The cleaner the materials, the more valuable they are to the recyclers. Recycling facilities do not clean recyclables. Leftover food in recyclables can grow mold and attract bacteria, rodents, and insects, which makes the material unacceptable for recycling.

Leftover liquids in recyclables can spill onto paper and cardboard, making them unrecyclable. These materials will end up being disposed.

When you empty, clean, and dry your recyclables, you keep food and liquid out of your bin and allow your recyclables to be made into something new.

Scraping out food with a spatula or paper towel can be enough to clean a container without water. If that doesn't work, you can rinse while minimizing water usage by filling the container with water, letting it sit, then giving it a shake before pouring out the leftover liquid in the sink.

Also remember recycling also avoids using the energy needed to mine and manufacture virgin materials and saves natural resources like water, trees, and minerals.

Recyclables don’t have to be dishwasher clean. Empty them out, give it a quick rinse, shake off the water and voila! You are good to go!
 
Begin by mechanically scraping food waste into your compost bucket or trash. Then save the container until you are done with the dishes and use your dirty dish water. This way you will be using water that would be going down the drain anyway. If you don't have any dishwater handy don't use hot water, cold will do just fine. After you rinse it out, shake off the water so other items won’t get wet and throw them in your bin!

Once you’ve emptied, rinsed, and shaken out the water from your recyclables, it’s OK if there are some remaining water droplets when you put them in the recycling bin. The important thing is to avoid putting in half-full soda cans or spilling liquids onto cardboard and paper recyclables, which makes them unrecyclable and puts all your good efforts to waste. Also, remember to keep your recycling cart closed to prevent rain or snow from getting everything wet. 

After they leave your home, your recyclables are taken to Walla Walla Recycling, where they are pressed into bales secured with wires. These are then loaded into a semi and taken to a material recovery facility (MRF – rhymes with "smurf") in Tacoma.

At the MRF, the materials are dumped onto conveyor belts where workers try to remove items that are not recyclable and can either damage the equipment, ruin the value of other materials, or just don’t belong. The remaining materials are sorted mechanically. However, this is not an exact science. If the loads that come into the MRF have a lot of non-recyclable materials, many of those will make it through the process, causing the end materials to be unable to be sold to a manufacturer and made into something new.
 
Common non-recyclable items found in recycling bins include plastic bags, plastic wrap and film, liquids, food, soiled packaging, garden hoses, wire hangers, diapers, electronics, light bulbs, and batteries. Many of these items can be recycled separately — but NOT in a commingled recycle bin.

Individual cities, counties, and the region's recycling industry are working hard to ensure all the items accepted in local recycling programs are actually recycled. While new worldwide recycling standards have affected the system, materials that are accepted in our local program and that are empty, clean, and dry are still sent to recycling markets and made into something new.

These videos show what happens to materials collected from recycling containers in Walla Walla.