How clean does something have to be before you recycle it?

[elektra]

I rinse out our glass jars before recycling them and even rinse out soda cans on occasion. But I admit to just tossing some of our ziploc gallon plastic bags because I don't think I'll be able to get all the gunk out (or I am just too lazy to try, I admit). Or if something is stuck on the inside of a piece of crumpled up aluminum foil, I sometimes toss it, but feel guilty when I do!
But I am wondering if I should just put it all in the recycling anyway.
Are there rules about how clean something needs to be?
Do they end up just tossing anything covered in food at the processing plant or wherever it goes?
And peanut butter jars? Do you really need to get those spotless before recycling them?

[smiles33]

Great question! Do you know who your local recycling company is? I think standards vary. My local one doesn't accept any plastic bags (so those ziploc bags get rinsed and re-used for food in less airtight bags but after 2 uses I toss them). They also don't take dirty aluminum foil so I only recycle the foil that was used to cover food (like a turkey being roasted) as opposed to foil that caught drippings and got all greasy/dirty.

I will recycle my mayo jars and other jars that are relatively easy to empty but without making sure they're entirely grease-free. I toss the peanut butter jars as I just don't want to deal with getting every last bit of the PB out.