Does anyone know if it's okay to recycle something that might have a lot more than the average amount of germs on it?

@masterofyou (If you really wanted to help mother earth, it wouldn't be through recycling.)

@Graylight Ohhhh, tell me.....

@masterofyou The mantra of recycling is: reduce, re-use, recycle. We don't reduce, we rarely re-use and most recycling is a myth. When it's done at all, it often costs just as much and uses an relative amount of resources as using first-run materials.

Glass comes from sand, literally the most plentiful resource on earth. Cardboard can be recycled usually once. Plastics either have to be reduced or nothing at all will change. We literally have plastic islands in uninhabited areas of the ocean. Not piles - islands.

But unfortunately, we've placated ourselves as a society into thinking we're saving the earth because we throw a plastic bottle into a special (plastic) container. Fact is, we're coming in on the 3rd act expecting to understand the whole play.

https://www.5gyres.org/truth-about-recycling
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-the-public-into-believing-plastic-would-be-recycled
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/plastics-industry-insiders-reveal-the-truth-about-recycling/