Ok, so because reasons i have lots of dirty cans building up in my house, and cleaning them all to put them in the recycling has stopped me from putting them in the recycling and caused them to build up further.
Basically, how much does it matter that these cans are clean before i recycle them?
I live in the UK if that helps. Thanks!
Just a quick rinse is fine.
The only reason to even worry about that is the contents that remain drawing insects or critters trying to get at whatever residue is there. Once the residue is rinsed decently, you minimize that enough that it isn’t a big deal, and you’re good to go.
Pretty much all recycling (afaik anyway, I haven’t checked every single possibility) of metal includes a cleaning of some kind. Then the metals get shredded or otherwise broken down. So having a some dried you soda residue, or some bean juice hanging on isn’t going to interfere with the processing.
Now, if you’ve got a lot of goopy stuff left in/on a can, yeah, you may need to do more than rinse, but that’s a different issue tbh