12
Finally stopped rinsing my recycling and it's saving water
I used to rinse out every jar and can before tossing them in the bin. Then I talked to a guy at the local recycling center in Austin who told me they actually don't need to be spotless, just empty. Scraping out the last bit of peanut butter with a spatula uses way less water than running it under the tap for 30 seconds. I figure over a year that's probably 500 gallons of water saved just on rinsing stuff. Has anyone else been told something different about recycling prep?
2 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In2 Comments
wren_jackson29d ago
Friend of mine in Phoenix was religious about rinsing everything for years. Then he talked to a guy who worked at their local MRF and the guy flat out said the water they use for dust control is way more than the tiny bit left in a jar. My buddy still scrapes stuff out but he hasn't run a recycling item under a tap in two years. He says his water bill dropped like 8 bucks a month. Not huge but adds up.
2
Yeah honestly I'm pretty sure my recycling bin has a PhD in peanut butter chemistry by now from all the jars I've half-heartedly scraped clean. Ngl you might be onto something though, I bet the city spends more water pressure testing the fire hydrants than they do worrying about a little leftover spaghetti sauce. Tbh the real environmental crime is me finally accepting that this information came from a guy who probably also told me aluminum foil is "technically recyclable too.
1