When is recycling bad for the environment?

Q: I know we're supposed to recycle all our jars and plastic containers, but we're supposed to conserve water too. How do we decide when it's wasting too much water to clean a container so it can be recycled?

A: It's good that you know to clean the jars and containers. When people put them into the bin unwashed, they are trashed at the recycling facility. Many people who have dishwashers put the containers in with the dirty dishes (top shelf for plastic containers) so very little extra water is used in that case. If you're washing them by hand, soak for a while with detergent and then rinse in hot water. It shouldn't take too much to get them clean.

For something like an oil bottle, it might take more. It's hard to quantify the amount of waste in cleaning vs. what is saved by recycling. Every time a container is made it requires the raw materials plus the energy used in manufacturing plus the shipping (often by truck) to get it to wherever the food is packaged. Recycling cuts out the step of getting the raw materials - glass for jars, metal for cans, petroleum products for plastic. This can be a huge savings of both energy and materials in something like aluminum, or less for some of the others.

Obtaining the raw materials from scratch is not a benign process, and neither is sending trash to the incinerator if you decide to save water and throw the container away. It really is better in general to recycle the containers. Even better still is to avoid buying them if possible. Try to get take-out some way other than in clamshell boxes. Buy one large jar of peanut butter instead of two- smaller ones. Try the concentrated laundry detergent. Buy in bulk in refillable containers.

Q: I'm spring cleaning and want to give away a lot of stuff. Can you repeat the list of charities that pick up?

REMINDER: The DPW has scheduled a one-day drop-off collection of Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) and other electronics at 201 Bedford St. on Saturday, April 9, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Lexington residents can bring televisions, including big screen and consoles; computer monitors and computer related electronics, including processing (CPU) unit, keyboard, mouse; printer, etc; and other electronics including VCRs, video game systems, camcorders, stereos, cell phones, radios.