Ask A Question About Recycling
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Your Questions Answered

Do I have to rinse out and clean all of my glass and plastic bottles before I recycle them?

This depends on the recycling program in your area, but generally, yes you do. In the early days of recycling it was necessary to separate items, clean out containers, take off lids, peel off labels, etc. Now the equipment is much more sophisticated and all that is not necessary. Rinsing out containers is still necessary for sanitation reasons. Many food products can spoil or sour quickly and cause problems. The City of Bloomington web site on recycling at

http://www.cityblm.org/page.asp?show=section&id=2833&menuid=2833

can answer many of your specific questions about recycling in our area.