Should You Wash Before You Recycle?

After you empty that bottle of salad dressing or that can of pasta sauce, how clean does it need to be before you put it in your recycling bin? As it turns out, the cleaner the better.

Mother Jones did the investigative work (which we found via GOOD) and in many cities, the cleaner the recyclables, the more money they can fetch on the open market. In many cases, this means more revenue for your hometown. Ultimately, you need to follow your city’s guidelines and rules for how clean recyclables should be, but as it turns out, it’s worth the extra effort, water, and time to give them a good rinse.