Actually, my town (run by typical green lefties) pushes recycling (althouogh you aren’t fined for not complying...yet). To recycle plastics & glass, they have to be clean. They’ll take the containers plants come in, & I spent part of my Sunday washing the dirt off the containers after I got my deck plants in.
And if you recycle paper/cardboard, it can’t have food residue on it. And I’ve been told that if any contaminents are found, they have to toss the load. It made me laugh, as my insanely leftie, green sister doesn’t bother to rinse out her tin cans.
The only material that is worth recycling is aluminum. Pulling the aluminum cans out is a profit source.
All other materials(glass,tin cans, plastics, paper) have lower removal costs for my town in NH. However, we still have to pay to haul them away. It just costs less/ton than mixed trash.
After all that washing, what about the pollutants washing down the drain and eventually into the water supply? Speaking of the water supply, how much water is being wasted from all that washing? How much extra energy are they now having to use to clean up the water? The more that goes through the drains, the more breaks and clogs.