Not this one, every one. The only difference is that they bother to put this info on the label.
Nearly all containers (glass or plastic) need to have their label removed to recycle properly. And you must rinse them out, too.
Some can be recycled with the label on, but only if the plastic used is the type that can be recycled. Confusing and frustrating, yes.
The crappy thing is that some labels really don’t come off easily because they’ve been glued in place… those are awful to recycle because it requires quite a bit of extra effort, soaking, adhesive remover, etc… 😂
And you must rinse them out, too.
This step right here has to end. Recycling facilities should have cycling filtered graywater loops to do the rinsing. Using clean drinking water to rinse out containers is an absolute waste.
I work for a plastic recycling plant manufacturer, specifically for the sorting, shredding, cleaning and drying steps of plastic recycling (after that you usually have melting and extrusion before ending up with small plastic pellets that can be used to make other stuff).
I can confirm you, we have “cycling filtered grey water” cleaning. You don’t need to clean up your plastic containers, just empty them. Also various chemicals will be used in the process, when necessary.
We also make de-labelers to remove the labels from plastic bottles, although this kind of label in the picture is extremely hard to remove and, afaik, either requires human labor (aka poor countries with labor conditions you don’t want to think about) or just becomes waste. So yeah, this is some of the worst shit.
I’ve been to a recycling sorting facility (glass, paper, metal and plastic all go in the same bin here). The people working the conveyor belts had to practically wear hazmat suits, as whatever came in was vile. I rinse my containers extra clean since I saw that.
At least in Germany that step is not necessary as far as I know.
It…it probably is.
Not really. We do have to make sure to empty the container as good as possible though.
Man, I was looking into Germany’s waste infrastructure in general, and damn, I’m jealous, lol. I couldn’t find any concrete answers to the degree on which you should rinse plastic, though. That said, I imagine it’s probably in your best interest to at least give a quick rinse to avoid your own bin getting nasty, even if not required.
What I found is the term löffelrein, a wonderful German word meaning something like “as clean as possible when using a spoon” for joghurt for example.
I usually bring my trash down before it get’s nasty. Our “bio trash” is more of a problem, as anything biodegradable gets into it which attracts fruit flys. Rinsing plastics is still just a waste of water (and time).
I agree, but rinsing at home addresses multiple concerns.
I think the issue is that some people throw out containers with their lids on and completely covered in food matter.
a) it makes it difficult/impossible to actually recycle when it finally gets there. b) it attracts wildlife to your recycling bins.
It’s just best practice, really.