw it out.

The recycling company is going to clean it anyway whether you rinse it or not. You are just wasting water.

Answer 8

Just wash them at the end of pot washing in the washing up water, nobody is going to use them so you dont need to rinse them in fresh water. If you use eco friendly washing up liquid you can then use the dirty dishwater outside too. In places in Japan they still wash the dishes in an indoor carp pool, the carp eat the scraps from the pots then they just rinse off in the natural spring.

Answer 9

You can bet if I am going to take the time to rinse out a glass it is going to be to use it for something else.
Recycling the temperatures it takes to melt glass will burn out anything you have left in it. That is around 2400 degrees F plus. or 1315 degrees C plus.

I worked at a glass plant once. Actually temperatures in their furnaces were hotter that a steel mills' furnaces.

Answer 10

Water that goes down your drain is not "wasted". It goes to a treatment plant and is generally reused. If you were to pour the water outside onto the ground, you have made that water unusable in the near term until it reaches the aquifer and starts the cycle all over again.