I've Never Thought of This!

I read a great article on Slate.com about washing out containers before recycling.  It's here, and I encourage you to read the whole thing, but the gist is: don't spend resources washing your empty containers.  As long as all the food is out of the container, you could give it a rinse, but you don't need to scrub your PB jars like I do (actually, I eat AB)...they'll get washed and heated and all that at the processing plant.  

There is a caveat (a word I had to define for my students the other day): if you have single stream recycling (paper and metals and glass all in one bin), you probably should wash out your food containers if it prevents contamination of the paper, often making the paper "un-recyclable."

I really can't believe that in all my years of not flushing the toilet every time and taking quick showers and reducing waste...I never thought about how silly it is to wash the recycling.