Should I rinse cans, bottles, & plastic containers before I put them in recycling?
I work for the City of Stockton ca. In the solid waste division/ Recycling Division. It is not mandatory that you rinse your recyclables, but it is very helpful. We too have the mixed recyclables bin and when the items are mixed it sometimes causes things to become unrecyclable. Just like you said about the peanut butter and the cardboard box, When you have a box or any paper product for that matter and it becomes contaminated with food waste like a pizza box or you spill something on some newspaper. if it is contaminated with food waste then it would go into your green waste or yard waste bin so that it can be composted, once it is soiled it cannot be remade into paper again so don’t just trash it put it in the green waste and give it back to the earth. And just to clarify the statement about it wasting oil and resources when you recycle it actually saves double the amount of oil and resources when you recycle than if you were to use virgin products. For example it takes one million y
