Seems a bit over the top. But whatever floats your boat. Washing your recyclables first may be wasting water.
My Wife and I do pretty good and recycle all our aluminum, plastic and glass. We have a box for old magazines and such too.
I try to rinse out beer cans and bottles, but just cause it can get a bit stinky and it only takes a second and not even an ounce of water.
I used to be in that situation, got to say there was something satisfying about it, and amazing of how much reduction of volume there was. IIRC I maybe did one trip per year to get rid of the unburnable remains for the ‘burnable’ stuff.
China just stopped accepting the import of trash from other countries and they (including the U.S.) are reeling from the effect as they try to figure out what to do with their trash, including some types of plastic. So in a roundabout way, they (including the US) contributed to the plastic in the ocean by overwhelming China’s ability to handle their own trash.
https://money.cnn.com/2018/04/20/news/china-trash-recycling-environment/index.html
Edit: If you have Amazon Prime, I highly recommend watching the psuedo-documentary (be some scenes are obviously stageed) Plastic China, to see where your good deed of recycling plastic ends up.
Note: I’m not saying don’t recycle. I’m pointing out that it’s not just “the other guys” that are contributing to the worldwide issue of what to do with plastic and other waste.
I’m thinking Sunflower State means Kansas so, yeah.
Hawaii banned the use of non-reusable plastic bags in grocery and department stores over three years ago (small bags used in restaurants and convenience stores are okay), and this year banned all plastic bags in grocery and department store because they switched to heavier bags and claimed they were reusable (of course few people brought them back to the store since they were free). Now there’s no plastic bags at all and you have pay $0.15 for a paper bag regardless of the size. Some stores like Longs (CVS in the mainland) don’t have any bags at all. Either you have to bring your own, buy a reusable fabric bag or carry everything out by hand.
Individual residences have three trash bins with different pickup days. Dark gray is for regular trash, green is is for plastics, metal cans and paper, blue is for green waste (gardening trimmings and garden fruits and vegetables). You’re supposed to rinse out all bottles and cans. I don’t know how they would trace it back to the individual address, but you can be fined if you don’t properly separate your trash and recyclables.
Restaurants and fast food places don’t have separate bins because the labor cost of separating the recyclables from trash (trash can full, just toss it in the recycle bin) is too high.
The giant floating island of plastic isn’t a floating island, and doesn’t consist of straws and disposable plates from the USA.
It’s a soup of degraded plastic fragments, coming down the Yangtze and Brahmaputra.(Assam) rivers and from poor coastal regions. The USA has good garbage collection and disposal systems, and your straws don’t end up in the ocean.
When you buy new clothing, it comes labeled “wash before use”. That’s because the manufacturer doesn’t wash the fabric. They don’t wash the fabric because it turns the river blue (or whatever). You aren’t subject to the same was disposal restrictions, so they want you to wash all the dye down your drain.
All the dye and the small nylon / polyester thread fragments and dust, which goes down your drain, into your treatment plant, into your river, and into the ocean.
That’s your major contribution to ocean plastic, and the biggest contribution you can make is to wear and repair clothes, instead of buying new. Cotton is possibly not a solution, because it may be more energy intensive than artificial fabrics.
Anyway, the straws and disposable plates are a form of ritual purity. I’m not going to argue religion with your wife, and I don’t know that you should either.
I thought that washing clothing before wearing it was recommended to remove the sizing which helps clothing keep its shape in the store, and gives new clothes that very distinctive smell.
(Right now, I’m wearing a shirt I bought a couple weeks ago, and did not pre-wash it. It does indeed have “that smell.”)
I get up at 4:30 am. Sometimes I don’t get back home until 7 pm. I can barely keep up with the dishes and laundry. I sure as fuck am not washing my garbage and you can’t make me.
That too, but mostly in cotton or cotton-blend clothes. I get the “wash before wear” instruction on all kinds of fabrics.
The only composting here in the Twin Cities that I know of is a municipal site for yard waste, plus whatever people choose to do in their own back yards. When i was living in Berkeley, we had composting at the curb, alongside recycling and garbage. The garbage can was the smallest one, and usually only half-full while the others were overflowing.
Here in Saint Paul, just commingled recycling. I don’t bother to rinse things out unless it’s early in the cycle and I don’t want it stinking up my kitchen for a week.
I have sensitive skin (to match my personality! :D) and if I don’t wash my shirts or undies before I wear them, I get a rash (won’t describe where :p). Oddly, pants are okay though.Though I have to wash any bedding, sheets, pillow cases, blankets, etc, before I sleep with them.
Also, f you don’t wash towels before first use, they don’t absorb moisture as well. There’s something, in/on them to keep them nice and crisp on the shelf.
Don’t use fabric softener on towels, or anything else that you want to be absorbent.
Which reminds me that I need a gentle reminder to take my recycling in tomorrow, while the weather’s still decent.