Should I wash recyclables before putting them in the bin?

A quick rinse is worthwhile; thorough washing is not. The aim is to remove residue that would contaminate other materials, not to make the container clean enough to reuse.

The reason matters. Recyclables are collected, baled and stored, sometimes for weeks. Food residue attracts pests, produces odour, and in the case of oils and fats can render paper and cardboard unrecyclable, because the fibres cannot be separated from the grease. A pizza box with a greasy base is the standard example: the clean lid is recyclable, the oil-soaked base generally is not.

A rinse with the water left in a washing-up bowl, or a quick swill under a running tap, is enough. Scrubbing a jar until it gleams uses more water and energy than the recycling saves, which inverts the point.

Drying matters more than people expect, particularly where paper and cardboard are collected together with containers. Wet cardboard degrades and can contaminate an otherwise good batch.

A few specifics recur. Lids are often a different plastic from the container and may need separating, though some facilities now prefer caps left on so they are not lost as small items. Labels generally do not need removing, since the reprocessing stage handles them. Aerosols must be empty but should not be punctured.

As with everything in recycling, the local guidance overrides general advice, because it reflects what the receiving facility can actually process. Where a rule seems arbitrary, it usually encodes a constraint of that specific plant.

One further point applies to bottles and cartons specifically: draining them matters more than rinsing them. Liquid adds weight, which affects transport emissions, and can leak across a load of paper during collection.